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This article presents an empirical study of the effect of middle manager quality on organizational performance. Using 6 years of data from more than 1,000 Texas school districts, the author finds that quality middle managers positively impact performance. In exploring the relationship between quality middle and upper managers, she finds that their interaction leads to improved organizational performance. This article makes two contributions to the public management literature. First, it introduces a measure of middle manager quality that allows researchers to explore the ways middle managers affect organizational performance. Second, the findings reveal that public management research has underestimated the impact of management.

An increase in the availability of emergency contraception (EC) may lead to a decrease in the abortion rate. The 2006 Food and Drug Administration ruling, which relaxed the prescription requirement for EC for women aged 18 and older, allows us to apply the difference‐in‐difference methodology on the age‐by‐year‐by‐state abortion data to test this hypothesis. Contrary to the literature, we find a moderate reduction in abortion rates among women aged 18 and 19 after 2006 in states that were affected by the change, compared with changes in the control group. These results are robust in a number of specifications and pass the event specification test. (JEL J13, J18)

Human resource management (HRM) has been shown to impact organizational performance, but more research is needed on particular human resource (HR) practices in nonprofits and their effect on performance. In this article, we explore one HRM practice argued to influence performance, employee engagement in decision‐making, examining whether involving staff at different levels of a nonprofit affects nonprofit organizational performance. Drawing on data from a 2011 study of nonprofit hospitals, we find employee engagement has a positive influence on managerial and stakeholder perceptions of organizational performance. Employee engagement in decision‐making is also related to objective nonprofit performance measures, although the effects are less consistent. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for nonprofit research and practice.

Education is a powerful cognitive resource that undermines the persuasiveness of political propaganda. However, little is known about the conditions that weaken this resource. This study examines whether lopsided media coverage preceding and during the initial phases of the Iraq War provided an information environment sufficient to overcome the positive effects of education, finding that for viewers of the unbalanced and partial CBS and Fox, the educated were as likely to be misinformed about Iraq as the uneducated. Findings are discussed within the context of persuasion theory and the watchdog role of the news media.

AbstractA growing literature identifies the external environment as a key driver of diversity management in frontline public services. With many public services spanning the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, the degree to which ownership moderates the link between the environment and diversity management practice is an important area that has received little attention. Using longitudinal data on nearly 4,000 American hospitals from 2008 to 2012, we explore how public, nonprofit, and private hospitals diverge in their responses to three environmental factors—market competition, inter-organizational collaboration, and the racial diversity of the population in their local service area. Findings from random effects panel models and panel logistic regressions suggest that these factors are associated with heterogeneous diversity management activities across different sectors. For public hospitals, diversity management is influenced by the racial diversity of clients. Nonprofit hospitals' diversity management is influenced by both inter-organizational collaboration and the racial diversity of clients. Market competition is the main driver of diversity management in the private sector. These findings bring insights from contingency theory and the cross-sector comparison literature into diversity management research. Key findings suggest there are complex and multiple mechanisms guiding diversity management practices across different sectors.

This essay provides a reflective commentary outlining Hawai'i's unconventional response for employing a volunteer workforce of public servants when faced with the task of processing an unprecedented backlog of unemployment insurance claims triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although efforts are still ongoing, this essay applies volunteerism and public service motivation as a framework to explain why public servants would serve in a voluntary capacity at another public agency. The intent of this essay is to spur conversation on how public servants are further stepping up to the frontlines during times of crisis, as well as expand knowledge on the relationship between volunteerism and public service motivation.