Browsing by Author "Park, Sanghee"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
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    A Comparative Study on Gender Representation and Social Outcomes: The Effect of Political and Bureaucratic Representation
    (Wiley, 2021) Park, Sanghee; Liang, Jiaqi
    This study examines whether gender representation of government leadership in both legislative and executive branches improves social equity related to women’s social outcomes, and how this effect is moderated by the status of democracy. With a panel dataset on 135 OECD and non-OECD countries from 2005 to 2015, the analysis shows that in non-OECD countries, political gender representation has a significant, positive impact on female educational attainment and the overall gender equality, while bureaucratic gender representation is significant for educational attainment only. For OECD countries, political representation has a consistent effect on educational attainment, labor force participation, and the overall gender equality, but there is no evidence of bureaucratic representation. Democratization plays a more critical role in shaping the relationship between institutional representation and women’s social outcomes in non-OECD countries than their OECD counterparts, where gender equality is more attributable to broader social, economic, and cultural factors.
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    A representative-represented matrix: exploring the symbolic effect of minority representation
    (Taylor & Francis, 2024) Park, Sanghee
    This study explores how symbolic representation varies by citizens’ demographic identities and bureaucracies’ demographic composition. First, it presents a representative-represented matrix to provide a conceptual framework from the citizens’ perspective. Then, this is followed by the application to the area of policing in the experimental setting. Citizen perceptions are explored in terms of minority bureaucrats’ representative role and the potential benefits of a representative bureaucracy. The empirical evidence demonstrates that the symbolic effect of minority representation varies and may not accomplish expected outcomes for all minorities. The symbolic representation may be manifested for women and minorities but limited for White men.
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    Challenges and Opportunities: The 21st Century Public Manager in a VUCA World
    (Oxford University Press, 2018) Park, Sanghee
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    Gender and Performance in Public Organizations: A Research Synthesis and Research Agenda
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Park, Sanghee
    This study examines the variations among empirical findings of gender effects on performance in public organizations; and identifies and discusses areas to be addressed in future research. The meta-analysis using 72 studies published between 1999 and 2017 presents evidence that greater representation of women in the workforce and more women in leadership roles have a positive effect on public organization performance. Study characteristics such as policy/service areas, geographical context, and time frames of the study affect the findings of gender effects, while the variance in measurement strategies and publication status do not make a difference in empirical evidence.
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    Gendered leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic: How democracy and representation moderate leadership effectiveness
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022) Park, Sanghee
    This article investigates whether and how gendered leadership makes a difference in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The country-level variances in the initial trajectories provide a unique comparative setting that allows us to examine the link between leadership and performance, moderated by institutional contexts – democracy and representation. Using daily panel data over the first half of the year 2020 across OECD countries, I find that women-led countries show epidemiologic patterns different from male-led countries. The effect of gendered leadership was contingent on the maturity of democracy and the degree of gender representation in both parliament and bureaucracy.
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    Intergovernmental Representation at Different Levels of Government: The Effect of Gender Representation
    (Wiley, 2022) Park, Sanghee; Charles Mwihambi, Yesse
    This study examines whether and where bureaucratic representation occurs within the bureaucratic hierarchy and how intergovernmental representation contributes to government efforts to reduce social disparities and improve gender-related outcomes. The context is the national/central, ministerial, and regional governments of the United Republic of Tanzania for 14 years (2006–2019). The findings reveal that gender representation at the upper level of government plays a primary role in reducing poverty, but its impact on women's socioeconomic status, i.e., women's education and unemployment rate, is limited within the study context. The findings also highlight that the existence and the impact of intergovernmental representation depend on the primary missions of the government at different levels, policy outcomes of interest, and social contexts where identities are constructed and interpreted. This study claims that the potential interdependence of bureaucratic representation across multiple government agencies and institutions deserves more attention in the representative bureaucracy scholarship.
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    Local revenue structure under economic hardship: reliance on alternative revenue sources in California counties
    (Taylor & Francis, 2017) Park, Sanghee
    This article investigates how a worsening economy affects local revenue structure, and whether the impact is moderated by the fiscal relationship within higher levels of government. The revenue potential of nontax sources – fees/charges and fines/forfeitures – is considerable for local governments under economic hardship. With the panel data from California counties over a period of 11 years (2000–2010), this article shows that reliance on nontax revenue largely depends on the economic and fiscal factors that vary across counties, and the effect of economy is contingent on local dependence on intergovernmental transfers. Counties are likely to raise nontax revenue when the economy worsens and their transfer-dependence increases, while the marginal effect of the economic indicators changes from negative to positive as transfer dependence increases. This article illuminates the characteristics of the two types of nontax sources in terms of the mechanisms of incentivising human behaviour and concludes with policy implications for researchers and practitioners.
