The convergence of public and nonprofit values: A research agenda for the intersectoral study of representative bureaucracy

Abstract

Public administration scholarship has yielded important insights about the extent to which government bureaucracies function as representative institutions. While evidence suggests women and minorities fare better in obtaining higher level positions within government versus the private sector, much less is known about the career trajectories in the third sector. The rise of nonprofit employment has been attributed to widespread government contracting, resulting in a model of government-nonprofit relationships described as complementary and mutually beneficial. Since both are “public-serving,” government and nonprofits share many values. Representative bureaucracy represents one such common value. This article explores the capacity of nonprofit organizations in furthering the aims of representative bureaucracy, and proposes a research agenda for the comparative study of public and nonprofit employment

Citation

LeRoux, K.M. and Sneed, B.G. (2006), "The convergence of public and nonprofit values: A research agenda for the intersectoral study of representative bureaucracy", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 537-556. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-09-04-2006-B004