Pub Date : 2025-04-15DOI: 10.1177/0734371x251327139
Rick T. Borst, Eva Knies, Rutger Blom
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new rules forced public servants to work remotely or under strict guidelines at the office. These rules were often perceived as red tape, creating a compliance burden and limiting flexibility. While red tape is commonly seen as a job demand associated with reduced well-being and performance among public servants, the effects of COVID-19-related red tape remain unexplored. This research investigates how perceived COVID-19-related red tape is associated with public servants’ well-being and self-perceived performance and examines the moderating roles of coping strategies (supervisor support) and recovery strategies (work detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control). Data from 3,332 Dutch public servants reveal two key findings. First, COVID-19-related red tape, shaped by rapidly changing work conditions, can foster adaptation and inspire extra effort despite its challenges. Second, recovery strategies are more effective than coping strategies in mitigating the negative associations of perceived COVID-19-related red tape with employee well-being.
{"title":"Coping With, Or Recovering From COVID-19 Related Red Tape? Comparing Public Servants’ Strategies to Deal With the Health-Impairment and Demotivational Processes From Red Tape Through Well-Being on Performance","authors":"Rick T. Borst, Eva Knies, Rutger Blom","doi":"10.1177/0734371x251327139","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x251327139","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new rules forced public servants to work remotely or under strict guidelines at the office. These rules were often perceived as red tape, creating a compliance burden and limiting flexibility. While red tape is commonly seen as a job demand associated with reduced well-being and performance among public servants, the effects of COVID-19-related red tape remain unexplored. This research investigates how perceived COVID-19-related red tape is associated with public servants’ well-being and self-perceived performance and examines the moderating roles of coping strategies (supervisor support) and recovery strategies (work detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control). Data from 3,332 Dutch public servants reveal two key findings. First, COVID-19-related red tape, shaped by rapidly changing work conditions, can foster adaptation and inspire extra effort despite its challenges. Second, recovery strategies are more effective than coping strategies in mitigating the negative associations of perceived COVID-19-related red tape with employee well-being.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143832273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-04-04DOI: 10.1177/0734371x251329611
Clara Siboni Lund
Public managers implement various types of external interventions, such as documentation requirements that hold public professionals accountable to legal protocols. Motivation crowding research finds that controlling perceptions of external interventions may reduce motivation and negatively influence performance. Thus, the way that managers build support for external interventions is crucial. This article investigates whether professional development leadership (PDL) is part of the answer, distinguishing between general PDL and intervention-specific PDL. Associations between nurses’ perceptions of documentation requirements and their managers’ exercise of PDL are analyzed in a multi-level dataset with 177 head nurses and 598 of their nurse employees at Danish public hospitals. Results show that PDL is significantly related to nurses’ supportive perceptions of documentation requirements. This finding is only robust across both manager and employee-reported PDL for intervention-specific PDL, suggesting that PDL is relevant for support-building efforts and that we would benefit from distinguishing between general and intervention-specific leadership.
{"title":"Shaping Public Professionals’ Perceptions: Building Support for External Interventions With Professional Development Leadership","authors":"Clara Siboni Lund","doi":"10.1177/0734371x251329611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x251329611","url":null,"abstract":"Public managers implement various types of external interventions, such as documentation requirements that hold public professionals accountable to legal protocols. Motivation crowding research finds that controlling perceptions of external interventions may reduce motivation and negatively influence performance. Thus, the way that managers build support for external interventions is crucial. This article investigates whether professional development leadership (PDL) is part of the answer, distinguishing between general PDL and intervention-specific PDL. Associations between nurses’ perceptions of documentation requirements and their managers’ exercise of PDL are analyzed in a multi-level dataset with 177 head nurses and 598 of their nurse employees at Danish public hospitals. Results show that PDL is significantly related to nurses’ supportive perceptions of documentation requirements. This finding is only robust across both manager and employee-reported PDL for intervention-specific PDL, suggesting that PDL is relevant for support-building efforts and that we would benefit from distinguishing between general and intervention-specific leadership.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"224 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143775333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-02-28DOI: 10.1177/0734371x251316597
Hersugondo Hersugondo, Kardison Lumban Batu, Hengky Latan, Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour
People with disabilities have long faced barriers to employment and career advancement due to persistent stigmatization. Although diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have gained attention in public administration, their impact on employees with disabilities remains underexplored. This study investigates how DEIA initiatives influence the experience, welfare, and performance confidence of disabled civil servants in Indonesian government institutions. Using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM), the analysis incorporates confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural model evaluation, along with hypothesis testing. The findings highlight positive relationships between DEIA initiatives and the experience, welfare, and performance confidence, as well as between employee experience and welfare and performance confidence among individuals with disabilities. This study addresses a pressing issue in workplace environments, offering insights to inform the development of more effective HR practices aimed at overcoming these challenges.
