Diversity and Representation in the U.S. Federal Government: Analysis of the Trends of Federal Employment

Choi, Samjin

doi:10.1177/009102601104000103

Cited by 45 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Studying the composition of US federal bureaucracy, Meier (1975), for instance, finds that citizens from lower social classes are underrepresented at the upper levels of the US federal bureaucracy. More recent research adds that women and ethnic minorities tend to be underrepresented in leadership positions (e.g., Anestaki et al 2016;Choi 2011;Clark, Ochs, and Frazier 2013), although women less so in agencies responsible for so-called feminine issues (Smith and Monaghan 2013). On the US state and local levels, in two studies on gender and ethnicity representation, Sigelman (1976) and Sigelman and Karnig (1977) found that women and African Americans were underrepresented in upper-level management.…”

Section: Representative Bureaucracy At the Topmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equal Access to the Top? Representative Bureaucracy and Politicians’ Recruitment Preferences for Top Administrative Staff

Bækgaard

George

2018

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

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Although a voluminous literature on representative bureaucracy and minority discrimination suggests that characteristics other than qualifications influence hiring decisions, little is known about whether this also pertains to the top positions in political-administrative organizations. To shed light on this question, we ask how candidate ethnicity, gender, and age affect the recruitment preferences among politicians regarding the candidates for top administrative positions. Our study uses a survey experiment with random assignment of 1,688 Flemish local politicians to one of eight different descriptions of applicants to the leading managerial position of their local authority. We find that ethnic minorities, women, and younger candidates are generally considered more qualified for the job. Moreover, the impact of ethnicity and gender on recruitment preferences is conditional on politicians' ideological predispositions: Left-wing politicians consider ethnic minority candidates more competent, whereas right-wing politicians consider them less representative and are less inclined to invite them for job interviews than candidates from the ethnic majority. Furthermore, politicians furthest to the left are more inclined than right-wing politicians to recognize women as representative of the public at large and support inviting them for job interviews.

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Section: Representative Bureaucracy At the Topmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equal Access to the Top? Representative Bureaucracy and Politicians’ Recruitment Preferences for Top Administrative Staff

Bækgaard

George

2018

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

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“…Employees of diverse backgrounds have a feeling of safety and openness about their identities. They express their opinions and communicate freely with other group members (Choi, 2011;Ferdman et al, 2010;Ferdman et al, 2009;The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2015). In an empowering environment, employees receive support to perform and excel in their job, have access to important information and resources, and can influence work processes (Daya, 2014;Mor-Barak & Cherin, 1998;Pelled, Ledford, & Mohrman, 1999;Sabharwal, 2014; The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 2015).…”

Section: Child Care Programs and Retention Of Male And Female Employementioning

confidence: 99%

Are Federal Child Care Programs Sufficient for Employee Retention? Critical Examination From a Gendered Perspective

Chordiya

2018

The American Review of Public Administration

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The federal government utilizes diversity management and inclusive organizational practices as principal strategies to achieve higher retention of diverse employees. Child care programs are one of the most important diversity management initiatives to enhance employees’ work–life balance and achieve higher retention. However, existing literature suggests that due to gender norms, child care responsibilities and child care programs have different implications for mothers-in-workforce as compared with fathers-in-workforce. Therefore, using 2010 to 2015 federal agency-level longitudinal panel analysis, this study, focuses on a gender-based examination of the effect of satisfaction with child care programs on the retention of male and female federal employees. Also examined is the moderating effect of organizational inclusion on the relationship between satisfaction with child care programs and employee retention. Findings suggest that structural provisions such as satisfactory child care programs are not adequate in enhancing retention of either male or female employees. Satisfaction with child care programs is less likely to increase retention of female employees than male employees. However, as compared with male employees, female employees are more likely to be retained when satisfactory child care programs are combined with inclusive organizational practices. The article discusses implications of these findings for public strategic human resources management, diversity management and inclusion practices, and gender equity.

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“…Third, our cross‐sectional data do not allow for an examination of the temporal dynamics or a causal inference from the results. Fourth, other than race/ethnicity, our data on the EPA workforce do not include information on administrators’ job duties and functions, particularly supervisory, managerial, and executive positions, which may moderate the effect of passive representation on active representation (Choi ; Starks ). In this study, the proxy indicator (i.e., the share of minority administrators in the counties where EPA regional offices are located) may have a relatively lower level of reliability than alternative measures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representative Bureaucracy, Distributional Equity, and Environmental Justice

Liang

Park

Zhao

2020

Public Administration Review

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This article explores the role of bureaucratic representation and distributional equity in the implementation of environmental policy, which has been shaped by the politics of identity, administrative discretion, and a contested discourse on the redistribution of public resources. The authors examine whether minority bureaucratic representation fosters policy outputs for race-related disadvantaged communities and whether the behavior of public administrators reflects distributional equity. Linking representative bureaucracy to environmental justice, this research contributes to the understanding of social equity in public administration and sheds light on the relationship between bureaucratic representation and democratic values. Analyzing a nationwide, block-group-level data set, the authors find that a more racially representative workforce in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency promotes the agency's enforcement actions in communities that have large local-national disparities in minority populations and severe policy problems. The size of the bureaucratic representation effect is larger for neighborhoods that are overburdened with race-related social vulnerability.

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Diversity and Representation in the U.S. Federal Government: Analysis of the Trends of Federal Employment

Cited by 45 publications

References 15 publications

Equal Access to the Top? Representative Bureaucracy and Politicians’ Recruitment Preferences for Top Administrative Staff

Equal Access to the Top? Representative Bureaucracy and Politicians’ Recruitment Preferences for Top Administrative Staff

Are Federal Child Care Programs Sufficient for Employee Retention? Critical Examination From a Gendered Perspective

Representative Bureaucracy, Distributional Equity, and Environmental Justice

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