Federal Workforce Research Articles

Asian Pacific American Senior Executives in the Federal Government

This article calls attention to the lack of workforce diversity in promoting Asian Pacific Americans to the highest career levels in the federal government. It describes the historic difficulties in realizing significant numbers of APAs in the senior ranks of almost all government agencies. Two major reports from the General Accounting Office (GAO) corroborate this view and depict the pessimistic prospects for any significant improvement in the immediate future. It is urged that there be prompt implementation of the recommendations from the GAO, that specific agency plans and actions be established and monitored, that Congress continue to exercise close oversight regarding federal workforce diversity, and that Office of Personnel Management (OPM) collect and disseminate timely, accurate workforce demographics so that all agencies can be held accountable to the American public.

Asian Pacific American Senior Executives in the Federal Government

This article calls attention to the lack of workforce diversity in promoting Asian Pacific Americans to the highest career levels in the federal government. It describes the historic difficulties in realizing significant numbers of APAs in the senior ranks of almost all government agencies. Two major reports from the General Accounting Office (GAO) corroborate this view and depict the pessimistic prospects for any significant improvement in the immediate future. It is urged that there be prompt implementation of the recommendations from the GAO, that specific agency plans and actions be established and monitored, that Congress continue to exercise close oversight regarding federal workforce diversity, and that Office of Personnel Management (OPM) collect and disseminate timely, accurate workforce demographics so that all agencies can be held accountable to the American public.

How Internal Stakeholders View Partnership

In 1993, the Clinton-Gore administration launched a comprehensive effort to reinvent the federal government. Labor-management partnership glued the various pieces of the reinvention blueprint together. The perceptions of two sets of pivotal stakeholders in the partnership effort mandated by Executive Order 12,871, partnership council representatives and the surrounding federal workforce, are examined. Council representatives viewed partnership as achieving some process effectiveness, which correlates with perceptions of the labor relations climate and partnership impacts. Although a sizable percentage of the federal workforce appeared largely unaware of partnership activities, many perceived a positive impact on labor-management relations. Significant differences existed between union and management council representatives. These findings have implications for the future of federal-sector labor-management cooperation, particularly in light of recent policy developments in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Without a partnership mandate, such relations may revert to their more adversarial past.

Centers of academic excellence: a case study

The US National Security Agency's Centers of Academic Excellence (CAEs) in Information Assurance Education program is in its seventh year, and 59 educational institutions have received the coveted CAE designation. The program was originally designed to jump-start education of an information security workforce by providing incentives to academic institutions to form information assurance programs and to students by providing scholarships. It has since been augmented by scholarship programs from the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Defense. Several hundred graduates from these scholarship programs are already in the federal workforce. Indeed, information security and assurance has quickly become an important topic in computer science departments worldwide, with increasing numbers of information security specialists earning associate, undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degrees in the subject

Adarand, Grutter, and Gratz

Does affirmative action in federal human resources management (HRM) matter? Responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in Adarand v. Pena (1995), the Clinton administration instructed federal agencies not to use racial, ethnic, or gender-based affirmative action classifications in their HRM programs without explicit approval from the Department of Justice. The Court’s decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) suggest that it may now be constitutionally feasible to strengthen affirmative action in federal HRM. However, analysis of the impact of the Clinton administration’s policy change leads to the conclusion that constitutional flexibility to establish racial, ethnic, and gender goals and timetables to promote federal workforce diversity simply may not make much difference, except possibly for the smallest minority groups.

Lessons Learned from Commercial Activities Competitions

Many lessons have been learned as more and more portions of the federal work force have become subject to commercial activities competitions in an effort to make them more efficient. These lessons are becoming increasingly relevant as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has removed some of the advantages held by those already employed by the federal government and tightened the amount of time available to conduct competitions under OMB circular A-76.

Representative Bureaucracy: Understanding Its Past to Address Its Future

Julie Dolan and David H. Rosenbloom, eds., Representative Bureaucracy: Classic Readings and Continuing ControversiesNorma M. Riccucci, Managing Diversity in Public Sector WorkforcesMargaret C. Rung, Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933–1953

Aggressively pursuing knowledge management over 2 years: a case study at a US government organization

As the US federal civilian workforce is ‘graying’, knowledge management (KM) can play a critical role in the strategic management of human capital in a government organization. KM should probably be a key pillar of the human capital strategy, along with competency management, performance management, and change management. Even though the need is great for knowledge management in government organizations, many of these agencies do not have a clear vision or strategy as to how to implement KM in their organization. To help those in the federal sector in implementing KM, this paper will discuss components of the knowledge management implementation plan at a leading US government organization (using GOV as the pseudonym) following a KM pyramid framework.