{"title":"Empowering Public Sector Employees With Disabilities: The Impact of DEIA Initiatives on Experience, Welfare, and Performance Confidence","authors":"Hersugondo Hersugondo, Kardison Lumban Batu, Hengky Latan, Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour","doi":"10.1177/0734371x251316597","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x251316597","url":null,"abstract":"People with disabilities have long faced barriers to employment and career advancement due to persistent stigmatization. Although diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives have gained attention in public administration, their impact on employees with disabilities remains underexplored. This study investigates how DEIA initiatives influence the experience, welfare, and performance confidence of disabled civil servants in Indonesian government institutions. Using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM), the analysis incorporates confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural model evaluation, along with hypothesis testing. The findings highlight positive relationships between DEIA initiatives and the experience, welfare, and performance confidence, as well as between employee experience and welfare and performance confidence among individuals with disabilities. This study addresses a pressing issue in workplace environments, offering insights to inform the development of more effective HR practices aimed at overcoming these challenges.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143528308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bureaucratic Reputation Theory focuses on external stakeholders, but it is plausible that reputation also plays an important role for internal stakeholders. This article therefore asks whether employees’ perception of their organization’s reputation matters for their organizational identification and job satisfaction. Based on a balanced panel with 193 employees from three Danish agencies surveyed in 2019 and 2020, the article finds that employees’ perception of their organization’s reputation relates positively to their job satisfaction and that this relation is partly mediated by employee’s identification with their organization. In addition to being important externally, this implies that organizational reputation is also a managerial asset in public organizations.
{"title":"Perceived Organizational Reputation and Employee Outcomes: Looking in the Organizational Mirror, What do Employees See?","authors":"Mette Østergaard Pedersen, Lotte Bøgh Andersen, Daniel Skov Gregersen, Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen","doi":"10.1177/0734371x251314488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x251314488","url":null,"abstract":"Bureaucratic Reputation Theory focuses on external stakeholders, but it is plausible that reputation also plays an important role for internal stakeholders. This article therefore asks whether employees’ perception of their organization’s reputation matters for their organizational identification and job satisfaction. Based on a balanced panel with 193 employees from three Danish agencies surveyed in 2019 and 2020, the article finds that employees’ perception of their organization’s reputation relates positively to their job satisfaction and that this relation is partly mediated by employee’s identification with their organization. In addition to being important externally, this implies that organizational reputation is also a managerial asset in public organizations.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"207 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143071519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-29DOI: 10.1177/0734371x241308222
Jan Wynen, Stéphanie Verlinden, Danika Pieters, Bjorn Kleizen, Koen Verhoest
This study explores the influence of age diversity within teams on civil servants’ perceptions of organizational change. Age diversity is examined through two dimensions: age variety, which refers to the range of different ages within a team, and age polarization, which denotes the extent to which age groups are segregated or clustered within a team. Individual perceptions of change are based on how civil servants evaluated a recent merger. While age polarization shows a significant effect—with less polarized teams exhibiting more positive perceptions of the merger—age variety does not demonstrate a notable impact. These results highlight that while age diversity is important, its impact is nuanced: simply having a range of ages is not sufficient, but reducing age polarization is crucial.
{"title":"Embracing Change Through Team Diversity: The Impact of Age Diversity on Civil Servants’ Perceptions of Organizational Change","authors":"Jan Wynen, Stéphanie Verlinden, Danika Pieters, Bjorn Kleizen, Koen Verhoest","doi":"10.1177/0734371x241308222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x241308222","url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the influence of age diversity within teams on civil servants’ perceptions of organizational change. Age diversity is examined through two dimensions: age variety, which refers to the range of different ages within a team, and age polarization, which denotes the extent to which age groups are segregated or clustered within a team. Individual perceptions of change are based on how civil servants evaluated a recent merger. While age polarization shows a significant effect—with less polarized teams exhibiting more positive perceptions of the merger—age variety does not demonstrate a notable impact. These results highlight that while age diversity is important, its impact is nuanced: simply having a range of ages is not sufficient, but reducing age polarization is crucial.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143056187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-22DOI: 10.1177/0734371x251313798
Patrick C. Exmeyer, So Hee Jeon
Previous studies focusing on civil service reform efforts at the sub-national level have illustrated how such initiatives may adversely affect employee perceptions of organizational conditions. Despite the insights provided by existing literature, little is known as to how federal employees perceive organizational justice amidst uncertain contextual and political conditions, and how the organizational justice perceptions influence their intentions to stay or leave their organizations. Using data from the 2021 Merit Principles Survey, collected amidst deliberations regarding federal civil service reform initiatives, this study examines how federal employee perceptions of organizational justice affect their turnover intentions with different exit strategies against the backdrop of the contextual and political changes. The findings lend support to existing literature highlighting organizational justice as a key factor influencing employee intentions to remain or leave positions of federal employment. The article concludes by discussing the contributions and implications of the present research as well as its limitations.
