Numbers over Narratives? How Government Message Strategies Affect Citizens’ Attitudes

Figures & data

Table 1. Key Terms and definitions.

Term	Definition
Performance transparency	Publicly available access by citizens and other stakeholders to government performance information and data
Message strategy	Technique used to deliver information
Informational strategy	Presents relevant and logical information to reinforce ability of message receiver to assess merits of a service, product, or organization.
Preemptive strategy	Informational strategy focused on attributes and information about a service, product, or organization based on facts and integrated data.
Transformational strategy	Utilizes a specific and unique set of psychological terms/words that promotes a particular experience and attitude to message-receiver about information of a public agency.
User image strategy	Transformational strategy that promotes attributes and benefits of performance information toward users’ expectations, needs, or lifestyles.
Brand image strategy	Transformational strategy that promotes the attributes and benefits of the brand identity, such as quality, prestige, status toward values associated with organization.

Table 2. Sample description.

	Age	Gender (% female)	Knowledge (1–4, 4 = a lot)	Political outlook (1–5, 5 = very liberal)	Political interest (1–4, 4 = highest)
Informational strategy	35.12	40	2.39	3.62	2.99
Transformational strategy, user image	33.84	58	2.29	3.49	2.88
Transformational strategy, brand image	37.11	52	3.35	3.74	2.96

Note: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.

Table 3. Means of satisfaction and citizen trust in government organization (n = 257).

	Satisfaction (scale: −4 to 4)	Trust (scale: 1 to 5)
Informational strategy (n = 85)	0.87 (97)	3.87 (57)
Transformational strategy, user image (n = 90)	1.08 (89)	3.96 (48)
Transformational strategy, brand image (n = 82)	1.15 (1.11)	3.91 (54)

Table 4. Univariate effects on satisfaction and trust.

Source	Satisfaction			Trust
	F	Sig.	Partial Eta^2	F	Sig.	Partial Eta^2
Message strategy	0.03	972	000	0.81	447	006
Engagement	0.29	589	001	0.76	383	003
Message strategy*engagement	5.02	007	038	2.29	104	0.18
Model	2.81	017	.053	1.27	278	025

Figure 1. Interaction Effect of Message Strategy*Engagement on Satisfaction.

Figure 2. Interaction Effect of Message Strategy*Engagement on Trust.

Table 5. Subgroup analysis for low-engagement group (n = 197).

	Satisfaction	Trust
Informational	0.74 (0.85)^a	3.85 (0.50)^a
Transformational, user image	1.16 (0.87)^b	3.96 (0.46)^a
Transformational, brand image	1.25 (1.11)^b	3.98 (0.54)^a

Notes: Means displayed, standard deviations in parentheses. Unequal superscripts within columns indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05). For instance, a number with the letter “a” in the superscript is significantly different from numbers with a letter “b” in the superscript.

Table 6. Subgroup analysis for high-engagement group (n = 60).

	Satisfaction	Trust
Informational (n = 19)	1.32 (1.25)^a	3.96 (77)^a
Transformational, user image (n = 22)	0.82 (0.91)^a	3.95 (54)^a
Transformational, brand image (n = 19)	0.79 (1.08)^a	3.68 (47)^a

Notes: Unequal superscripts within columns indicates a significant difference (p < 0.05). For instance, a number with the letter “a” in the superscript is significantly.