Job Vacancy and Organizational Performance: Are Senior Managers or Street‐Level Bureaucrats Missed Most?

• Published date: 01 July 2022
• Author: G. Breck Wightman,Sergio Fernandez,Amanda Rutherford
• Date: 01 July 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13482

660 Public Administration Review • July | A ugus t 202 2

Abstract: The field of public administration offers differing perspectives on the contributions of senior managers

and street-level bureaucrats to performance, focusing generally on the presence rather than absence of these actors in

the policy process. This study explores whether job vacancies among senior managers and lower-level employees affect

service delivery and how any effects differ by type of employee. Using panel data from South African local governments

between 2011 and 2015, we estimate the effect of vacancies among senior managers and lower-level employees on

access to water, sewage, electricity, and solid waste. Findings indicate job vacancies matter for performance and

whether vacancies among senior managers or street-level employees matter more depends on the type of service and how

the delivery process is structured, including the degree of labor intensity involved in service delivery and whether the

service is outsourced.

Evidence for Practice

• Job vacancies can adversely affect organizational performance and are a critical contingency to which public

managers and policy makers must attend.

• Generally, job vacancies among senior managers negatively affect organizational performance more than job

vacancies among street-level employees.

• However, for more labor-intensive services and functions, job vacancies among street-level employees have a

greater impact on performance.

In considering what factors contribute to

organizational performance, scholars have focused

on the values, decisions, and actions of senior

managers (O’Toole Jr and Meier2011; Rainey

and Steinbauer1999; Walker and Andrews2015).

This line of research concludes that because of their

authority and strategic role, senior managers have

considerable influence on performance. Similarly,

the top-down approach to policy implementation

posits high-ranking officials have the most leverage

and impact on program outcomes (Mazmanian and

Sabatier1983; Van Meter and Van Horn1975).

Other scholars, however, have focused on the role

of street-level employees in shaping organizational

processes and determining outcomes (Kelly1994;

Lipsky1980; Maynard-Moody and Musheno2003;

Riccucci2005; Scott1997; Tummers and

Bekkers2014). The bottom-up perspective considers

policy implementation largely a process of learning,

problem-solving, and mutual adaptation between

a program and local conditions that requires

specialized skills and discretion by street-level actors

(Berman1978; Browne and Wildavsky1984;

Hjern and Hull1982; Lipsky1978; Wildavsky and

Majone1979).

While it is tempting to view these perspectives

as incompatible, O’Toole Jr(2000) notes they

constitute different ways of analyzing the problem

of how to make public organizations and programs

more effective. Importantly, such perspectives raise

the question of who matters most in shaping public

sector performance. Do senior managers or street-

level bureaucrats play a more prominent role, or

are they equally important in different and perhaps

complementary ways?

Scholars have generally approached the topic of

performance by focusing on the contributions of

governmental actors who are present in the policy

process. Missing from this discussion, however, has

been an understanding of how their absence can

impact performance and service delivery. Studies

have explored the challenges of managing human

capital in the public sector, particularly difficulties

in hiring and retaining employees (Selden2008).

Research on employee turnover has analyzed

various determinants of turnover and its impact on

performance (Hur2010; Kellough and Osuna2007;

Lee and Jimenez2011; Meier and Hicklin2008;

Pitts, Marvel, and Fernandez2011). Turnover studies

Sergio Fernandez

Job Vacancy and Organizational Performance: Are Senior

Managers or Street-Level Bureaucrats Missed Most?

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington

Indiana University Bloomington

G. Breck Wightman

University of Pretoria

Amanda Rutherford

Research Article

Amanda Rutherford is an Associate

Professor and Director of the Undergraduate

Honors Program in the O’Neill School

of Public and Environmental Affairs at

Indiana University Bloomington. Her

research focuses on governance questions

surrounding performance accountability,

representation and equity, and executive

decisions making processes.

Email: aruther@indiana.edu

Sergio Fernandez is a Professor in the

O’Neill School of Public and Environmental

Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington

and Extraordinary Professor in the School

of Public Management and Administration

at the University of Pretoria. His research

focuses on organizational behavior in the

public sector, representative bureaucracy,

public sector leadership, and government

outsourcing.

Email: sefernan@indiana.edu

G. Breck Wightman is a PhD candidate

in the O’Neill School of Public and

Environmental Affairs at Indiana University

Bloomington and an incoming Assistant

Professor in the Romney Institute of Public

Service and Ethics at Brigham Young

University. His research focuses on executive

succession and strategic HRM in public

organizations.

Email: bwightm@iu.edu

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 4, pp. 660–670. © 2022 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13482.

[Correction added on

15March 2022, after first

online publication: the

affiliation ‘University of

Pretoria’ for Sergio Fernandez

has been added in this version.]