Donald Moynihan

Donald Moynihan is Professor of Public Affairs and served as the Associate Director of the La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2009–2012. His research examines the application of organization theory to public management issues such as performance, budgeting, homeland security, election administration, and employee behavior.

The New Federal Performance System: Implementing the GPRA Modernization Act

In this report, Professor Moynihan describes the evolution of the federal performance management system over the past 20 years since the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). He reports recent progress in achieving meaningful performance results within targeted pro­grams and describes anticipated future changes over the next few years as a result of the new requirements of the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, which significantly amended the earlier law.

From Forest Fires to Hurricane Katrina: Case Studies of Incident Command Systems

The success of the Incident Command System (ICS) as a hierarchical-network organizational model in emergencies such as forest fires led to its being designated by the federal government as the preferred approach for responding to emergencies. However, it seemingly failed in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Professor Moynihan examines the Katrina case, as well as others, and identifies the conditions under which the ICS approach can be successful.

Leveraging Collaborative Networks in Infrequent Emergency Situations

This research reviews a highly successful model of network collaboration that contained the outbreak of Exotic Newcastle disease, (a highly contagious disease among poultry), in California in 2002. The success of the effort was in part the result of the incident management system approach taken, a model of collaboration broadly applicable to all infrequent emergency situations. disaster preparedness, disease, contagious, fatal, public emergency, emergencies, california, caCollaboration: Networks and Partnerships

Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Robert M. La Follette School of Public
Affairs 1225 Observatory Drive 212
Madison, WI 53706
United States
(608) 263-6633

Donald Moynihan is Professor of Public Affairs and served as the Associate Director of the La Follette School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2009–2012. His research examines the application of organization theory to public management issues such as performance, budgeting, homeland security, election administration, and employee behavior.

The Academy of Management’s Public and Nonprofit Division named his book, The Dynamics of Performance Management: Constructing Information and Reform, the best book for 2009. Journal articles Moynihan has authored have won awards from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management (2002), the American Review of Public Administration (2003), and Public Administration Review (2007). On three occasions Moynihan has won the American Society for Public Administration Wholey Award for outstanding scholarship on performance in public and nonprofit organizations (2009, 2011, and 2013). He won the 2011 National Academy of Public Administration/Wilder School award for scholarship in social equity. The University of Wisconsin–Madison gave him a Romnes Faculty Fellowship in 2009. Moynihan received the 2012 Distinguished Research Award from ASPA and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

Moynihan is the co-editor of Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory and the co-editor of Public Administration Review for the Theory to Practice section. He serves on the editorial board of Public Management Review, American Review of Public Administration, State and Local Government Review, and Public Performance & Management Review. He is a member of the APPAM Policy Council and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Public Management Research Association, the Executive Council for the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division, and the Executive Council, Public Administration Section of the American Political Science Association. In 2011 he was elected to the National Academy of Public Administration.

Moynihan completed his Bachelor of Arts in public administration at the University of Limerick, and his master’s degree and Ph.D. in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.