Education matters in how public servants approach administrative ethics.

Recent scandals in the US government such as the Veterans Health Administration scandal point to the need to reexamine how much autonomy and discretion public servants are able to exercise. In new research which examines the ethical behavior of public servants, Edmund C. Stazyk finds that highly trained managers view organizational problems through a compliance based, legalistic lens and one which is based on their own personal moral compass. He argues that by providing public servants with more educational opportunities, they may be more likely to use this ‘fusion’ approach to ethical decision making

Administrative Easing: Rule Reduction and Medicaid Enrollment

Administrative burden is widely recognized as a barrier to program enrollment, denying legal entitlements to many eligible individuals. We examine what effect voluntary state reductions in administrative burden (what we call administrative easing) have had on Medicaid enrollment rates using differential implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Using a novel dataset that includes state-level data on simplified enrollment and renewal procedures for Medicaid from 2008-2017, we examine how change in Medicaid enrollment is conditioned by the adoption of rule-reduction procedures. We find that reductions in the administrative burden required to signup for Medicaid were associated with increased enrollments. Real-time eligibility and reductions in enrollment burden were particularly impactful at increasing enrollment for both children and adults separate from increases in Medicaid income eligibility thresholds. The results suggest that efforts to ease the cognitive burden of enrolling in entitlement programs can improve take-up

Striking a Balance: The Role of Value Congruence in Shaping Employee Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intentions

The past two decades have seen a rapid growth in scholarship on public service motivation. So far, findings indicate the concept bears considerable theoretical and empirical warrant. That said, several surprising inconsistencies have been identified in public service motivation research. These inconsistencies have prompted scholars to argue models relying on public service motivation as a key explanatory factor should also consider how well employees fit with their organizations--commonly referred to as value congruence. However, there are relatively few public service motivation studies that incorporate value congruence. Moreover, these studies have viewed congruence rather narrowly, considering only a limited number of factors that may plausibly be influenced by employee fit. Consequently, this study builds upon earlier theory to examine a broader range of factors that may shape employee value congruence, including public service motivation, employee reward satisfaction, human capital investments, hierarchical authority, and goal and role ambiguity. The study further assumes high levels of value congruence will increase employee job satisfaction and reduce employee turnover intentions. Data collected in Phase IV of the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-IV) is used to test three research questions and 15 hypotheses. Results confirm the significance of the value congruence concept, and further suggest value congruence mediates the relationships between public service motivation, human capital investments, goal and role ambiguity, and organizational hierarchy on employee job satisfaction. Higher levels of job satisfaction are associated with diminished employee turnover intentions. Interestingly, employee reward satisfaction had no effect on value congruence, but instead directly influenced turnover intentions. Results also suggest certain organizational positions and socio-demographic factors repeatedly influence study findings. The study concludes by offering potential avenues for future research

Careers in Medicine: Value, Awareness, and Utilization

Careers in Medicine® (CiM) is a comprehensive career planning and advising program sponsored by the AAMC. Established in 1999, CiM works with school liaisons to support medical student career decision-making. CiM empowers students with information to make sound career decisions by helping them identify career goals, explore specialty, and practice options, and prepare for residency. The purpose of this poster is to increase awareness amongst liaisons and students alike of the value of CiM and the many tools and resources CiM provides members throughout this process. Learning objective 1: After reviewing the poster, participants will have a better understanding of the resources that CiM provides students and advisors to help enable and prepare them for the career advising process. Learning objective 2: After reviewing the poster, participants will be able to describe the historical and current use of CiM that highlight the value and benefits of CiM for career advising for students and advisors, alike. Learning objective 3: After reviewing the poster, participants will be able to list the four-year, four-phase developmental framework that informs CiM and the resources we provide

Servant Leadership and Follower Job Performance: The Mediating Effect of Public Service Motivation

This article advances our understanding of the effects of servant leadership, an employee- and community-focused leadership style, on followers’ public service motivation (PSM) and job performance. Based on social learning theory, we argue that by emphasizing to their followers the importance of serving others both inside and outside the organization and by acting as role models by serving others themselves, servant leaders enhance job performance by engendering higher PSM in their followers. A multi-level analysis of three waves of multi-source data from a Chinese government agency reveals that PSM mediates the influence that servant leadership has on followers’ job performance. The results are consistent with the theoretical predications that the altruistic behaviour displayed by servant leaders elicits higher levels of the altruistic behaviours that characterize PSM, which in turn increases job performance. Hence, this study contributes to our overall understanding of how leadership drives performance in the public sector

Representative bureaucracy and unconscious bias: Exploring the unconscious dimension of active representation

Representative bureaucracy theory explores the effects of representation on bureaucracies, but less attention has been paid to date as to how agents represent values or interests. Addressing this omission, this article highlights the unconscious dimension of active representation and, more specifically, the role of unconscious bias in representation. Unconscious bias has received limited attention to date in public administration, but has clear relevance for understanding how representation occurs at the individual level. This article proposes a framework for understanding unconscious bias. Drawing on Bourdieu's habitus, but making explicit its unconscious dimension, I argue that unconscious bias enhances our understanding of how active representation occurs in bureaucracies today. The article applies these insights to the case of unconscious gender bias as found in the Australian Public Service (APS) and concludes by exploring the methodological challenges involved in building a research agenda into tackling unconscious bias