{"title":"Employee Perceptions of Organizational Justice Amidst Threats to Civil Service Protections Through the Lens of Turnover Intention","authors":"Patrick C. Exmeyer, So Hee Jeon","doi":"10.1177/0734371x251313798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x251313798","url":null,"abstract":"Previous studies focusing on civil service reform efforts at the sub-national level have illustrated how such initiatives may adversely affect employee perceptions of organizational conditions. Despite the insights provided by existing literature, little is known as to how federal employees perceive organizational justice amidst uncertain contextual and political conditions, and how the organizational justice perceptions influence their intentions to stay or leave their organizations. Using data from the 2021 Merit Principles Survey, collected amidst deliberations regarding federal civil service reform initiatives, this study examines how federal employee perceptions of organizational justice affect their turnover intentions with different exit strategies against the backdrop of the contextual and political changes. The findings lend support to existing literature highlighting organizational justice as a key factor influencing employee intentions to remain or leave positions of federal employment. The article concludes by discussing the contributions and implications of the present research as well as its limitations.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143020476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-20DOI: 10.1177/0734371x241310418
Stéphanie Verlinden, Jan Wynen, Dries Van Doninck, Laurence Roosens, Christophe De Block, Jan Boon
Global political and economic instability have highlighted the importance of resilient governments capable of managing rapid change. However, continuous changes can overwhelm civil servants, leading to change fatigue. While prior studies have explored the impact of perceived frequent change on civil servants’ stress levels, little attention has been given to reverse causality in public management research. Psychological and neuroscience studies suggest that stress can influence individuals’ perceptions of workplace changes. To address this gap, we examine the relationship between chronic stress and civil servants’ perceptions of organizational change frequency. We analyze hair cortisol as a measure of chronic stress and survey data on change perceptions. Data were collected from 43 municipal civil servants at three points in time, offering a total of 129 observations. We find a significant effect of stress on perceptions of change frequency, shedding light on how stress shapes civil servants’ perception of organizational change.
{"title":"Spiraling Out of Control? The Impact of Chronic Stress on Civil Servant Perceptions of the Frequency of Workplace Changes","authors":"Stéphanie Verlinden, Jan Wynen, Dries Van Doninck, Laurence Roosens, Christophe De Block, Jan Boon","doi":"10.1177/0734371x241310418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x241310418","url":null,"abstract":"Global political and economic instability have highlighted the importance of resilient governments capable of managing rapid change. However, continuous changes can overwhelm civil servants, leading to change fatigue. While prior studies have explored the impact of perceived frequent change on civil servants’ stress levels, little attention has been given to reverse causality in public management research. Psychological and neuroscience studies suggest that stress can influence individuals’ perceptions of workplace changes. To address this gap, we examine the relationship between chronic stress and civil servants’ perceptions of organizational change frequency. We analyze hair cortisol as a measure of chronic stress and survey data on change perceptions. Data were collected from 43 municipal civil servants at three points in time, offering a total of 129 observations. We find a significant effect of stress on perceptions of change frequency, shedding light on how stress shapes civil servants’ perception of organizational change.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142991249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-16DOI: 10.1177/0734371x241311279
Alexa Lenz, Steffen Eckhard
During crisis management, public administrators typically adjust bureaucratic rules to become more flexible. In this paper, we go one step further, asking about the factors that explain rule-breaking behavior among public servants during crisis management. We report novel qualitative evidence and findings from a preregistered randomized quasi-experiment surveyed among 448 public servants in Germany. Our findings reveal that bureaucrats’ prosocial attitudes, whether the affected population is part of their in-group and higher levels of red tape affect significantly their willingness to engage in rule-breaking. Effects from decisive leadership are weak and conditional on other explanatory factors. These findings provide valuable insights for theory and practice in crisis and human resource management, demonstrating that organizations have limited leverage in influencing whether their employees engage in rule-breaking behavior, which is, in the main, conditional on individual factors and the characteristics of the crisis.
