Personal Attributes and Institutions: Gender and the Behavior of Public Employees. Why Gender Matters to not only Gendered Policy Areas

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nielsen, Vibeke Lehmann
• 署名单位: Aarhus University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muu019
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 1005-1029
• 关键词: sex-differences; ORGANIZATIONS; DISCRETION; WORKPLACE; diversity; women

摘要

Do men and women carry out the same jobs differently? Based on a unique data set from six different Danish public occupations and building on sociological and neurological gender studies together with institutionalism and studies on individual diversity in street-level bureaucrats' behavior, the article argues and empirically demonstrates how the gender of public employees affects their behavior, but that the effect is conditioned by the regulative institutions of the specific task. Next, the article shows that the effect is partly explained by differences in personal attributes such as empathy, systemizing, and competitiveness. Through these findings, the article contributes to the studies on representative bureaucracy by showing that gender not only affects bureaucratic behavior based on differences in interests but also on differences in attributes. Scholarly interest in the effects of gender should therefore not be restricted to gendered policy areas. Likewise, scholars of public employee behavior should supplement its focus on differences in interests and policy preferences with a focus on differences in personal attributes and abilities. Otherwise, we run the risk of ignoring potential explanations for public employee behavior. Finally, the article contributes to the literature on public administration and management by elucidating the contingent effect of regulative institutions.