Public Personnel Management

Recent scholarship has examined the barriers women experience in well-known federal law enforcement agencies. However, there is scant research that examines a unique subgrouping of agents within the federal Offices of Inspectors General (OIGs). Drawing on survey data from 249 female agents, this study compares responses between female agents working in the OIGs and female agents working in all other federal law enforcement agencies to differentiate their experiences. Findings suggest that female agents in the OIGs experience less occupational barriers, namely, reduced number of relocations and incidences of sexual harassment, as well as higher agency adoption of family-friendly policies to promote work–life balance, resulting in women’s higher representation at those agencies.

This article explores communal narcissism and a possible dark side of public service motivation (PSM) in the context of employment sector. Personality psychology insights are offered to further develop PSM theory and practice from multidisciplinary angles. PSM is thought to characterize a public service ethic with public and nonprofit sector employees possessing other-directed, and perhaps communal values, rather than the self-directed, agentic values characterizing private sector organizations. However, PSM’s prosocial bias often discounts self-interested and mixed-motive interests. Unlike agentic narcissism, in which self-aggrandizement is more apparent to others, in communal narcissism, self-aggrandizement is hidden by a “saint-type bias” and self-proclaimed other-orientation. As a result, some communal narcissism traits appear to mimic dimensions of the PSM scale. The results of two studies reveal that communal narcissism positively associates with PSM. In addition, PSM positively relates to the nonprofit sector and mediates indirect, positive relationships between communal narcissism and the nonprofit sector.

Women govern differently and offer a distinct voice in the governing process yet remain significantly underrepresented among city managers and chief administrative officers. Despite decades of work to improve gender parity, women hold just 13% of chief local government positions according to the International City/County Managers Association (ICMA). One reason for this may be that women have different experiences and are socialized differently than men, as suggested by differing motivations, identities, and attitudes. Using a mixed-methods approach, we explore differences in the experiences and socialization of women and men that may contribute to the gender disparity in representation among city managers. Our study yields several significant findings that suggest women are mentored differently, develop different political attitudes over time, and develop confidence differently than their male counterparts. Contrary to prior research, we did not find significant differences in public service motivations by gender or year of service.

This article explores employee engagement by linking stress, motivation, and employee engagement theory and testing this across 30 countries and eight public sector occupations. First, it is argued that work stress will be negatively related to engagement. Self-determination theory is then used as a basis for exploring the positive link between basic needs satisfaction (BNS) and engagement. It argued that BNS will moderate the relationship between stress and engagement due to the impact that BNS has on coping strategies. These claims are tested using the 2015 wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. Results show stress and engagement are negatively related, whereas BNS and engagement are positively related. Moderation analyses revealed that the detrimental relationship between stress and engagement is lessened for individuals who have strong interpersonal relations at work. This suggests that social relationships play an important role in managing stressful work environments.

Upon assuming office, executive, legislative, and judicial officials swear an oath as evidence of dedication, commitment, and duty to the Constitution. As such, they play a quintessential role in upholding democratic values. Yet contrasted to codes of ethics, oaths get little recognition in the study of public administration. What attention they do receive focuses primarily on the presidential oath of office. This article examines a little-researched topic: governmental oaths in American states. The inquiry is useful because oaths can help safeguard the integrity of civic institutions. As a distinguishing feature of public service, oath-taking nonetheless may be seen as a routine formality without consequence. The article discusses this rite of passage, explores its past and current functions, reviews the literature, and analyzes state oaths. The work concludes with observations on the prospects of these testimonials in troubled times, times that require the restoration of honor, dignity, and virtue in government.

The Federal Employees Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) has gained prominence as the primary vehicle through which agencies assess the work-related attitudes of their employees. Within the discipline, the FEVS results have proven a fertile source of data on the job-related attitudes of public employees. However, concerns have been raised with the instrument and with how the FEVS data has been used by scholars. This article highlights a concern with the use of ambiguous terms which impede interpretation of the FEVS results. An investigation in partnership with officials from the regional office of a federal agency confirmed the divergent meanings respondents assign terms such as “my organization” and brought to the fore the extent to which, in large organizations, employee attitudes are distinctive to the units to which they belong at different hierarchical levels. The literature on organizational climate provides a useful framework within which the phenomenon can be understood and analyzed.