Public servants,anonymity,and political activity online: bureaucratic neutrality in peril?

Abstract

Various actors have recently expressed concern that by threatening anonymity, social media places the bureaucracy’s neutrality in jeopardy. Yet, empirically, little is known about the online political activities of public servants. Drawing upon the public service motivation literature, this article develops contrasting hypotheses between public sector employment and online political activity. Testing hypotheses with survey data from Canada, the results show that unionized public sector employment reduces the probability of being politically active online. As social media continues to change the nature of governance, the results suggest that anonymity and neutrality remain important professional norms within the Westminster administrative tradition, and are reflected in the online political activities of public sector employees in Canada.

Points for practitioners

• Due to its visibility and permanency, public servants’ political activity on social media potentially threatens their reputation as politically impartial officials.

• Some governments and public sector unions have thus voiced messages of caution to administrative personnel about the dangers of being politically active online.

• Survey data from Canada suggest that these messages have worked.

• Unionized public sector employment reduces the probability of being politically active online but does not reduce the probability of being active in traditional “offline” political activities.

Keywords

anonymity bureaucracy neutrality political activity social media unionization

Introduction

In the Westminster administrative tradition, there is a strong interdependence between the constitutional conventions of neutrally, permanency, and anonymity (Rhodes et al., 2009). Alternatively referred to as the Whitehall model, the Westminster administrative tradition found in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand holds that public servants are politically neutral and provide impartial service to governments, and, in return, governments refrain from purging administrative personnel when taking office (Hood and Lodge, 2006).

An essential component supporting the exchange between neutrality and permanency is the principle of anonymity. To prevent opposition parties and the public from perceiving public servants as being closely aligned with the governing party, the work of officials has traditionally been kept out of view (Parris, 1969: 98). Recently, however, the development of social media, which allows users to autonomously create, receive, and diffuse content, has been seen as challenging the integrity of this tradition.

For some, social media directly infringes upon the tenet of neutrality, and has politicized the work of public servants by pressuring them to defend the government’s policies online (Aucoin, 2012). Yet, for others, the greatest challenge presented by social media is not an increase in pressure to undertake political actions, but a reduction in their anonymity when doing so (Grube, 2015). The visibility of working on social media makes public servants vulnerable to allegations that they have become too close to the governing party and its policy agenda. Furthermore, with the neutrality of public servants in question, it is possible that new governments will seek to control the bureaucracy by appointing personnel on the basis of their political loyalty rather than on their merit (Hustedt and Salomonsen, 2014). This is a concern given that merit recruitment is an important source of good governance (Dahlström and Lapuente, 2017).

To date, however, attention has largely focused on how bureaucrats use social media when working within their official positions (Djerf-Pierre and Pierre, 2016). The challenge that social media presents to bureaucratic neutrality, however, is not limited to officials’ actions within their formal roles. In their private lives, acting as citizens, the online political activity of public sector employees may also jeopardize their reputation as politically neutral. Yet, despite the seriousness of this subject, we know little about the relationship between public sector employment and online political activity. This article advances the research in this field by providing one of the first empirical studies to examine this issue.

Drawing upon the public service motivation (PSM) literature, this article develops differing hypotheses between public sector employment and being politically active online. When the hypotheses are tested with data from the 2015 Canadian Election Study (CES), the results from the multivariate logistic regression show that unionized public sector employment has a negative relationship with being politically active online. This is especially noteworthy considering that unionized public sector employment does not have a negative relationship with traditional “offline” political activity, and that in the private sector, union membership has a positive relationship with being politically active both offline and online.

While previous scholarship has shown union membership to increase political activity (Davis, 2011; Kerissey and Schofer, 2013), the negative relationship between unionization in the public sector and being politically active online is consistent with PSM research maintaining that employees’ attitudes and behaviour are strongly influenced by the organizations within their work environment (Moynihan and Pandey, 2007). In Canada, with the government, the Public Service Commission (PSC), and the public sector unions all relaying messages of caution about online political activity, the result appears to have led unionized public sector employees to be less active online.

For those concerned that social media has placed bureaucratic neutrality in peril, the results of this study suggest a relatively optimistic picture. Anonymity and neutrality appear to be well-institutionalized values within Canada’s unionized public sector.

