Search results

This text on representive bureaucracy covers topics such as: bureaucracy as a representative institution; bureaucratic power and the dilemma of administrative responsibility; and representative bureaucracy and the potential for reconciling bureaucracy and democracy

Although several studies have looked at voluntary turnover in public organizations, little research has examined involuntary turnover and average time to terminate employees in public organizations. This study focuses on the impact of a state's discipline system on its use and rapidity of discharge of state employees. Results show that factors associated with utilization of dismissal of state employees differ from factors associated with how quickly states terminate employees. This study shows that states adopting at-will employment are no more likely to fire employees than states with civil service employment systems are, but they do terminate employment relationships more quickly.

Human resource management (HRM) in public organizations is changing as there are numerous policy, procedural and structural reforms underway. Human resource management studies have focused primarily at the state and federal levels, with relatively fewer comprehensive views of county governments. This article looks at human resource management roles, structures and practices from the perspective of county government using data from the Government Performance Project. The article describes approaches to reforms, the role and structures of the central HRM department, and the range of HRM practices related to selection, training, classification and compensation. The study finds that while different innovations and reforms have been adopted, county governments continue to function somewhat traditionally, leaving many opportunities for additional reforms to improve county governance.

This research investigates the intra-agency employment patterns of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Native Americans in the Farmers Home Administration. Drawing on previous studies of local, state, and federal employment, this article develops and tests a model to explain employment variation within a federal agency This research uses weighted least squares regression to analyze integration in 246 Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) district offices. The findings indicate that group population, upper-level agency representatvon, funding, interminority competition, and region are important determinants of minority employment.