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This article investigates transformations in public service education over the past 50 years, specifically: How have organizational forms evolved, and what lessons can we draw from that evolution? The organizational form construct originates in population ecology theory. We draw from a variety of evidentiary sources in answering the research questions, specifically extant literature, quantitative analysis of longitudinal data about organizational forms, and interviews with public service education opinion leaders. Among the findings are that formal structures, program activities and delivery, and the norms that underpin public service education have changed significantly over time. Organization environments influence organizational forms in public service education. Stand-alone university units, typically colleges and schools, offering a comprehensive portfolio of teaching, research, and service are increasing and have become a preferred form for public service education. Educational leaders in US universities should note emerging organizational forms as they seek to adapt to changing environments.

Public administration scholars are devoting increasing attention to the concept of reputation. The emphasis reflects a long-standing concern in the field with the sources of power and influence on administrative processes. This study extends the investigation of reputation from organizational reputation to reputational signals regarding public sector professions. We begin with a definition of reputational signals. We then develop a survey instrument that measures reputational signals from two signalers: elected officials and people close to respondents. Results are presented for internal consistency, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, convergent and discriminant validity, and average variance extracted. Next, we conduct a path analysis to test the effects of reputational signals regarding public school teachers on two outcomes using two staggered survey instruments with 588 US adults. We find that reputational signals from both types of signalers are positively and significantly associated with the perceived prestige of the teaching profession. Furthermore, reputational signals from people close to respondents are directly and positively associated with support for teacher autonomy. In contrast, reputational signals from elected officials do not have a statistically significant association with support for teacher autonomy. We conclude by discussing avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2020, President Donald Trump sought to convert many US federal civil servants to at‐will employees by executive order. Trump's initiative, referred to as Schedule F, has stimulated a partisan debate about dismantling the merit system in the US federal government. A substantial international body of evidence has developed during the last three decades about the effects of administrative practices associated with meritocracy and the likely consequences of changes to civil service systems, such as those embedded in Schedule F. This article employs guidelines established under the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) to conduct a systematic review of the evidence to address the question: What does the evidence tell us about merit principles and government performance? This systematic review summarizes what empirical research tells us about effects of civil service practices, such as meritocratic appointments, meritocratic advancement, and tenure protection, for government performance and the quality of government. The findings indicate that factors such as meritocratic appointments/recruitment, tenure protection, impartiality, and professionalism are strongly associated with higher government performance and lower corruption. We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for public policy and management and for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pay variation across positions, functions, and ranks can affect government performance by influencing the ability of the government to recruit and incentivize civil servants, but this proposition has not been systematically examined. Taking advantage of a new panel dataset, we develop and test the theoretical linkage between pay variation of civil servants and government performance. Our findings show a contingency-based relationship between pay variation and government performance. On average, neither total pay variation nor vertical pay variation is significantly related to government performance measured by the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators. However, total pay variation is consistently and negatively correlated with government performance in low-income countries. The findings suggest the importance of accounting for national contexts in implementing administrative reforms and are a cautionary lesson about applying theories based on research on private firms to the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public administration has been seeking to develop a global knowledge base, dating back to the early days of the field. Despite expressed interest in building such a knowledge base, scholars continue to criticize overly narrowly public administration knowledge, which tends to favor developed countries and the Global North. This article applies principles from collaboration theory, which was developed for solving complex problems, to set a course for intentionally broadening the geographic scope and perceived validity of public administration theory. Five interconnected variables from collaboration theory are used to assess how members of the public administration epistemic community can build and facilitate collaboration to develop global public administration knowledge. Specific action steps are discussed to increase collaboration and, in turn, the inclusiveness of the global public administration knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]