The IT Experience: An Example of Change in the Federal Workforce

The information technology, or “IT,” functional area has been examined in some detail. This article summarizes the manpower reductions that have occurred in IT and displays the demographic impact (experience, age, educational level, race and gender mix) of these reductions. The author suggests that similar changes may be anticipated, or may have already occurred, in other functional areas that experience personnel reductions. He also reviews some of the management challenges this poses.

Workforce Intermediaries: Partnerships for the Future

The United States faces a looming workforce and economic crisis in the decades ahead because of the diminishing supply of skilled labor. Tight labor markets are good for low-skilled, low-income workers, but opportunities will be lost without adequate training and education in place. Lack of adequate debate about federal workforce legislation confirms the general inattention of all levels of government in taking this workforce crisis seriously. This lack of political will is compounded by institutional fragmentation in the workforce field. Employer-driven partnerships, called workforce intermediaries, are demonstrating how workforce progress can be achieved for both businesses and workers. Intermediaries are dual-customer, brokers of services, entrepreneurial, and results driven.

<sc>Margaret C. Rung</sc>. <italic>Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933–1953</italic>. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 271. $39.95

Journal Article Margaret C. Rung. Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933–1953. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 271. $39.95 Get access Rung Margaret C.. Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933–1953. Athens: University of Georgia Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 271. $39.95. Maurine W. Greenwald Maurine W. Greenwald University of Pittsburgh Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 108, Issue 3, June 2003, Pages 869–870, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/108.3.869 Published: 01 June 2003

Reviews of Books:Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933-1953 Margaret C. Rung

Reviews of Books:Servants of the State: Managing Diversity and Democracy in the Federal Workforce, 1933-1953 Margaret C. Rung

Servants of the state: managing diversity & democracy in the federal workforce, 1933-1953

Servants of the state: managing diversity & democracy in the federal workforce, 1933-1953

The California Wellness Foundation's grant making in work and health.

The California Wellness Foundation's grant making in work and health.

The President and Representative Bureaucracy: Rhetoric and Reality

Policy makers have long recognized the importance of achieving a representative federal bureaucracy, but the four most recent presidents have expressed divergent views about policies designed to achieve this goal. Meanwhile, there have been widespread perceptions among federal employees that the administrations' ideologies have had a direct impact on the opportunities of minorities, women, and white men for advancement. Using government‐wide data from 1979 to 1996, this article examines whether such employment opportunities have varied in the manner suggested by these perceptions. We find little evidence of a correlation between the president's views on affirmative action and minority and female representation in the overall federal workforce. Moreover, the curtailment of promotion opportunities during the Reagan and Clinton administrations has affected all groups nearly equally. Potential presidential influence has been more notable in the representation of women and minorities in politically appointed and career senior executive jobs. We conclude that equal employment opportunity and affirmative action policies have remained basically intact during the 18‐year period, but that recent court decisions, along with efforts to reduce the size of government, may slow progress toward achieving a representative bureaucracy.

Challenges and Opportunities for Women to Advance in the Federal Civil Service: Veterans' Preference and Promotions

