SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1: Smith, A. E., & Monaghan, K. R. (2011). Some ceilings have more cracks: Representative bureaucracy in federal regulatory agencies. American Review of Public Administration, 43(1), 50–71.

Abstract: In recent decades, representative bureaucracy has been a core area of interest, both in theory and in practice, in public administration. The focus on representative bureaucracy is important because the characteristics of bureaucrats influence the nature, scope, and implementation of public policies. Integrating management literature on men and women in leadership with existing work on representative bureaucracy, this study constructed a new data set examining the distribution of women in leadership in 118 U.S. federal regulatory organizations. We find that women remain underrepresented in federal regulatory agency leadership but not in the same magnitude as in political representation and private organization leadership. Specifically, women are expected to get into leadership positions in organizations working in “feminine” policy areas and where a woman holds the top level of leadership. In addition, the proportion of women in upper-level leadership positions is expected to increase in agencies with a higher likelihood of failure when such agencies are less visible.

Journal Article 2: Lee, S., Fernandez, S., & Chang, C. (2017). Job scarcity and voluntary turnover in the U.S. federal bureaucracy. Public Personnel Management, 47(1), 3–25.

Abstract: Research suggests that job scarcity affects voluntary turnover in an organization, but there is no consensus on the exact role of job scarcity in the voluntary turnover process. We develop an integrative model that treats job scarcity as a direct antecedent of voluntary turnover as well as a moderator of other antecedents. Based on a panel of 185 federal agencies from 2006 to 2011, we consider leaving to another federal agency (employee transfers) and seeking work outside the federal government (quits) as distinct forms of voluntary turnover. The results confirm the significance of job scarcity as a key moderator in the voluntary turnover process. We find that job satisfaction lowers actual quits and that this effect weakens as jobs become increasingly scarce. Regarding employee transfers, however, job scarcity does not have any significant effects: Rather, the findings suggest that intention to transfer is the critical antecedent of actual transfers.