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Few research studies focus on public managers' mentoring, and few mentoring studies include any outcome measure other than reported satisfaction. Our study examines diverse outcomes for a broad-based set of public managers, including not only satisfaction but also the number of employees supervised in the current job, whether the most recent job was a promotion, and whether the protg is now a mentor. We argue that these may be particularly important outcomes in the public sector due to the common basis of promotion in numbers supervised and due to the special need to develop protgs into mentors. Our findings show that mentoring outcomes are predicted by attributes of the protg, the mentor, and the mentoring relationship and by the degree and type of social capital focus of the mentoring. Adapted from the source document.

Despite the abundance of red tape literature and the growing popularity of outsourcing in the public sector, no study has yet investigated red tape in consulting relationships. Using survey data from public managers and the contractors with whom they work, the authors investigate public managers' and private consultants' perceptions of organizational and contracting red tape. They identify the determinants of red tape perceptions, variation in those perceptions, and the characteristics of respondents with stronger divergent views of contracting red tape. The results indicate that government managers perceive higher levels of organizational red tape and contracting red tape than their consultants. Public managers' perceptions of red tape are associated with job satisfaction and time spent managing and communicating with consultants. Consultants' perceptions of red tape are associated with perceptions of the appropriateness of the government agency's rules, the number of years the firm has worked with the agency, and the percentage of the firm's cost‐plus contracts.

Economic theories suggest that work behavior of public and nonprofit employees should resemble one another closely, owing to the lack of profit incentives and owner oversight of work. However, empirical descriptions of public and nonprofit workers imply that these work-forces differ in many ways. One easily conceptualized but nonetheless crucial test of possible differences is the level of work activity in the respective organizational settings. This research compares work hours reported in public and nonprofit organizations by asking, "Do managers working in, respectively, public and nonprofit organizations differ in their number of work hours and what are the determinants of managers' work hours?" The study is based on questionnaire data from the National Administrative Studies Project—III. Results indicate that managers in the nonprofit sector work longer hours compared to state managers and that work hours are mitigated by external organizational ties, perceptions, and work histories.

Using questionnaire data obtained from a sample of state government managers, our study examines social capital foci (network ties) of mentoring relations. Others have shown that network ties are relevant to career development and advance. We begin with the assumption that enhanced network ties are generally beneficial. We investigate variation in mentorships, which enhance network ties within the focal organization and within organizations external to the focal organization. We examine a number of factors hypothesized as shaping the relationship between mentoring and the development of network ties, including attributes of the protégé and of the mentoring relationship. Our results show that the sex of the protégé and of the mentor does not affect the quantity of network ties conveyed. However, relationships in which protégé and mentor sex is matched provide more network ties. Counter to our expectations, there is no significant difference in the amount and focus of network ties accruing from formal, organizationally sanctioned mentoring and informal mentoring.

Despite the abundance of literature discussing the individual and organizational outcomes of mentoring, this general literature remains virtually silent on the role of mentoring in the public sector. The authors review and critique the mentoring literature, indicating its limitations for understanding mentoring in a public management context. In particular, the authors highlight the interdependence of organizations, the opportunity structures of the public sector, and public service motivation that mediate the outcomes of mentoring in the public sector. The authors then present a three-tier model that focuses on public management mentoring outcomes. The three-tier model marries the unique context of public sector work to the extensive mentoring literature and lays the groundwork for a theory of public management mentoring. The authors employ the model to generate propositions about public management mentoring outcomes. These propositions should prove useful for theory development but also for application in public sector mentoring relationships and programs.

One of the few mentoring topics that has received little attention in the abundant mentoring literature is the determinants of organically formed (as opposed for formal program-based) mentoring relationships. The authors propose a Goodness of Fit model, which outlines the basic elements of the mentor—protégé match, viewing the relationship as a social exchange based on the fit among mentor and protégé preferences, endowments, and the content of knowledge transmitted. After presenting the model, the authors provide a few illustrative research questions that flow from the basic logic and terms of the model. They conclude with suggestions for future research, including possibilities of the use of the model in experimental and quasiexperimental research.