2015/10/23 by Evan T. Haglund · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Public Policy and Administration Research #Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering #Policy Transfer and Learning
paper · doi:10.1111/psq.12223
The growing bureaucratic performance literature focuses on differences in programs or agencies led by either careerists or political appointees; yet this literature still struggles to measure and then compare performance across agencies. This article examines ambassadorial performance to provide new measures of individual‐ and organization‐level performance. Using a new data set of embassy inspection reports by the State Department's inspector general, I find that the traditional dichotomy of careerists versus appointees explains some performance differences even as some key individual‐level characteristics that are expected to affect performance are not influential. These findings have important implications for presidents and agencies in their approaches to leadership selection and performance evaluation.