J. Norman Baldwin

Public versus Private: Not That Different, Not That Consequential

There are several differences between the public and private sectors which are referred to frequently in the public administration literature. However, there are few studies which verify these differences. This article reports the findings from a study of three “classic” differences between the public and private sectors that are relevant to public personnel management. It also examines the impact of these differences on employee motivation. The findings indicate that the classic differences do exist, but are not as substantial as the literature would lead one to believe. They also indicate the public-private differences do not have a substantial impact on employee motivation.

Whistle-Blowing and the Code of Silence in Police Agencies Policy and Structural Predictors

This article reports the findings from a study that investigates predictors of police willingness to blow the whistle and police frequency of blowing the whistle on seven forms of misconduct. It specifically investigates the capacity of nine policy and structural variables to predict whistle-blowing. The results indicate that two variables, a policy mandating the reporting of misconduct and supervisory status, surface as the most consistent predictors of whistle-blowing. Contrary to popular belief, the results also show that police are slightly less inclined than civilian public employees to subscribe to a code of silence.

Public versus Private Employees: Debunking Stereotypes

This article explores whether common negative stereotypes of public employees are consistent with the descriptive and empirical literature comparing public and private employees. It reviews this literature to explore specifically whether public employees are more lazy, security-seeking, insensitive, inefficient, and incompetent than private employees. Given the ethics crises in government in the 1980s, it also explores whether public employees are less ethical than private employees. The primary focus of the article is on the findings and methodology of the empirical comparisons of public and private employees. Suggestions for future public-private comparative studies of employees are proposed.

Ethical Climates and Contextual Predictors of Whistle-Blowing

This article presents the results of a study that investigates ethical climate theory and eight contextual predictors of willingness to blow the whistle and frequency of whistle-blowing on seven forms of misconduct. Although three of the ethical climates investigated demonstrate relationships with whistle-blowing intentions and actions, the ethical climates generally fail to predict whistle-blowing consistently. Instead, supervisory status emerges as the most consistent predictor of intentions and behaviors. Contrary to popular belief, civilian status also demonstrates significant negative relationships with whistle-blowing. Police are less inclined than civilian employees to maintain a code of silence.

Voluntary turnover of field operations officers: A test of confluency theory

Abstract This article explores classic and contemporary explanations for voluntary police turnover in one of the largest police departments in the Southeast—the Birmingham (Alabama) Police Department (BPD). It specifically tests confluency theory and eight variables associated with job satisfaction as predictors of turnover among field operations officers. Confluency theory, an untested theory, attributes police turnover to an absence of preemployment job awareness and to incongruencies between job expectations and job realities. Results from a survey of 232 current officers and 60 former officers disagreed with conventional wisdom and the majority of turnover research findings. Former BPD officers were generally more satisfied with their jobs in BPD than current officers. Logistic regression further indicated that confluency theory and the job satisfaction variables investigated are poor predictors of field operations officers who leave the BPD.

Female Promotions in Male-Dominant Organizations: The Case of the United States Military

This article reports the outcome of more than 350,000 promotion decisions affecting middle-grade military officers. Data indicate males have higher promotion rates than females in the Army and Navy, while females have higher promotion rates than males in the Air Force. However, male and female promotion rates are similar in the combined services, and male promotion-rate advantages generally have diminished or disappeared in recent years. Data further indicate women leave the officer corps at high rates and are still grossly underrepresented among those promoted to middle-grade officer ranks.

Predictors of African American Representation in Municipal Government

This article presents the results of a path analysis that investigates the explanatory power of five new predictors of African American representation in city government against eight traditional predictors of representation in municipal government. The findings generally indicate that the percentage of African Americans in the city population and African American personnel directors are the most consistent predictors of African American representation in municipal civil service. African American actors in the internal environment of the personnel game—personnel directors, administrators, mayors, and council members—are also generally more predictive of African American representation in city government than variables in the external environments of municipalities.

The Relationship between Dependent Care Responsibility and Employee Promotions

This article presents the results of a path analysis examining the relationship between promotions and dependent care responsibility, dependent care accommodation norms, and dependent care accommodation policies. It examines the relationship between these variables as mediated by occupationally segregated jobs and employee choices to emphasize family or career roles. The findings indicate that number of dependents and administrative occupation have substantial direct relationships with number of promotions under current and past working conditions in Alabama state agencies. Weekly hours spent caring for dependents also has a small direct relationship with promotions, and occupational segregation is the only variable that mediates the relationship between promotions and several independent variables.

Conflict in MPA programs: A comparison of delivery systems

This article reports the findings from a nationwide survey of MPA directors’ perceptions of their programs’ conflict. The survey explored the directors’ general perceptions of their programs’ conflict and perceptions of conflict associated with thirty programmatic areas. The survey was designed to test commonly held assumptions that programs delivered by political science departments, business schools, and unconventional structures are more conducive to conflict than independent departments and schools of public affairs and administration. The article also explores the relationship between conflict and program effectiveness.