This study investigates whether female superiors can be considered a form of management capital. To explore this, our research question is: Do female superiors receive higher compliance with management directives from their subordinates than male superiors? Using a survey experiment with Nepalese civil servants ( n = 858), the study finds that compliance with managerial directives is higher when the superior is female. This effect may be influenced by the differing attitudes typically associated with male and female superiors (agentic vs. communal). The research reveals gender dynamics among subordinates, showing that female subordinates are more reluctant to comply with male superiors compared to male subordinates. However, their willingness to comply increases when the request comes from a female superior. This variation may stem from female subordinates perceiving male superiors as less considerate than female superiors, particularly when assigning tasks such as carrying out inspections in remote hilly areas.

Red tape forms a major threat to many public organizations around the world. Building on the Job Demands–Resources model, supplemented by arguments from the psychological process theory of red tape, this study explores how and when red tape affects teachers’ employability competences (i.e., balance, anticipation and optimization, and personal flexibility). Analyses ( N = 908 teachers; 92 school leaders) revealed a negative relationship between red tape, on one hand, and balance and personal flexibility, on the other hand, through perceived impact on work outcomes. Interestingly, the analyses also revealed that when organizations provide sufficient developmental rewards to their employees, the negative consequences of red tape on perceived impact are buffered, which indirectly also benefits employees’ balance and personal flexibility.

Organizational culture can significantly influence the prevalence of bullying in workplaces. However, there is a dearth of empirical research that thoroughly investigates the various aspects of organizational culture directly linked to bullying behaviors in public sector organizations. To address this gap, a research study was conducted, interviewing senior-level managers across the Victorian Public Sector (VPS), Australia, aiming to identify the cultural elements contributing to bullying behaviors in their workplaces. Utilizing Schein’s organizational culture framework, this study reveals that hierarchical power distance, bureaucratic control, bullying as a political tactic, inaction against bullying incidents, and leaders’ prerogative are the primary cultural features that foster a negative environment and escalate bullying levels. It is imperative for organizations to recognize and rectify these cultural issues to prevent bullying behaviors and foster a safe and respectful workplace culture.

Extrinsic and intrinsic systems of control are two prominent determinants of bureaucratic behavior. An exploration of the respective effects of the two forms of control may overlook that they often interact to exert impacts on bureaucrats. Drawing on a dataset of 870 civil servants in China, this study examines the interactive effect of extrinsic controls and intrinsic public service motivation (PSM) on blame avoidance. Three extrinsic interventions are explored: contingent rewards, punishment, and peer influence. The results show that contingent rewards may inhibit blame avoidance, and civil servants with higher PSM are more likely to be incentivized by reward contingency to contain their blame-avoiding propensity. Furthermore, extrinsic punishment may provoke bureaucrats’ intention to avoid blame, but PSM can inhibit this propensity. Finally, bureaucrats with higher PSM are more inclined to be invigorated by their peers’ industriousness, whereas those low in PSM tend to shift responsibilities to their more hard-working associates.

In recent years, growth-oriented leadership (GOL) has come to the fore as a salient predictor of positive employee outcomes in public sector contexts. This empirical paper examines the role of GOL in shaping perceptions of quantitative demands as a product of an evolved New Public Management (NPM) context and the subsequent impact on stress and well-being for 419 local government employees working in Western Australia. While latent in previous GOL-oriented studies, this paper is the first to explore the intersection of GOL and quantitative demands, noting that the former has an established positive effect on employee wellbeing, and the opposite case for the latter. Drawing on the challenge-hindrance framework, this article argues that GOL helps to shape employees’ primary appraisals of demands as challenges, rather than hindrances, in the post-NPM environment. The results indicate strong, direct negative relationships linking GOL with quantitative demands and stress, and a strong positive relationship between GOL and well-being. This study establishes GOL as a relevant capability for public leaders in supporting employees to deal effectively with public service demands and subsequently grow. Understanding how leadership capability, and particularly GOL, can shape the employee experience is important in ensuring the effective delivery of public services.

This article examines how information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and administrative discretion are associated with the innovative mindsets of public employees in South Korea. Employing moderated multiple regression analysis, the authors examined secondary survey data on South Korean public employees’ perceptions collected by the Korea Institute of Public Administration in 2021. The findings support a direct and positive impact of ICT adoption and administrative discretion on the innovative mindsets of public employees. Moreover, the results highlight the moderating influence of (perceptual) administrative discretion on the relationship between ICT adoption and innovative mindsets of public employees. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and contributions of this study.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of flexible work arrangements within the Italian public administration. While much of the existing research has focused on the drawbacks of such arrangements, there has been less exploration of their benefits. Cognitive demands related to the structure of work activities, planning of working hours, planning of workplaces, and coordination with others, under flexible working conditions, might be considered as job resources that act as challenging demands within the Job Demand-Resource (JD-R) model. This study aimed to explore how the “cognitive challenge of flexible work” (CCFW) impact job satisfaction through home-based performance, taking into account the role of weekly working hours on home-based performance. Furthermore, the potential moderating role of cognitive and physical job demands between CCFW and home-based performance was explored. Using structural equation modeling on data from 484 public employees, the findings confirmed the positive impact of the structure of work tasks and planning of working times on both job satisfaction and home-based performance. In addition, cognitive demands (i.e., perception of cognitive work overload) played a moderating role in the mediated relationship between coordinating with others on job satisfaction and the structure of working tasks on job satisfaction through home-based performance.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented changes in global work dynamics including mandating telework for most of the U.S. federal workforce to protect employees from health and safety hazards of the communicable virus. Although not ubiquitous, many federal employees had experience with these arrangements because they voluntarily chose telework prior to the pandemic through provisions in the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. Using the 2020 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), which focuses on telework perceptions and experiences, this study explores the effect of the involuntary telework mandate on employees’ attitudes toward telework after several months through a prospect theory framework. Findings demonstrate that several factors including previous telework experience and experiential learning may influence employees’ preference for and voluntary selection into telework moving forward. These dynamics suggest an endowment effect for telework among employees who gained telework experience before and during the pandemic. In addition, employees may choose telework as an alternative work arrangement when they are not satisfied with their organizations or jobs but want to maintain employment. These findings suggest that agencies should continue to offer robust telework opportunities to satisfy and retain employees.