ABSTRACT Are public sector workers happier than their private sector counterparts? Recent research has found an association between public sector employment and happiness but leaves many questions unanswered. The major question that remains is why this association exists. Scholars have speculated that job‐related characteristics like financial satisfaction and union status may be mediators, but this has not been established empirically. Our article provides the first empirical evidence of mediation in the relationship between public sector work and happiness. Using large sample data from the World Values Survey ( n = 124,541), we find that financial satisfaction and union status both mediate the association between public sector work and happiness, with financial satisfaction being the dominant mediator in most cases. When the association between public sector work and subjective well‐being is stratified by household income and country income, we find that the effects are strongest among low‐income government workers in low‐income countries.

ABSTRACT Administrative restructuring is an organizational phenomenon suggested to improve under‐represented groups' managerial representation by disrupting networks and institutions. However, extant tests of a ‘disruption hypothesis’ are collectively inconclusive. We elaborate and test it with a qualitative‐to‐quantitative study of local health agency managers and mergers across the Italian NHS from 2014 to 2020. Agency leader interviews reveal disruption indicators: number of agencies merging, staff rationalization, changes in geographical scale, and agency heterogeneity. Using administrative data, we find disruption measures have some positive associations with women's share of management, post‐merger retention, and new hires, providing modest support for the disruption hypothesis. However, there is an unexpected ‘winners‐and‐losers’ dynamic: incumbent women had higher post‐merger attrition than men, but merged agencies hired more women than non‐merging agencies. We offer three abductively developed interpretations of this finding, extending the disruption hypothesis' connections with public management theory on the informal, organizational antecedents of diversity in senior management.

ABSTRACT Although qualitative research is typically seen as working with verbal text, visual representations are frequently used in qualitative research in our field. This paper examines visualization as a research practice, aiming to encourage its reflective use and further development. We contribute to the literature on qualitative research in public administration, first, by discussing key concepts and the work visuals do. Second, we explore the way visualization can enrich the research process by shaping interactions within texts and with audiences. Third, we connect the practice of visualizing to the dialogue on methodological understandings and traditions in our field. For this, we outlined two distinct approaches to visualizing that researchers may draw upon: an iterative‐progression approach (inductive) and a pragmatic‐bricolage approach (abductive). We conclude by connecting visualization to thick description, suggesting how visuals can add layers of meaning in qualitative public administration research.

ABSTRACT How people are treated in the workplace is of increasing concern, with many scholars arguing that the government, as an employer, should set the standard for equitable treatment. While attention to equity in public administration has grown in research and practice, minimal work has comparatively explored discrimination in the public and non‐public sectors. Drawing on data from the 2018 European Social Survey, this study explores possible differences in how public and non‐public employees perceive discrimination and how perceptions vary across countries. In most countries, the differences between the sectors were not significant, but the findings show that the country, administrative culture, and sociodemographic variables play a role in perceptions of discrimination. This exploratory study makes an important empirical contribution by accumulating evidence of perceptions of discrimination across countries and has practical implications for human resource management practitioners.

ABSTRACT We study how regulatory competition and learning shape bureaucratic behaviors under regulatory federalism in the US, focusing on Clean Air Act enforcement within intra‐firm networks. Using facility‐level panel data on inspections from 2005 to 2017, we examine how sibling facility violations influence state regulators' scrutiny of focal facilities. These mechanisms predict opposite effects: learning increases scrutiny, while competition decreases it. Our findings provide evidence for both mechanisms, with their relative strength varying under different conditions. Regulators increase scrutiny following violations by same‐state sibling facilities, highlighting strong learning effects when information is accessible and accountability pressures are high. Conversely, scrutiny decreases after violations by same‐industry siblings in competitor states, demonstrating competitive incentives when business opportunities are relevant. These results clarify the interplay between competition and learning in regulatory federalism and offer practical insights for mitigating adverse competition dynamics and strengthening learning to enhance decentralized regulatory systems.

