More dissimilar than alike? Public values preferences acrossUSminority and white managers

Abstract

Interest in public values has grown considerably over the past two decades. Much of this attention reflects a growing awareness that public values hold considerable significance for citizens and public employees. Yet, despite the rapid expansion of research on public values, we still know little about the role of race in shaping and determining public employees’ values preferences. To begin remedying this gap, this article examines whether minority and white public managers in large US local governments exhibit the same value preferences when making departmental decisions. Results from a multiple group confirmatory factor analysis indicate that minority and white managers express similar preferences for traditional public administration values; however, minority managers report a stronger preference for both traditional public administration (e.g., efficiency and effectiveness) and social equity‐oriented (e.g., equity, representation) values.

Representative bureaucracy and unconscious bias: Exploring the unconscious dimension of active representation

“…Research on representative bureaucracy theory has found that the level of diversity within an organization impacts on its ability to represent the public it serves (Pitkin 1967;Mosher 1982;Sowa and Selden 2003;Skorkjaer 2011;Riccucci and Van Ryzin 2016). The diversity literature also corroborates this (Pitts 2005;Skorkjaer 2011;Linos et al 2017;Stazyk et al 2017). Research has also demonstrated that more representative bureaucracies tend to be better performing organizations with improved service delivery, particularly for unrepresented or minority groups Creating representative bureaucracies remains an ongoing challenge and applying a gender lens to bureaucracies offers some insight into the extent of the problem.…”

Antecedents to managing publicness: a study of professional and cultural socialization

“…Interestingly, prior to research conducted by Stazyk et al (2017), public administration research has offered relatively little insight into whether (and to what extent) the perceptions of public values differ between minority and non-minority managers. "Accounting for race in the public values context matters insofar as it likely affects how public managers make decisions about service and program delivery" (Stazyk et al 2015, p. 25) and may specifically offer insight into how organizational leaders of color institutionalize public values to achieve public good.…”

“…The disproportionate treatment of particular groups in society can greatly affect their participation in the political system" (see also Schneider and Ingram 1993;Soss 1999). With minority managers reporting a stronger preference for the public administration values of efficiency and effectiveness (Stazyk et al 2017), we may expect minority managers to view managing upward with political authorities as a necessary precondition to utilizing mechanisms such as public or stakeholder participation in policy implementation.…”

“…At the time of writing, publicness theory has provided insight into how to classify "public" organizations (Rainey et al 1976;Bozeman 1987;Moulton 2009) and how to effectively manage institutions with public value implications (Moulton 2009;Bozeman and Moulton 2011;Merritt et al 2018a). Diversity scholarship informs researchers that a person's culture, background, and experiences are fundamental to that individual's perception of public values (Bozeman and Johnson 2015;Stazyk et al 2017) and may shape how public values are evoked in management strategy to pursue public outcomes in organizations (Hamidullah et al 2015). Research on diversity also calls for scholars to further consider how the range of characteristics tied to a person's background serves as complementary or competing forces to effective management (Hamidullah et al 2015;Breslin et al 2017) Together, research on organizations and the varying backgrounds of the managers who lead them may provide scholars with a more holistic understanding of factors integral to the organizational realization of public outcomes.…”

“…This chapter may also present implications for human resources management, particularly the recruitment, training, and development of senior managers. During the recruitment process, organizations may benefit from understanding how a prospective manager's cultural background (Hamidullah et al 2015;Stazyk et al 2017) and professional experiences (Petrovsky et al 2015) may individually shape their management strategy in light of the organization's mission. Recognizing that strategic management skills diminish over time (Getha-Taylor et al 2015), efforts to continually develop organizational leaders may prove more effective if training is tailored for a single individual, taking into account how their professional and cultural background may uniquely shape their management.…”