Melkers, Julia creator Clayton, John text xu| 1998 continuing ng p.327-34 Should we care whether administrators can predict citizen perceptions? This paper examines whether administrator predictions of citizen views could be a useful adjunct to citizen surveys. Where previous research on citizen satisfaction has addressed principally the citizen viewpoint, the authors argue that asking administrators to predict citizen perspectives can have a number of benefits, ranging from showing administrators where their perceptions of the public are accurate or inaccurate to improving employee morale (if, as expected, administrators are pessimistic about citizen opinions). To assess these possible benefits, this paper compares findings from two surveys in the City of Atlanta: (1) a first survey that asked a sample of city residents about a broad range of city services and facilities and (2) a second survey that asked administrators from a number of municipal departments to predict citizen responses on selected questions. Findings show that municipal administrators tend to be pessimistic about citizen ratings, expecting more negative evaluations than citizens actually report. Those tendencies vary among departments, however, for a variety of reasons. Overall, the results suggest that administrator predictions are worth considering as an additional component to citizen surveys. - Reproduced Public administration Public Administration Review 180718