The remainder of this article is structured into five parts. The first section provides an overview of social media and the regulation of online political activity in Canada’s public sector. The second section draws upon PSM theory to develop two different hypotheses between public sector employment and being politically active online. The third section outlines the data and methods used to test the hypotheses. The fourth section presents the results from the multivariate regression and discusses how these results support the hypotheses. The conclusion considers this study’s implications concerning the integrity of bureaucratic neutrality in the age of digital governance and identifies some future avenues of research.

Regulating online political activity in the public sector

Whether public sector employees should be allowed to participate in politics is a perennial topic of debate (Christoph, 1957), and in the case of Canada, it has even gone before the Supreme Court on a few occasions (Heard, 1991: 59–60). Recently, social media has put the issue back on the agenda (Jacobson and Tufts, 2013).

Kaplan and Haenlein (2010: 61) define social media as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content.” By reducing costs in time and effort, social media—such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—has been hailed by some as enhancing democracy because it provides citizens with new ways to participate in politics (Krueger, 2002). When it comes to the public sector, however, social media complicates the issue of being politically active in several ways.

First, social media can blur the distinction between an individual’s professional and private identity (Zhao et al., 2008). Actions online are easily visible to colleagues, employers, and the general public, thus making it difficult to separate professional and personal selves (Marichal, 2012). For example, in 2015, Tony Turner was suspended from his job with the Canadian public service after a video of him performing his piece “Harperman, a Protest Song,” criticizing Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was posted on YouTube during the election campaign. Justifying its decision to discipline Mr Turner, the PSC claimed that his actions were contrary to the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector, specifically, the obligation to carry out duties in a “non-partisan and impartial manner” (May, 2015).¹

Another danger of social media is that material can be easily and quickly shared with actors beyond the creator’s control. As Woodley and Silverstri (2014: 127) state, actions on social media are “very public, reasonably permanent, and searchable over a person’s lifetime.” For instance, in less than one week after appearing on YouTube, Mr Turner’s video received approximately 400,000 views and was shared by thousands of others on Facebook and Twitter (May, 2015). Recognizing the threat that online political activity poses to public servants’ reputation as politically neutral officials, various governments, public service commissions, and even public sector unions have produced guidelines addressing online political activities.

Analyzing regulations of online political activity in Westminster countries, Grube (2017) notes that, compared to others, Canada has taken a risk-averse approach. Employees are not only asked to be vigilant about what they do both within and outside of their work, but also instructed to refrain from political activities that may harm their image of impartiality. Specifically, section 113 (1) of the federal government’s Public Service Employment Act states that employees are allowed to engage in political activities, “so long as it does not impair, or is not perceived as impairing, the employee’s ability to perform his or her duties in a politically impartial manner.”

Analyzing the regulations of federal and provincial governments in Canada, Kernaghan (2014) notes that rather than provide clear rules outlining acceptable and inappropriate behaviour, governments have opted for a values and ethics-based approach (Cooper, 1998) that emphasizes norms of behaviour rather than strict delineations of acceptable and inappropriate behaviour. For example, at the federal level, inappropriate political behaviour is judged according to the provision of the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector which stipulates that public servants carry out their duties “in accordance with legislation, policies and directives in a non-partisan and impartial manner” (Canada, 2011: 4).

To supplement the Values and Ethics Code, the PSC, which has the exclusive responsibility for investigating allegations of inappropriate political activity and sanctioning disciplinary measures,² has produced a Guidance Document for Participating in Non-candidacy Political Activities, which states that:

Social media and online activities provide new challenges for employees in ensuring that their ability to perform their duties in a politically impartial manner is not impaired or perceived to be impaired. Social media has expanded the methods available for employees to exercise their right to engage in political activities. Employees should consider that social media with its broad reach, immediacy and permanence, can blur the distinction between their professional and private lives. (Public Service Commission of Canada, 2014: 4)

It is important to note that in Canada, this message of caution has also been voiced by public sector unions. While public sector unions have traditionally defended the rights of members to be politically active (Heard, 1991: 60), when it comes to social media, many have recently expressed a message of caution. For instance, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) states that:

The same rules and considerations apply when exercising political rights through social media.

