Public Personnel Management

Publisher:: Sage Publications, Inc.
Publication date:: 2021-09-06

ISBN:: 0091-0260

Issue Number

No. 54-1, March 2025

Latest documents

Dynamic Leadership Tools Supporting Psychological Needs Satisfaction in Public Organizations: Experimental Evidence
Public leadership is increasingly conducted through digital information technology, and dynamic leadership tools are offered as alternatives to static tools. As a first test of dynamic leadership tools in public leadership, this study focuses on leadership tools for visionary leadership. The study examines whether the positive effect on employee needs satisfaction of dynamic leadership tools based on persuasive information technology is stronger than for static leadership tools. The study involves a field experiment on leadership training combined with leadership tools and shows that dynamic tools indeed have a stronger impact than static tools on satisfying employee needs for meaning and employee perception of prosocial impact. This research contributes to the understanding of how information technology can be harnessed to support public leadership and highlights the potential benefits of dynamic leadership tools in supporting beneficial employee outcomes.
Careers as Social-Symbolic Work: Civilian Criminal Investigators’ Struggle for Legitimacy
The nexus between work and social categories is known to have an impact on how people develop in their careers. The purpose of this study was to examine the conditions for career work undertaken by civilian criminal investigators (CIs) who are currently entering police organizations, complementing police officers in criminal investigations. The empirical study encompassed 71 interviews conducted with both civilian and police CIs in the Swedish police. The conditions for career work were analyzed through a social-symbolic lens, recognizing the impact of both resource distribution and agency in a network of different actors. Furthermore, the contextual nature of career work was examined, highlighting tensions between civilian and police CIs, influenced by gender dynamics and cultural factors. The situatedness and cultural characteristics of the workplace, involving gender and academic and professional background, have divergent outcomes in career work. This research discusses the multifaceted nature of career development among civilian CIs, providing an extended understanding of career as a socially negotiated process and unraveling the mutual influence of organizational dynamics, cultural norms, and resource distribution in shaping individual career trajectories.
Work-Family Policy for Fathers in Dutch Municipalities: A Vignette Experiment on Contexts for Parental Leave Among Male Civil Servants
The European Union Work-Life Balance Directive aims to promote a better work-care balance by introducing extensive parental leave. However, a change in policy does not necessarily mean behavioral change. Starting from the idea of gendered organizations and gendered policies within local government a conceptual model is developed to investigate under which organizational circumstances male civil servants in Dutch municipalities are willing to take parental leave. With a vignette experiment (N = 572) among civil servants in the summer of 2021, the organizational characteristics that affect employees’ decisions on the potential use of parental leave are investigated. Adverse career consequences have the largest influence, followed by managerial support and coworker support. Furthermore, the larger the work ambition is, the more negative the effect of career consequences is for using parental leave. That adverse career consequences hardly had an effect among male civil servants with low work ambition shows that the relationship to parental leave uptake is nuanced. The results of this study underscore the importance of contexts in implementing policy goals and achieving greater gender equality in local government.
Following Your Ideal Leader: Implicit Public Leadership Theories, Leader—Member Exchange, and Work Engagement
Although social comparisons are ubiquitous in leadership, previous scholarship in public administration has not yet studied comparative aspects of how followers perceive and respond to leadership. This study addresses this gap and disentangles the link between leadership and work engagement from a socio-cognitive and relational perspective. It examines how public employees compare their real leaders against ideal leaders and how perceived gaps between both affect their work engagement through leader–member exchange (LMX). Building on leadership and job demands–resources theory, a priming study using the Semantic Misattribution Procedure (SMP) extracts participants’ Implicit Public Leadership Theories. Structural equation modeling reveals that work engagement is substantially higher (lower) when characteristics of the supervisor resonate with positive (negative) prototypes of ideal leaders, with this association being fully mediated by LMX. The study shows how implicit information processing matters for the emergence of leader–follower relationships and, in turn, for important follower outcomes. It thus contributes to, and combines, a socio-cognitive and a relational approach to leadership in the public sector.
Greening the Workplace: Examining the Relationship Between Green Talent Management and Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Chinese Public Sectors
