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Turnover at the Top: Causes and Consequences of Leadership Change in Public Agencies

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  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance

Synonyms

Executive tenure; Exit; Leadership rotation; Managerial change

Definition

This essay will define leadership turnover as change and replacement of the occupants of formal, non-elected executive and managerial positions within public agencies.

Introduction

Since at least the time of the Volker Report (The National Commission on Public Service 1989), the phenomenon of personnel turnover in the federal civil service, particularly at or near the top of agencies, has been regarded as a problem. Comparable issues of turnover in state and local government agencies have also been recognized as a matter of some concern, with articles by scholars and practitioners and speeches by politicians and interest group leaders expressing concern over this trend. Whether we see this as a “quiet crisis” (see Lewis 1991; Light 2008) or simply a natural, manageable problem, the issue deserves careful examination. This essay surveys the scholarly literature that examines the causes and consequences...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Sociology, Murray State University, Murray, KY, 42071, USA

    James C. Clinger

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  1. James C. Clinger
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Correspondence to James C. Clinger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ali Farazmand

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Clinger, J.C. (2016). Turnover at the Top: Causes and Consequences of Leadership Change in Public Agencies. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1863-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_1863-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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