Study On The Related Mechanism Between Government Trustworthiness And Government Performance

Since the late20th century and early21st century, pattern of governance is undergoing a fundamental change. The pursuit of good governance has become a common goal for all governments around the world. In the process towards good governance, government trustworthiness and government performance play an irreplaceable role, and is the key to good governance. However, the problem of untrustworthy behaviors and poor performance of China’s local governments is still rather serious. These problems restrict the space for economic and social development, and hinder the construction of a harmonious socialist society. On the other hand, previous research mainly focuses on the relationship between private organization’s trustworthiness and performance, however, few studies have examined the trustworthiness-performance relationship in public organization settings. In the face of the problems mentioned, this doctoral dissertation focuses on the related mechanism between government trustworthiness and government performance.This doctoral dissertation follows the paradigm of scientific research, and unfolds as follows, literature review-analytical framework-questionnaire design and measurement-statistical modeling-policy recommendations. Initially, the researcher reviewed the literature, indicated a need for further research, and clarified the concepts of government trustworthiness and government performance. On the basis of previous research, the researcher built an analytical framework. Then, a conceptual model linking government trustworthiness and government performance was set up under the conditions of local government competition, at the same time, specific hypotheses were proposed. According to the conceptual model, the researcher designed a survey questionnaire and modified it after pretesting. Then, the researcher implemented a large scale questionnaire survey. During the survey,1269questionnaires were distributed through classroom, interview, mail, email, and QQ,962completed valid questionnaires were returned, which covered268county-level administrative regions in China. Based on the data, the researcher employed a series of statistical techniques to analyze the correlation and related mechanism between government trustworthiness and government performance, such as canonical correlation analysis, path analysis, structural equation modeling, and the most important findings are as follows:1. The measurement of government trustworthiness and government performance. In terms of government trustworthiness, the overall level of county government trustworthiness is a little above average. Specifically, the mean score of government benevolence dimension is significantly lower than government ability dimension and government integrity dimension, the mean score of government trustworthiness of the county governments in the central region is significantly lower than the county governments in the eastern region and western region. In terms of government performance, the mean score of government task performance dimension is higher than government contextual performance dimension, but does not reach statistically significant differences. In regional terms, the mean score of the county governments in the eastern region is the highest, the mean score of the county governments in the western region is a little lower, and the mean score of the county governments in the central region is again the lowest.2. The correlation between government trustworthiness and government performance. Canonical correlation analysis is employed to analyze the correlation between government trustworthiness and government performance. The results shows that10pairs of canonical variables can be extracted from these two sets of variables, of which the correlation coefficients of the first five pairs of canonical variables are significant at the1%level. Moreover, the correlation coefficient of the first and most explanatory pair of canonical variables is0.806, indicating that there exists a high correlation between government trustworthiness and government performance, a further examination of the related mechanism between the two sets of variables is needed.3. The related mechanism between government trustworthiness and government performance. The researcher employed structural equation modeling techniques to test the conceptual model. Hypothesis Hlb government benevolence is positively associated with government task performance, and Hypothesis Hlc government benevolence is positively associated with government contextual performance are not supported by the data, while all other hypotheses are supported as predicted. In addition, the added Hypothesis government contextual performance is positively associated with government task performance is supported. In terms of the impact on trust in government, government ability, government benevolence, and government integrity all have significant positive impact on it, and the impact increases one by one. In terms of the impact on government contextual performance, government integrity is the strongest predictor, trust in government is the second strongest predictor, while government benevolence, and government ability are weak predictors. In terms of the impact on government task performance, the overall impact of government integrity is still the strongest, though its direct impact is not large, the overall impact of trust in government is the second strongest, followed by government contextual performance, government ability, and government benevolence. In addition, the researcher employed path analysis to analyze the related mechanism between government trustworthiness and government performance by the eastern, central, western region. The results reveal that the related mechanism between government trustworthiness and government performance in different regions is similar to the results of structural equation modeling, at the same time, there are some differences between different regions. In short, the results indicate government integrity which emphasizes in accordance with rules and procedural fairness is the primary driver of public trust in government, and government performance.Finally, some practical policy recommendations are made according to the empirical results and the actual conditions of county governments.