Administration Legalization: Sources and Consequences in American Cities

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The purpose of this research is to explore managers' perceptions of legal liability and a range of organizational innovations--which may be called "legalized" structures, policies, and procedures--associated with threats of liability. Several significant questions are investigated: 1 ) How widespread is the phenomenon of administrative legalization? 2) What factors--including, but not limited to, managers' perceptions of liability--best explain the diffusion of legalized administrative forms among organizations? 3) What are the key influences on managers' perceptions of the threat of liability? 4) To what extent (if at all) do legalized administrative forms enhance protection for rights in practice? These questions will be answered using a survey of managers of city personnel departments, parks and recreation departments, and police departments in a wide range of cities, supplemented by additional data. The result will be the first nationwide data base on organizational, perceptual, and legal variables regarding civil liability as a means of regulation. The study will increase our understanding of whether and how the system of regulation by lawsuit "works."