Aspects of public service often involve tasks sometimes considered taboo, including working with grit, grime, blood, guts, grease, and stigmatized populations. Yet scholarship in our field directly incorporating dirty work remains limited yet growing. Importantly, if MPA students are not trained in how to work with and manage public sector…

A challenge public organizations face in motivating their workforces is the strong union influence. In 2018, the United States Supreme Court abolished agency fees in the public sector, changing the landscape of union membership. In examining the unique motivational factors of public sector employees, Perry and Wise developed a theory called public…

Public opinion toward teachers and other public sector workers is an important factor in Ontario provincial politics. This article uses public opinion data to measure, and identify the correlates of, resentment and admiration of these groups, and to identify the relationship between these attitudes and support for political parties in Ontario.…

The concerted, strategic efforts of government leaders can create rapid accelerations in knowledge and the application of that knowledge for the public good. Government service can represent part or all of one's career. Working at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) early in my career helped me develop a macro-level understanding of how the…

This reflection is on a health education professional's rotation from professor in a school of public health to a government position and back parallels that of Professor Howard Koh's journey to Assistant Secretary of Health, one level higher in the same federal bureaucracy. We both acknowledge the steep learning curve and some bureaucratic…

Public spending reductions across the advanced capitalist world are creating new professions that have a "hybrid" status and/or role. However, research on professional learning has paid little attention to them. This qualitative study of one such profession, public service interpreting (PSI), addresses that lacuna. The paper focuses on…

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program was established in 2007 to encourage student borrowers to work in the public sector. Qualifying borrowers may have their Direct Loans forgiven after 10 years of full-time service in an eligible job. Currently, qualifying employers include federal, state, or local government agencies and tax-exempt…

The relevance of the article is conditioned by the exceptional importance of the social infrastructure for the development of the state, society and each individual. Social infrastructure ensures the development of the municipal unit, satisfaction of the basic needs and interests of the population, creation of the conditions for its subsistence…

It seems evident that the prospects of the country's development lie in a balanced model of the sectors and branches of Russia's economy, first and foremost with the creation of high-technology sectors and with higher significance attached to intellectual work and services. In terms of sociology, this task is linked closely to changes in the…

In today's economic climate, government is now considered by many to be the "employer of choice." However, employers at all levels of government may eventually lose their recent gains in the war for talent, as the economy improves. Accordingly, it is important to explain how public sector managers viewed the relative advantages and…

This qualitative study looks at the leadership perceptions and practices of career professionals in the public sector across three countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana and Madagascar). All participants were alumni of the Humphrey Fellowship program, a year-long mid-career fellowship in the United States for professional development and…

The second in a series of three articles comments on training in Local Government, the National Health Service, the Armed Services, and the Civil Service in Great Britain. (EB)

The third and final article in a series discusses the civil service, the industrial training boards, and training as an agent of organizational change. (MF)

By 2005, U.S. employment is expected to increase by 26.4 million, a 1.5% annual rate. Services will provide more than half of new job growth. Construction will add jobs; manufacturing employment will decline. Public sector employment will grow more slowly than average. (SK)