Understanding Vacancy Time: A Theoretical Framework Informed by Cross-sector Comparison

Public Administration Review

2022

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The field of public administration offers differing perspectives on the contributions of senior managers and street‐level bureaucrats to performance, focusing generally on the presence rather than absence of these actors in the policy process. This study explores whether job vacancies among senior managers and lower‐level employees affect service delivery and how any effects differ by type of employee. Using panel data from South African local governments between 2011 and 2015, we estimate the effect of vacancies among senior managers and lower‐level employees on access to water, sewage, electricity, and solid waste. Findings indicate job vacancies matter for performance and whether vacancies among senior managers or street‐level employees matter more depends on the type of service and how the delivery process is structured, including the degree of labor intensity involved in service delivery and whether the service is outsourced.

Section: Evidence For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Job Vacancy and Organizational Performance: Are Senior Managers or Street‐Level Bureaucrats Missed Most?

Wightman

Fernández

Public Administration Review

2022

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“…Rather than adopting a fully comprehensive model of executive vacancy, this study focuses on organizational determinants of vacancy. A research agenda to understand the drivers of executive vacancy should incorporate potential explanations at the environmental and individual levels (Rutherford et al, 2018). While our models consider organizational features that may interact with the external environment, our analysis does not address characteristics such as complexity, turbulence, and munificence (Boyne & Meier, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study aims to test hypotheses regarding the influence of organizational characteristics-size, sector, and performance-and the timing of an executive's departure announcement on the occurrence and length of executive vacancies. While not the only potential mechanisms that may influence the occurrence of vacancy (e.g., see individual-level and environmental factors outlined in Rutherford et al, 2018), these measures provide an important step toward understanding what mechanisms shape the likelihood and length of executive vacancies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting executive vacancies: An organizational approach

Bello-Gómez

2021

Public Administration

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When an executive departs, some organizations experience a vacancy while others do not. Recent research shows that the occurrence and length of vacancy instances within and across sectors varies widely. However, the causes of such variance in vacancies have yet to be carefully addressed by public management research. This study explores the determinants of executive vacancy, focusing specifically on organizational‐level characteristics of size, performance, and sector as well as the role of anticipation of a departure. We use data from public and private US doctoral universities to identify 230 leadership transitions between 1993 and 2013. In this context, we find that anticipation of departure is an extremely strong predictor of vacancy. Moreover, private universities are significantly less likely than their public counterparts to experience executive vacancy while organizational performance and size do not appear to influence vacancy.

“…Vacancies in multiple levels of organizations' hierarchies are increasingly common in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors as evidenced by staffing shortages in education, healthcare, and hospitality. In the public sector, vacancies are likely most normalized in the federal government given the unique nature of regular elections and the nomination and confirmation process (Rutherford et al, 2018), though we expect they are common at the subnational levels where data are less widely available, particularly over time. Still, we expect that, at least in the U.S., similar trends of regular elections and increasing polarization may generate a pattern of similar causes and effects.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Vacancies among appointees in U.S. federal agencies: Implications for employee attitudes and intentions

Hameduddin

2022

Governance

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Attention to vacancies in appointee positions subject to U.S. Senate confirmation has grown dramatically. Research regarding appointee vacancies commonly assumes negative consequences—loss of political control, promotion of second‐rate subordinates, undermined teamwork—for public agencies though little empirical work exists to confirm such expectations. This study tests whether vacancies at the top of U.S. federal agencies influence job satisfaction and turnover intention among upper‐level employees. Using vacancy data and multiple waves of the Federal Human Capital Survey/Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, we find that upper‐level employees report marginally higher levels of satisfaction when vacancies occur. Further, these vacancies have a negative association with individual‐level intent to leave an agency for another job in the federal government, signaling a higher likelihood that institutional knowledge is maintained.