Testing Public Administration's Separation of Powers Theory: Exploratory Support from a Study of Public and Private Sector Jobs

ABSTRACT David Rosenbloom’s separation of powers approach to understanding the complex value-driven work of public administrators is an oft-cited, conceptually powerful framework. This article is a first effort to empirically test his framework. It explores the extent to which Rosenbloom’s distinct and normative value sets (managerial, political, and legal) objectively reflect individuals’ perceptions of how public servants should perform their jobs and the role that public service motivation (PSM) may play in these evaluations. It finds that when comparing public sector and private sector jobs, individuals assign more similar levels of importance to the managerial, political, and legal values for public than private sector jobs, thus providing support for the importance of public administrators to integrate these three approaches in their work. Additionally, it finds that the higher an individual’s PSM, the more likely that a political or legal frame, rather than a managerial frame, will be the individual’s primary approach to management.

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