Representative bureaucracy and hierarchy: interactions among leadership, middle-level, and street-level bureaucracy

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines whether an increase in ethnic representativeness at various hierarchical ranks can have different impacts on organizational performance. Data were collected from the British police force that implemented force-specific targets for recruiting officers from ethnic minority backgrounds during 2000–2010. Findings suggest that the benefits of representative bureaucracy are greater when (a) the proportion of minority officers is greater, (b) their average rank is higher in the hierarchical ladder, and (c) they are equally dispersed across different ranks. We also show that representation among street-level officers is a necessary condition for deriving the benefits of representative bureaucracy.