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    Merit, Diversity, and Performance: Does Diversity Management Moderate the Effect of Merit Principles on Governmental Performance?
    (Sage, 2020) Park, Sanghee; Liang, Jiaqi
    The compatibility of merit principles and diversity management is particularly intriguing in theory and practice. Although theoretical arguments for merit-based practices and diversity management are well established, the effect of their dynamics on governmental performance remains an empirical issue. This article examines the effect of merit principles, workforce diversity, and diversity management on government performance, and inquires about whether diversity management efforts moderate the effect of merit-based practices. Analyzing a combined data set on federal agencies, this study finds that merit-based practices and diversity management have independent positive impact on organizational performance, but there is no significant relationship between workforce diversity and performance. Furthermore, the effect of merit-based practices on organizational performance is moderated by gender diversity and diversity management. Specifically, if an agency has a more diverse workforce in terms of gender or more effective diversity management efforts, the positive effect of merit-based practices on organizational performance is strengthened.
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    Political and administrative decentralization and responses to COVID-19: comparison of the United States and South Korea
    (Emerald, 2021) Park, Sanghee; Fowler, Luke
    Purpose: This study explains the variation of government responses to the pandemic by focusing on how centralization/decentralization in politics and administration creates conflicts and coordination problems. Specifically, the authors make comparisons between the U.S. and South Korea to reveal differences in macro-level structures and associated responses. One of the key points of comparison is the centralized, hierarchical governance system, which may thwart or facilitate a coordinated response. Design/methodology/approach: This is an in-depth comparative case study of the two countries that showed different trajectories during the initial response to COVID-19. The comparison allows us to highlight the long-standing debate about centralization/decentralization and offers implications for government responses to crises shaped by political systems and administrative structures. Findings: While there are inherent pros and cons to decentralization, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the institutional limitations in American federalism and the advantages that centralized administrative coordination creates during times of crisis. American federalism has unveiled systematic problems in coordination, along with the leadership crisis in polarized politics. The response from South Korea also reveals several issues in the administratively centralized and politically polarized environment. Research limitations/implications: While the authors risk comparing apples and oranges, the variation unveils systematic contradictions in polarized politics and offers important implications for government responses in times of crisis. However, this article did not fully account for individual leadership as an independent factor that interacts with existing political/administrative institutions. Practical implications: There is certainly no one best way or one-size-fits-all solution to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in countries under different circumstances. This article demonstrates that one of the essential determining factors in national responses to the pandemic is how the political and administrative dimensions of centralization/decentralization are balanced against each other. Originality/value: Unlike previous studies explaining the country-level responses to COVID-19, this study focuses on the variance of political and administrative decentralization within each country from the political-administrative perspective and reveals the systematic contradictions in coordination and the leadership crisis in polarized politics.
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    Politics or Bureaucratic Failures? Understanding the Dynamics of Policy Failures in Democratic Governance
    (Wiley, 2021) Park, Sanghee
    This study seeks to advance our understanding of policy failures as the nexus of politics and bureaucratic failure. In doing so, it presents a typology to illustrate different types of policy failures by the degree of bureaucratic capacities and politics/political incentives involved in a policy problem, and explores two cases of such failures in South Korea. This study claims that policy failures are joint products of political and bureaucratic failures to varying degrees and that the discussion of both sides helps to enhance accountability and avoid political blame games and bureau-bashing. This study reflects on two Korean cases to demonstrate politically-driven and administratively-driven failures in the high- and low-capacity bureaucracy and their consequences. These cases also reveal the dynamic nature of policy failures moving from one category to another during the policy processes. The first case concerns the failure in emergency response of the Korea Coast Guard (KCG) during and after the sinking of the ferry MV Sewol. A low bureaucratic capacity and lack of motivation to fulfill their function may be the direct cause of the failure, which will be the focus of the discussion of bureaucratic failure. Yet, it also reveals aspects of political failures before and after the accident, where politicians have failed to provide a bureaucratic agency with autonomy and stacked the deck against a less salient agency for political or electoral gains. The second case discusses the politics of preliminary feasibility studies (PFS) required for major public projects. This case explores policy failures uniquely manifested in a highly capable bureaucracy, which shows how politics-laden issues plant the seeds of policy failures driven by the prompt implementation of flawed decisions. The discussion section further discusses key arguments and implications drawn from the case studies. The final section offers concluding thoughts and avenues for future research.