PSAC still urges members to be cautious when using social media to express their opinions. Once something is published, it is very hard to take back or retract. (Public Service Alliance of Canada, 2015a)

Remember: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are public spaces. Never say anything online that you wouldn’t say in your workplace or to your neighbour.

Be vigilant with your security settings. Set up a Facebook list for coworkers (and your boss!) that limits what they can see. Remember: even if you post something on your personal page, you should consider it public. (Public Service Alliance of Canada, 2015b: 26)

Likewise, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (2015) informs members that they “are free to use social media to exercise their freedom of expression. In doing so, however, they must always be mindful of their obligations to respect others and of their official duty of loyalty to their employer.”

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (2015) states that members “must also consider the risks of misusing social media.” More specifically, that:

Your post is forever. It is very difficult to erase or retract your social media posts. Others can easily forward, copy or reuse your material. If you wouldn’t post information in the office or verbally announce it, do not put it online.

Remember that regardless of whether you are at work or not while communicating online, it is the impact of the communication itself that determines discipline. (Canadian Union of Public Employees, 2015)

Public sector employment and online political activity: differing expectations from PSM

Since Perry and Wise’s (1990) seminal work, PSM has become one of the most-studied topics in public administration. PSM is defined as “the beliefs, values and attitudes that go beyond self-interest and organizational interest, that concern the interest of a larger political entity and that motivate individuals to act accordingly whenever appropriate” (Vandenabeele, 2007: 547).

Believing that public servants are highly motivated to make a difference in society, researchers have investigated whether the attitudes and behaviours of individuals working in the public sector are different than individuals working in the private sector. Brewer (2003) observes that public sector employees are more likely to be members of civic associations. Likewise, Ertas (2014) and Piatak (2015) both find that public sector employees are more likely to volunteer than private sector employees, while Houston (2006) notes that public servants are more likely to engage in altruistic behaviours such as giving blood.

Research also suggests that public sector employees are more politically active. Corey and Garand (2002) find that public servants are more likely to vote than the general population. Others have found that public sector employees are more likely to engage in a variety of non-electoral political activities, including signing a petition, boycotting a company and participating in a political protest (Ertas, 2015; Taylor, 2010).

Noting differences between public sector employees and other segments of society, research has more recently turned its attention to the origin of PSM values. While most agree that PSM values are obtained through a process of socialization (Perry, 2000), debate has centred on which socializing actors are most influential.

For some, PSM values stem from the institutions that employees belonged to before their employment, such as their educational, religious, community, and family organizations (Pandey and Stazyk, 2008; Vandenabeele, 2011). According to this perspective, individuals already possessing a strong sense of public awareness are drawn to work for the public sector in order to make a difference to their community. PSM values found among public sector employees are thus primarily due to the aggregation of like-minded individuals who already, prior to their employment, want to contribute to society. Believing that public sector employees are persons who are motivated to improve society, and that this motivation stems from values developed prior to their employment in the public sector, a first hypothesis is that, as with traditional political activities, public sector employment has a positive association with online political activity:³

H1: Public sector employment is positively associated with being politically active online.

Others claim that the origin of PSM values stems from the organizations within the employee’s work environment (Giauque et al., 2011; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007). Consistent with work in psychology suggesting that the norms within an individual’s social milieu affect his or her behaviour (Kim et al., 2016), it is believed that public sector employees possess PSM values because the organizations in their work environment pass these on to them.

More specifically, research has identified the employer, executive managers, and unions as prominent socializing agents within the workplace (Chen et al., 2014; Pancer, 2017). Kerrissey and Schofer (2013) find that unions encourage members to be politically active by cultivating their identities and providing them with necessary skills and knowledge.

Davis (2011) also notes that public sector unions transmit a variety of values and attitudes to their members. Importantly, not all of these values are consistent with PSM. Although union members display higher levels of self-sacrifice and commitment to the public interest, they also display lower levels of compassion. According to Davis, one reason for this is that the values transmitted by unions are complex. Unions may encourage employees to volunteer, but they may also lead employees to care more about the well-being of fellow members than non-members.

