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Organizational conflict is often thought of as a malady to be avoided or quickly resolved. Such views neglect the potential value of conflict—that is, the constructive management of conflict—to organizational outcomes. Managerial practices resulting in too little conflict may shape and reflect an organization hypersensitive to discord, dissent, and innovation. But management practices promoting excessive conflict may overload an organization with information, rendering it incapable of reaching timely decisions, generating animosity, or creating other unproductive outcomes. This paper examines constructive conflict management, which gives employees voice and encourages authentic participation in decision-making. We hypothesize that such an approach is positively related to employee job satisfaction and organizational performance. However, given the potential for “too much of a good thing” when it encouraging conflict, we also test for a curvilinear relationships between conflict management and organizational outcomes.

“To work in an organization is to be in conflict. To take advantage of joint work requires conflict management” (Tjosvold, 2008, p. 19).

Local governments play important roles in creating public value for their residents. Recognizing this, they have made improving local quality of life a high priority. Such emphasis has led to the development of various service innovations designed to make urban areas better places to live and work. This article examines one such innovation, the city of San Antonio’s Neighborhood Sweep program (or, simply, “Sweeps”). Sweeps is an example of a general service delivery strategy we term “municipal services bundling” (or MSB). MSB entails targeting resources to particular neighborhoods and tailoring bundles of public services designed to meet neighborhoods' respective needs. Analysis of survey data collected from residents of “swept” neighborhoods from 1999 to 2002 suggests that MSB can have positive effects on overall levels of neighborhood satisfaction and, in the case of Sweeps, may empower local residents while promoting their sense of individual responsibility for neighborhood appearance.

In recent years, concerns over environmental degradation and environmental sustainability have pushed governments to search for new ways to combat environmental problems. One such approach, which is gaining in popularity, is environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP). EPP attempts to address environmental challenges by taking advantage of government's vast purchasing power to create strong markets for environmentally friendly products and services. This article reviews governments’ experience with EPP in the United States. Specifically, the article describes the development of EPP in the federal government and reviews EPP activities at both the national and subnational levels. Next, the article presents several broad strategies that governments and procurement professionals can pursue in implementing EPP. The article concludes by identifying several challenges facing EPP.

This exploratory article examines the issue of state government procurement. It uses original survey data to create a measure of reformed state procurement practices, as suggested by the literature, and explores the ability of several variables from the state policy literature to explain observed differences in state procurement. Findings suggest that the states’ procurement practices possess varying degrees of reform characteristics, that interest group diversity, legislative professionalism, results-oriented management, and regional effects each have significant relationships to state procurement practices, and that several “classic” explanations of state policy are not significantly related to state procurement practices. One implication is that procurement, like other forms of state administrative policy, may not be readily explained by widely utilized theories of state policy.

The purpose of this paper is to report a pilot project on quality control in China's government department (AQSIQ), based on an extended EFQM excellence model.

After careful comparisons, the EFQM Excellence Model was selected as the fundamental framework for further practice and analysis. The original Excellence Model was extended into three‐section style in the ongoing Super‐ministry Reform. The extended model includes decision‐making, implementation, and supervision. With a brief introduction on AQSIQ in current reform, the first quality control practice in China was investigated in terms of responsibilities, standards, supervision, and assessment. Achievements from quality control were obtained after analysis.

The extended Excellence Model enabled AQSIQ great achievements. This paper finds that, with the guidance under this extended model, a unified leadership with reallocation in people, policy, and partnership has significantly promoted the performance in decision‐making. Further, with regard to principle of simplicity as the key basis of process reengineering, the two‐way innovation and learning feedback mechanism in this model have simplified the process and enhanced knowledge process in the government. Finally, efficiency being the main focus in performance reassessment was also accomplished by this quality practice.

The initial success of AQSIQ has practical and managerial values. On the practical side, the implications in the AQSIQ case that are embodied in the ongoing Super‐ministry Reform in China help to shape fundamental quality control framework in China's government sectors. Two probable managerial enlightenments are for the theory of process engineering and the quality control in theoretical dimension. Therefore, this extended excellence model could further spread into other departments with careful considerations.

This is the first paper to research the first quality control practice in China's government department.