This study deals with the effects of veterans' preference on women careers in the federal civil service between 1975 and 1995. This analysis applies time series regression and logistic regression to employment, promotion, age, and salary data)Or males and females, both veterans and nonveterans. Contrary to claims that veterans, a predominantly male group, are privileged throughout their careers, these data reveal diminishing effects of the preference and disadvantages to veterans. Thus, one can expect little change in federal women's status if veterans' preference is eliminated. Introduction The Veterans' Preference Act of 1944, the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Acts of 1972 and 1974, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 give veterans preference in employment. These policies were intended to eliminate discrimination against those who served in the military and to ease veterans' transitions into the civilian workforce. Preference for veterans, mostly men, may limit women's employment opportunities. Social equity benefits for veterans may cost social equity for women. This paper measures these policy impacts in the federal workforce between 1975 and 1995. At this point, one might expect the impact of the policies to differ from the policy makers' original expectations. The political and social context for these policies changed with elimination of the draft, reductions in military personnel, rightsizing the federal civil service, the emphasis on equal employment opportunity (EEO), the Women's Rights Movements, and increasing numbers of women entering the workforce. Background. In private sector organizations there is a glass ceiling, an invisible barrier based on attitudinal or organizational bias, which prevents qualified individuals from advancing into managerial positions (U.S. Department of Labor, 1991). Among the impediments are recruitment practices that do not meet affirmative action and EEO requirements, the lack of developmental assignments that enhance qualifications (for example, job rotations and advanced education), and the failure to hold top-level decision makers accountable for EEO compliance (U.S. Department of Labor, 1991). Guy (1994), Hale and Kelly (1993), and Newman (1993) developed similar theories to explain women's inability to advance to executive levels in state government. Naff (1994), Lewis (1992, 1994, 1997, 1998), Lewis and Nice (1994), and Rusaw (1996) extended these earlier analyses to the federal bureaucracy and found similar barriers between women and equitable treatment. First, women's choices may be influenced by individual factors such as the gender roles that children learn, family background, motivations, and family obligations. They may learn that the primary role of a woman is to be a wife and mother. Women may feel discouraged when they consider higher education or training important to a career. Also, there are organizational barriers. The jobs women tend to hold are less likely to lead to promotions. For example, women are more likely to work in staff positions than line positions, and women are more likely to work in social work, nursing, and primary or secondary education (Guy, 1994). Lewis (1992), Lewis (1994), Lewis and Nice (1994), Lewis (1997), and Lewis (1998) emphasize occupational sex segregation and barriers to equal pay. Lewis' work supplements other explanations of women's difficulties. Finally, veterans' preference is an organizational barrier that affects the distribution of opportunities and power. This study examines data describing the population of federal employees and focuses on veterans' preference and status. Individual factors and other organizational barriers are considered alternative explanations of women's difficulties in advancing through the federal civil service. Military service and veterans' preference. Card (1983) analyzed the impact of military service on the lives of men who were in the ninth grade in 1960. …

COMMUNITY COLLEGE INVOLVEMENT IN WELFARE-TO-WORK PROGRAMS

This article discusses community college involvement in a key welfare-to-work training program, the Jobs Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS), as a mirror to reflect on the larger issue of how federal and state workforce policy impacts publicly-controlled institutions of higher education. A qualitative assessment of JOBS programs at community colleges framed discussion regarding the challenges community colleges face as they attempt to preserve these programs within an era of devolved responsibility for welfare-to-work funding from the federal government to the states.

Occupational upper extremity disorders in the federal workforce. Prevalence, health care expenditures, and patterns of work disability.

Upper extremity disorders (UEDs) account for a significant number of work-related illnesses in the US workforce. Little information exists on the distribution of UEDs, their associated health care and indemnity costs, or patterns of work disability. The study presented is an analysis of upper extremity claims within the federal workforce. In this study, the universe consisted of all claims accepted by the US Department of Labor, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP), from October 1, 1993, through September 30, 1994. A total of 185,927 claims of notices of injury were processed during the study period, and of these, 8,147 or 4.4% had an UED diagnosis coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM). 5,844 claims involved a single UED diagnosis and were the only claims field by these employees between October 1, 1990, and September 30, 1994. These single claims with single diagnoses comprised the sample for further analysis. Mononeuritis and enthesopathies of the upper limb were the most common diagnoses, accounting for 43% and 31% of the claims, respectively. Women had a higher proportion of carpal tunnel syndrome, "unspecified" mononeuritis, and "unspecified" enthesopathies. The majority of claimants for both the mononeuritis- and enthesopathy-related diagnoses were between 31 and 50 years of age, received only health care benefits, and did not incur wage loss. Health care costs for mononeuritis and enthesopathy claims were $12,228,755 (M = $2,849). Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and enthesopathy of the elbow were the most costly diagnoses, accounting for 57% and 16% of the total, respectively. Surgical services represented the highest expenditures in CTS claims. Physical therapy accounted for the majority of health care costs for enthesopathy cases. The mean number of workdays lost for CTS and enthesopathy claims were 84 and 79, and the average indemnity costs were $4,941 and $4,477, respectively. These findings indicate that while UEDs represent a relatively small percentage of all workers' compensation cases, the health care and indemnity costs are considerable. Also mean duration and pattern of work disability revealed that these disorders can result in chronic work disability similar to that observed in low back pain. The results highlight the need to determine whether interventions that account for the majority of costs significantly impact long-term outcomes. There is also a need to identify risk factors for prolonged disability in those who experience problems with delayed recovery.