As shown earlier, in Canada, various actors, including the government, the PSC, and the public sector unions, have all expressed messages of caution to employees about being politically active online. With this in mind, the PSM literature emphasizing the socialization by workplace organizations suggests a different relationship between public sector employment and online political activity. Due to the messages of caution relayed in the public sector by employers and unions around the 2015 election, a second hypothesis is that public sector employment has a negative relationship with being politically active online. This should particularly be the case among employees who belong to a union as these individuals work in an environment where an important organization that has traditionally defended their right to be politically active has now expressed messages of caution.

Importantly, unionization in the private sector is not expected to be associated with a reduction in online political activity where norms of political neutrality are not present. In fact, noting the positive relationship typically found between unionization and political activity (Kerrissey and Schofer, 2013), unionization in the private sector should be positively associated with offline and online political activity:

H2: Unionized public sector employment is negatively associated with being politically active online.

Data and methods

Case selection and data

The hypotheses are tested using survey data from the 2015 CES (Fournier et al., 2015). The 2015 CES is a random sample of eligible voters residing in Canada during the federal election and contains a variety of questions measuring the political attitudes and behaviours of citizens, including online activities, as well as standard questions about age, gender, and education. Importantly, the 2015 CES also asks respondents whether they work in the public or private sector, as well as whether they belong to a union.

Another advantage of the 2015 CES is the substantial expansion in use of social media at the time of the survey. For example, Facebook went from 430 million monthly active users in 2010 to 1.4 billion in 2015 (Statista, 2015a). Over the same period, monthly users of Twitter grew from 30 million to 300 million (Statista, 2015b).

Despite these advantages, these data do have some limitations. The data do not distinguish between the ranks of employees. Nor do they distinguish between whether the employees work at the federal, provincial, or municipal level of government. While public sector employees at the federal and provincial levels work within a Westminster administrative tradition, the same is not necessarily the case for employees at the municipal level (Siegel, 2015). The survey also does not ask whether the respondents work within the non-profit sector, who have been found in some studies to display different values than persons working in for-profit organizations (Ertas, 2015).

With these limitations in mind, by providing a large random sample of the political behaviour of persons in a Westminster country, the CES allows for the relationship between public sector employment and online political activity to be empirically investigated for the first time.

Variable operationalization

Table 1⁴ provides the operationalization and summary statistics of the independent, dependent, and control variables. Sector employment was measured by asking interviewees whether they presently worked in the public sector or the private sector. Respondents were also given an option of “not sure” and “not working.” This standard question of sector employment is similar to the American National Election Study and the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes that are frequently used in research studying public sector employees’ attitudes and behaviours (Brewer, 2003; Taylor, 2010). Retired, unemployed, and persons uncertain of their employment sector were removed from the analysis.

Of the respondents, 11% of employees in the private sector are unionized whereas 56% of persons in the public sector are unionized. The difference across employment sectors is consistent with data gathered by Statistics Canada. In 2014, unionization rates were 15% in the private sector and 71% in the public sector (Statistics Canada, 2017). The higher number of non-unionized public sector employees in the survey is likely due to the inclusion of individuals with a precarious employment status, in particular, casual employees, who are not formally considered employees under the Public Service Employment Act, and are not unionized,⁵ but whom government has increasingly relied upon over the last 20 years (Gow and Simard, 1999). For instance, in 2015, the PSC hired 3904 indeterminate (unionized) employees and 18,609 casual (non-unionized) employees (Public Service Commission of Canada, 2015a: 12).

Several questions are used to examine political activity. Respondents were asked how many times in the last 12 months they engaged in a particular activity. Two questions are used to measure online activity. The first asked whether the individual used social media to discuss politics with someone they knew. The second question asked whether the individual discussed politics online with someone they did not know.

In order to judge whether there is something unique about public sector employment pertaining to online activity, traditional offline activities are also examined, specifically, participating in a political march, rally, or protest, and whether the individual bought an item for a political reason (“buycott”).

Respondents were not given any additional instructions to these questions. Responses ranged from never, just once, a few times, to more than five times. Answers were recoded to give a binary measure indicating whether the individual had undertaken the activity at least once. This was done because norms unfavourable toward online political activity are believed to prevent public sector employees from engaging in the activity altogether, not simply limit the extent of their activity. One either is or is not politically active. In addition to employment sector and unionization, several additional factors believed to influence political activity and social media use have been included as controls.