ABSTRACT Leadership research has emphasized the crucial role of gender and documented how women leaders are rated more negatively regarding essential behaviors and competencies. Drawing on social identity theory, studies show, however, that perceptions of women leaders are more positive if evaluated by female employees. This article contributes to this body of research, arguing that it is not necessarily the dyadic gender match between supervisor and employee that matters. Instead, gender‐based group identities deserve more attention, since teams, and the social peer interactions they facilitate, can shape how individual employees, independent of their own gender, experience women and men leaders. Based on Danish local government data from 3400+ employees, we find that employees working in teams whose composition is more female (more male) provide more favorable ratings of women (men) leaders, while controlling for dyadic gender matches. The findings point to the importance of team design, evaluation protocols, and training for debiasing leadership assessments.

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

The recent third edition of Performance and Innovation in the Public Sector is an especially thoughtful resource that will empower public servants to deliver on their government's promises. It is relevant—indeed necessary—as a guide for policy makers and implementers at all levels of governance, in all functional areas, and in all political systems globally. Many books address public management from the latest perspectives such as strategic management, innovation, human resources, or any number of acronyms. Berman and Hijal-Moghrabi, however, are to be commended for producing a tour de force of practice that integrates theory and application across decades of research. In essence, they have constructed a brief, readable compendium that underscores results rather than just process, an emphasis too often missing in the broad literature on public administration. This is a book upon which thoughtful executives can build successful programs that are salient to all stakeholders. Performance and Innovation distinguishes itself from other volumes in pedagogical approaches that facilitate learning not only in the context of credit-bearing coursework, but in continuous education that is the responsibility of every public official, elected or appointed, and for whom this volume should be at hand. Most relevant are application exercises at the conclusion of each chapter, or topic. Each set of exercises directs readers to identify, list, explain, address, formulate, research, or reflect upon necessary questions and tasks, all in the ultimate pursuit of results that have been promised to citizens. Just as important, in terms of mastering the knowledge base presented herein, are the graphic synopses (or conceptual maps) that the authors have distilled from the literature. Dozens of lists, diagrams and figures allow readers to “cut to the quick.” Each is a visual guide to implementing productive changes within organizations that may be too encumbered by accumulated rules and regulations, and of course entrenched cultures. Although the authors are careful to differentiate the expectations of public organizations from their private sector counterparts, they also include a chapter on public-private partnerships as a thoughtful discussion of viable win-win alliances that, if carefully implemented, would not weaken public trust. A chapter on innovations is another often overlooked set of assets that can strengthen the capacities of all governments to deliver results. Performance and Innovation is clearly written, well organized, and should be considered as a valuable complement to a wide range of courses in public policy and administration. Imaginative organizational leaders might well consider bulk purchases of this volume for their top-to-middle management workforce. Individual administrators should purchase it at their own expense, as it could well be their best career investment.

ABSTRACT Despite long‐standing interest in satisfaction with public services and organizations, our knowledge of how responsive user satisfaction is to real‐world performance fluctuations remains limited. Existing cross‐sectional studies may suffer from selection bias, while survey experiments may overstate performance information effects, as the salience of such information is artificially primed. We exploit a unique opportunity to study the link between performance failure and user satisfaction dynamically, as news of a major performance failure within the Danish National Board of Social Services happened to break during fielding of a satisfaction survey among the Board's users. Our analysis shows no negative effects of the performance failure on user satisfaction. These findings suggest that in real‐world settings—where citizens draw on many information sources when forming judgments—performance effects on satisfaction are weaker than prior studies suggest. Thus, satisfaction data cannot be assumed to automatically reflect changes in service providers' performance and reputation.

ABSTRACT This article maps and discusses the state of public administration education in the Czech Republic. The main method is the multiple case study, covering three topics. The first case enhances information about the scope and scale of public administration in the country. The data suggest that, especially at public schools, the number of students is continuously falling, and public administration did not develop as a specific discipline. The second case focuses on scientific output and internationalization of public administration education, and the last one on the impact of public administration programs on the public sector and national policies. We can observe a gradual convergence toward Western PA standards, which, however, lags behind economic and social developments. The main causes of this lock‐in in the past are the legacy of economic transformation, a demand‐driven approach, inappropriate funding of science, the accreditation system, and the influence of professional organizations.