Sartor Resartus: A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Sector Entrant Quality Reanalyzed

In A Comparative Analysis of Public and Private Sector Entrant Quality (Crewson 1995), one of us challenged, with systematic empirical evidence, a major proposition from the professional folklore. This proposition is that government in the United States faces a crisis because the best minds choose not to go into the public but instead into the private sector. The proposition was tested and found false by means of a crosssectional comparison of a representative national sample of entrants into comparable occupations in the federal sector, the state sector, and the private sector. When Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores are taken as the indicator of quality, and the regression equation controls for occupation, family background, race, and sex, then the state sector is found to employ persons with scores no lower than the scores of those in the private sector, and the federal sector employs those with significantly higher scores. The ancillary proposition from the folklore is causal rather than descriptive. It suggests that any lower level of public sector or any decline over time in that may be, in part, a result of increased diversity in the federal workforce. That such diversity does make a difference was denied with the conclusion that, [a]lthough there has been an influx of women and minorities during the 1980s, the federal government does not appear to have imperiled in its effort to increase diversity. In this replication we strengthen the disconfirmation of the first proposition and empirically test the second proposition. The further undermining of the crisis myth proceeds by both defining more firmly the validity of the AFQT as an indicator of quality and testing the effects of diversity on the original regression equation.

Diminishing Returns from Statistical Analysis: Detecting Discrimination in Public Employment

In their article, in public Service: Success, Diversity, and Discrimination, Kim and Lewis (1994) note that Asian experience within federal service, suggest that problem is pervasive and serious, and propose remedies. This writer has personally witnessed at least two incidents of employment against Asian Americans. Neither of these episodes involved federal personnel, but it seems reasonable that federal service is not totally immune to prejudices evident elsewhere in society. However, Kim and Lewis's statistics shed little light on such discrimination's pervasiveness. Anti-Asian may not be as important a federal phenomena as their article concludes. Kim and Lewis's lucidly presented statistics can be interpreted in varying ways. The alternative interpretation which follows may also have implications for identification of against other groups, such as women, Hispanics, and African Americans. Using 1990 and 1992 statistics, Kim and Lewis describe differences between Asian and nonminority whites. Asian make up 2.6 percent of civilian work force but constitute less than 1 percent of municipal officials. There are almost no Asian American mayors or city/county managers. Only .9 percent of Senior Executive Service is Asian, while 3.5 percent of federal work force and 4.3 percent of postal service are Asian (286-287). Twenty-seven percent of white men serving federal government are supervisors, but only 15 percent of Asian American men hold such positions. Twelve percent of white women in federal service hold supervisory positions, compared to only 7 percent of Asian women (288-289). Kim and Lewis also discovered grade discrepancies between Asian and whites. men [in federal service] tended to be .03 of a grade lower than white men with same amount of education, federal experience, and age who had same handicap and veteran (288). The disparity between Asian American and white females employed by service is greater; Kim and Lewis found Asian women to be .06 of a grade behind white women with the same, education, seniority, age, veteran status and handicap (289). Kim and Lewis assert, Because other factors also affect career success, persistence of grade gaps after controlling for age, education, federal experience, veterans preference and disability status does not prove discrimination, but it does indicate problems that government needs to investigate (287). Elsewhere they attribute disparities to more bluntly. Asian American women are said to face double discrimination but be held back more by their gender than their race (287). Kim and Lewis conclude that even this model minority faces discrimination. Policy makers should not ignore this evidence and assume that battle against has been won for Asian Americans (289-290). Readers seem to be presented with a stark choice: either envelop oneself in blanket denial of existence of any anti-Asian discrimination, thus ignoring evidence, designate anti-Asian as a serious problem requiring responses such as diversity training, special recruitment and placement, and Asian American political mobilization. This writer, however, remains uncertain about phenomenon's extent; Anti-Asian may be pervasive within public service, or it may consist largely of isolated incidents addressable through existing laws and grievance procedures. The statistical disparities cited above shed little light on this issue because plausible alternatives to hypothesis can be formulated. One alternative could be called immigrants' loss or educational devaluation hypothesis. Education's contribution to productivity is often contingent upon linguistic and cultural contexts, so immigration can devalue human capital. …