Age

Studies suggest that younger people are more politically active online and that age usually has a negative relationship with the adoption of new technologies (Bakker and De Vreese, 2011). As the relationship between age and online political activity may be nonlinear, the models also include a term of age squared.

Dependent children

Due to constraints on their time, individuals with children may participate less in political activities (Schussman and Soule, 2005), although because of the convenience of social media, this may not be the case for online activity. A dummy variable indicating whether someone under the age of 18 is living in the household is included in the models.

Gender

Being a woman is often negatively associated with engaging in political activities because of unequal responsibilities within the home and caring for others (Coffé and Bolzendahl, 2010). The models include an indicator variable measuring whether the individual is a male.

Education

Education is frequently associated with increased political participation. Following the operationalization of Moynihan and Pandey (2007), a variable measuring the individual’s education is included as a control (less than a bachelor’s degree = 1, a bachelor’s degree = 2, a graduate or professional degree = 3).

Personality

An extroverted personality has been shown to have a positive correlation with online activity (Seidman, 2013). To control for this, the models include a variable measuring on a seven-point scale the respondent’s belief that his or her personality is extroverted and enthusiastic.

Political interest

Interest in politics is a key factor explaining political activity (Di Gennaro and Dutton, 2006). A variable measuring the individual’s self-reported general interest in politics on a scale from 0 to 10 is included as a control.

Methods

Logistic regression is used to test the relationship between each political activity and the sector of employment in two different models. Model A tests the first hypothesis by separately regressing each political activity on public sector employment along with the control variables. Model B tests the second hypothesis by adding an interaction term between sector of employment and union membership and interprets the interaction using predicted probability and the marginal change in the probabilities of engaging in each activity.

As a robustness test, an alternative model using the scale coding of political activity was tested with OLS regression. The results from this alternative model did not suggest different conclusions than those based on the reported models.

Results and analysis

The results from the regression models are presented in Table 2. Model A shows that although public sector employment has a positive and significant relationship with participating in a political march (p = .05), it does not seem to influence the likelihood of being politically active online. When the control variables are included, public sector employment, taken on its own, does not have a statistically significant relationship with discussing politics online with a stranger (p = .956), nor with discussing politics through social media with someone the individual knows (p = .158).

The second hypothesis is tested in Model B by including an interaction term between employment sector and union membership. The significant value of the interaction term suggests that the relationship between employment sector and online political activity is conditioned by union membership. To interpret this, Figure 1 displays the predicted probability of engaging in each activity by employment sector and unionization, and Table 3 provides the marginal change in these probabilities.

First, consistent with previous research, the findings show that union membership increases the probability of being politically active in the private sector regardless of whether activities are offline or online. Figure 1 shows that while the probability of a non-unionized private sector employee participating in a political march, rally, or protest is 15% (95% confidence intervals, 13, 18), the probability of a unionized private sector employee participating is 29% (20, 38). As shown in Table 3, in the private sector, the marginal change in the probability of engaging in a political march, rally, or protest if unionized is an increase of 14 percentage points (p = .004).

The probability of non-union members in the private sector discussing politics online with a stranger is 22% (19, 25), whereas for unionized employees, it is 35% (26, 45). The probability of a non-unionized employee discussing politics on social media with someone the individual knows is 29% (26, 32), whereas for employees belonging to a union, it is 34% (24, 44).

In the public sector, however, the positive association that union membership has with being politically active is not present. Consistent with the second hypothesis, union membership in the public sector actually decreases the probability of being politically active online. The probability of a non-unionized employee discussing politics through social media with someone they know is 38% (31, 44), whereas it is 27% (22, 32) for a unionized employee. The marginal change in the probability of this action by being in a union is a decrease of 11 percentage points (p = .008).

A similar relationship is also present for discussing politics online with a stranger; non-union public sector employees have a probability of 27% (22, 34), whereas unionized employees have a probability of 21% (13, 29). Shown in Table 3, although the p-value is higher than the conventional .05 (p = .108), being in a union for the public sector decreases the probability by six percentage points. This decrease is all the more notable when considering that in the private sector, belonging to a union increases the probability of discussing politics online by 13 percentage points (p = .008).