In pursuing sustainable development within the public sector, cultivating pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) among employees becomes paramount. While existing literature underscores the positive impact of PEBs on organizational innovation and performance, the mechanisms through which public sector organizations can effectively mobilize such behaviors remain inadequately examined. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study addresses the gap in the literature by examining the association between talent management strategies and PEBs, particularly emphasizing the emerging concept of green talent management. Based on survey data collected from 346 employees working in Chinese public sectors, there is a positive relationship between green soft talent management and employees’ PEBs, and green psychological capital is a crucial mediator. Furthermore, this study unveils the constructive moderating role of green transformational leadership in the association between green soft talent management and PEBs. The findings carry valuable theoretical and practical implications for implementing green talent management strategies.
U.S. Federal Employees With Disabilities: How Perceptions of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Affect Differences in Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Job Involvement
Using the 2022 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, this study examines whether perceptions of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) help explain why federal employees with disabilities have lower levels of three predictors of work motivation: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement. All aspects of DEIA have impacts, but accessibility matters most. People with disabilities have greater accessibility needs and are less satisfied with organizational responses; this difference explains much of why they have lower DEI perceptions. Lower DEIA perceptions account for nearly all the differences in job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement. Although the federal service has been more effective than other sectors in achieving representation of employees with disabilities, objective measures of disability representation have minimal impact on these outcome variables. Instead, improving accessibility appears to be the key tool to making full use of the talents of federal employees with disabilities, alongside more equitable development and advancement opportunities and the espousal and enactment of inclusive leadership practices.
Women in Law Enforcement: The Glass Cliff and Gender Revisited
The Interplay Between Helping Behavior and Absenteeism in Teams: A Longitudinal Examination of Their Reciprocal Relationship in a Public Organization
This study employed a longitudinal model to investigate the reciprocal relationships between interpersonal citizenship behavior (OCB-I) and absenteeism at the team level. The research utilized four waves of data from a sample comprising over 5,000 employees in 168 teams within a large Canadian public organization. Drawing upon the focus theory of normative conduct and the collective identity perspective, our findings indicated that a positive change in OCB-I, which encompasses helping behaviors, led to a subsequent decrease in team absenteeism. In addition, emphasizing the identity perspective and allocation of time perspective, our study demonstrated that increased absenteeism within a given period was associated with a subsequent reduction in team OCB-I.
Bringing Public Virtue Back: How Does Ethical Leadership Impact Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Enforcement Style?
Public virtues can help street-level bureaucracies reflect and respond to the shortcomings in current public administration. According to the public virtue approach, this research identifies the key role of ethical leadership in improving the enforcement of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). By promoting subordinates’ psychological empowerment, ethical leadership is significantly and positively correlated with facilitation, accommodation, and legal style. Public service motivation and organizational citizenship behavior moderate the above processes in diverse ways. This research calls for bringing public virtue back to street-level practices, and particularly for educating and encouraging the public sector about ethical leadership that will provide values, guidance, and empower SLBs to exercise virtue.
Workplace Incivility and Its Impact on Public Employees’ Job Search Behavior
While extensive research documents that workplace incivility has negative consequences for both employees and organizations, there has been limited research on how workplace incivility experiences affect public-sector employees. This study examines the associations between workplace incivility experiences and public employee job satisfaction and job search behavior. Relying on the Conservation of Resources theory, this article develops a research model that suggests that workplace incivility experiences prompt job search by lowering employee job satisfaction. The analysis of survey data collected from 751 professional employees working in a state-level law enforcement agency shows that both supervisor and coworker incivility are associated positively with employee job search behavior, but supervisor incivility has a stronger association. Moreover, the analysis shows that the indirect effects of supervisor incivility and coworker incivility on job search behavior through job satisfaction are stronger for employees of color and weaker for older employees. These findings have implications for public-sector human resource management.