{"title":"Unbureaucratic Behavior in Times of Crisis: Rule-Breaking by Public Administrators","authors":"Alexa Lenz, Steffen Eckhard","doi":"10.1177/0734371x241311279","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x241311279","url":null,"abstract":"During crisis management, public administrators typically adjust bureaucratic rules to become more flexible. In this paper, we go one step further, asking about the factors that explain rule-breaking behavior among public servants during crisis management. We report novel qualitative evidence and findings from a preregistered randomized quasi-experiment surveyed among 448 public servants in Germany. Our findings reveal that bureaucrats’ prosocial attitudes, whether the affected population is part of their in-group and higher levels of red tape affect significantly their willingness to engage in rule-breaking. Effects from decisive leadership are weak and conditional on other explanatory factors. These findings provide valuable insights for theory and practice in crisis and human resource management, demonstrating that organizations have limited leverage in influencing whether their employees engage in rule-breaking behavior, which is, in the main, conditional on individual factors and the characteristics of the crisis.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142987355","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1177/0734371x241311274
Ying Liu, Norma M. Riccucci
There has been a good deal of research on sexual harassment in public sector workforces. One facet of this body of research that has not been fully explored is the potential impact of gender representativeness on sexual harassment in the workplace. In the context of representative bureaucracy, we examine if increased representation of women in the upper levels of the federal workforce is associated with active bureaucratic outcomes, such as decreased incidents of sexual harassment at the lower levels of bureaucracy. We also examine the effect of gender representation of the team or workgroup of the employees. We find that as the proportion of women supervisors increases, the likelihood of female employees experiencing sexual harassment significantly decreases. We also find that women’s representation in workgroups and the perceived effectiveness of sexual harassment policies are negatively associated with both the likelihood and frequency of sexual harassment.
{"title":"Women’s Representation and Federal Employees’ Sexual Harassment Experience","authors":"Ying Liu, Norma M. Riccucci","doi":"10.1177/0734371x241311274","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x241311274","url":null,"abstract":"There has been a good deal of research on sexual harassment in public sector workforces. One facet of this body of research that has not been fully explored is the potential impact of gender representativeness on sexual harassment in the workplace. In the context of representative bureaucracy, we examine if increased representation of women in the upper levels of the federal workforce is associated with active bureaucratic outcomes, such as decreased incidents of sexual harassment at the lower levels of bureaucracy. We also examine the effect of gender representation of the team or workgroup of the employees. We find that as the proportion of women supervisors increases, the likelihood of female employees experiencing sexual harassment significantly decreases. We also find that women’s representation in workgroups and the perceived effectiveness of sexual harassment policies are negatively associated with both the likelihood and frequency of sexual harassment.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142936689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-01-06DOI: 10.1177/0734371x241310611
Laine P. Shay, Beth M. Rauhaus
A substantial body of literature examines the determinants of burnout levels among street-level bureaucrats. However, one factor that has not been investigated in relation to the reported burnout levels among public employees is the perceived level of belonging within an agency. We develop a theoretical rationale linking an agency’s level of belongingness with the employee’s reported level of feeling burned-out, with the expectation that this relationship is conditioned by the employee’s gender. When analyzing the perceptions among local law enforcement officers, we find evidence to support our theoretical expectations. For women officers, we find that an increase in the perception that the agency has a culture of belongingness is associated with a decrease in feeling burned out. We find that organizational belongingness has a weaker effect among male officers. These findings contribute to our understanding of how organizational belongingness within a public agency can influence the workforce morale for certain employees.
{"title":"“Stressed Out”: The Conditional Effect of Organizational Belongingness on Burnout Among Street-Level Bureaucrats","authors":"Laine P. Shay, Beth M. Rauhaus","doi":"10.1177/0734371x241310611","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371x241310611","url":null,"abstract":"A substantial body of literature examines the determinants of burnout levels among street-level bureaucrats. However, one factor that has not been investigated in relation to the reported burnout levels among public employees is the perceived level of belonging within an agency. We develop a theoretical rationale linking an agency’s level of belongingness with the employee’s reported level of feeling burned-out, with the expectation that this relationship is conditioned by the employee’s gender. When analyzing the perceptions among local law enforcement officers, we find evidence to support our theoretical expectations. For women officers, we find that an increase in the perception that the agency has a culture of belongingness is associated with a decrease in feeling burned out. We find that organizational belongingness has a weaker effect among male officers. These findings contribute to our understanding of how organizational belongingness within a public agency can influence the workforce morale for certain employees.","PeriodicalId":47609,"journal":{"name":"Review of Public Personnel Administration","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142935097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}