Importantly, in the public sector, union membership does not substantively lower the likelihood of engaging in traditional offline activities. Union membership actually increases the probability of participating in a march by five percentage points (p = .209), whereas the marginal change in probability of buying an item for a political reason if in a union is two percentage points lower (p = .654).

The failure of union membership to affect the likelihood of public sector employees to be politically active offline is consistent with the second hypothesis suggesting that the norms conveyed by organizations within the employee’s working environment influence his or her behaviour. As described earlier, during the 2015 Canadian election, the messages of caution relayed by unions in the public sector emphasized online political activities.

Conclusion

Social media is changing the way we govern ourselves. Recently, some actors have voiced concern that by reducing anonymity, social media threatens the public service’s reputation as a politically neutral institution. Yet, to date, little research has investigated the online political activities of public sector employees. Drawing upon the PSM literature, this article has advanced research by developing two differing hypotheses between public sector employment and online political activity and then testing these hypotheses with survey data from the 2015 CES.

Results from multivariate logistic regression found a negative relationship between unionized public sector employment and online political activity, and similar to Kerrissey and Schofer (2013), in the private sector, union membership had a positive relationship with offline and online political activities. Noting that public sector unions voiced messages of caution toward being politically active online during the 2015 Canadian federal election, the negative relationship between unionized public sector employment and online political activity is theoretically consistent with PSM literature maintaining that employees’ attitudes and behaviours are influenced by the norms espoused by the organizations within their work environment (Davis, 2011; Giauque et al., 2011).

The findings of this study are likely to be well received by those who fear that social media may harm the convention of political neutrality. Political neutrality appears to be a well-institutionalized value within Canada’s public sector, not only within the PSC, but also within public sector unions. The results are especially encouraging considering that while union membership has declined in the private sector, in the public sector, unionization rates have remained high in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2017). It is worth noting, however, that these statistics do not capture the growing tendency of government to rely on precarious employment categories such as causal employees who are not union members. Relying on such employees brings with it possible dangers, which were recently recognized by the Canadian PSC when it stated that “using the contingent workforce must be properly balanced with the need to respect the core Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) values of merit and non-partisanship” (Public Service Commission of Canada, 2011: 12). Given that non-unionized public sector employees were found to be more politically active online, the tendency of governments to use non-unionized employees may come with a risk to the public service’s image as being politically neutral in the era of digital governance.

While providing an important first study of the online political activity of public sector employees, this article does have some limitations, which, if investigated, will further our understanding of social media use within the public sector. Future studies could explore differences in behaviour across levels of employment. High-ranking public servants working alongside politicians and street-level bureaucrats interacting with citizens may be more aware of how their actions could jeopardize their reputations as impartial officials and, accordingly, may be less politically active online.

It is also important to recall that this study used data from Canada during an election campaign in which the “Harperman” incident had made the issue of public servants’ political activity headline news across the country (May, 2015). Furthermore, the approach to controlling political behaviour in Canada has been risk-averse and has taken an approach emphasizing values and ethics. Without clear outlines as to what constitutes inappropriate behaviour, employees may be even more cautious.

Recent elections in the UK and Australia have also seen governments, public service commissions, and even public sector unions stress the possible dangers of online political activity (Cabinet Office, 2017; Towell, 2016). It needs to be acknowledged that while the principle of anonymity allows for the exchange between bureaucratic neutrality and permanency within the Westminster tradition, being an impartial public service is a valued trait within many countries. Future studies investigating the relationship between public sector employment and online political activity in other Westminster and non-Westminster countries would allow the findings of this study to be broadened or contextualized.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for Public servants, anonymity, and political activity online: bureaucratic neutrality in peril?

Supplemental material, for Public servants, anonymity, and political activity online: bureaucratic neutrality in peril? by Christopher A. Cooper in International Review of Administrative Sciences

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data is available at .

Notes

Christopher A. Cooper is an Assistant Professor of Public Management at the University of Ottawa. His research investigates the interface between politics and administration in the work of administrative personnel. His research has been published in Administration and Society, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and Parliamentary Affairs.

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