Responsible researcher: Eduarda Miller Figueiredo
Intervention Location: United Kingdom
Sample Size: 462
Sector: Security
Variable of Main Interest: Crime
Type of Intervention : Proportion of ethnic minorities in police positions (different levels)
Methodology: Others
Representative bureaucracy involves two points, passive and active representation, where one leads to the other. Such concepts are important due to the representation of the community in a public organization. In this article the author sought to fill the gap regarding the impact of representation on public service performance, that is, by examining whether and how a level of minority representation at various levels affects public service performance. Using British data, evidence suggests that although all ethnic minorities at different levels are associated with reduced crime, the representation of frontline officers at street level is very important for reduced crime.
According to the concept of representative bureaucracy, passive representation leads to active representation. The former refers to the extent to which a public organization's members are broadly representative of the communities it serves in demographic terms, while the latter addresses the extent to which the public organization pursues policies that are advantageous to minorities (Andrews et al. , 2005; Riccuci, Van Ryzin and Lavena, 2014;
The literature has also reflected on the importance of street-level bureaucrats [1] as representatives of public service organizations, as they are people who interact directly with citizens (Lipsky, 2010). Wherein the evidence supports the proposition that the benefits of representative bureaucracy are driven by greater representation of the street-level workforce (Meier, 1993).
In a report from the British House of Commons , members of parliament stated that the number of black and ethnic minority police officers is increasing, however, this increase is limited to junior positions. In which the lack of senior black and minority ethnic representation affects its leadership and culture, and could be interpreted as suggesting that the police service has unconscious bias [2] .
The literature has been advancing in the understanding of representative bureaucracy, however, it still shows little about how minority representation at various organizational levels can have different impacts on bureaucratic results. For example, Gade and Wilkins (2012) demonstrate that citizens are more willing to help defend public values when public organizations are representative.
As argued, the article sought to examine whether the higher level of minority representation between the lower, middle and upper levels - achieved after the reforms - was associated with better public service performance. That is, examining whether and how a level of minority representation at various levels affects public service performance.
The argument for the benefits of representative bureaucracy occurs through two main channels:
Representative bureaucracy can improve organizational performance through each of the two independent channels, or they can also reinforce each other.
To carry out the study, the author creates the following hypotheses:
H1: Active representation is more likely to occur when the proportion of minority bureaucrats is higher.
H2: Active representation is more likely to occur when the average rating of minority bureaucrats is higher.
H3: Active representation would be more likely to occur when minority bureaucrats are dispersed across different organizational levels.
H4: Active representation is more likely to occur when there is an increase in minority officers at the street level as opposed to mid-level or higher-level positions.
H5: An increase in minorities at the leadership level would lead to active representation if ethnic representation was achieved at the street level.
To address the multidimensional aspects of minority representation in the organizational structure, three indices were calculated to explore how one of these dimensions affects organizational performance and estimate the model:
In addition to the indices, a set of covariates were included in a simple regression model to control the heterogeneities observed between the forces. Where the treatment variables represent the proportion of ethnic minority officers in the three different segments of hierarchies (senior administrators, middle managers and street-level officers) by year and within the police force.
Evidence suggests that all ethnic minority quotas included were significantly associated with a decrease in crime. Furthermore, the results confirm the importance of front-line officers at the street level and demonstrate a one standard deviation increase in the proportion of ethnic minorities among street-level officers and mid-level managers, which was associated with 0.028 to 0. 05 reduction in the number of criminal incidents. However, it was not possible to find empirical support for the independent effect of representation in leadership positions on police performance.
Thus, the sets of findings are apparently contradictory to each other, in that organizational performance improved when ethnic minority officers took on higher-level positions, but also, it was shown that the greater performance gain is attributed to greater representation among police officers. lower level.
Because of this, the author examined the effects of interactions between ethnic minorities at different levels, using an alternative measure for the proportion of ethnic minorities in leadership positions. In other words, the indicator of the presence of ethnic minorities for senior managers will be 1 when there is at least one ethnic minority official and 0 otherwise.
The results suggest greater performance among forces where at least one senior police administrator is from an ethnic minority group, with a 0.03 standard deviation reduction in crime. An impact that may be seen as small, but, according to the author, still shows that ethnic representation in leadership can contribute to the benefits of bureaucracy.
The main finding of the article is that representation among officers is a necessary condition for the positive association between representatives and improved public service, in which the ethnic representation of front-line officers at the street level ( street-level bureaucrats ) is significantly and independently associated with improved performance. However, the same effect was not found for minority representation in leadership positions in improving performance.
Reference
HONG, Sounman. Representative bureaucracy and hierarchy: interactions among leadership, middle-level, and street-level bureaucracy. Public Management Review , vol. 23, no. 9, p. 1317-1338, 2021.
[1] Officers on the front lines at street level.
[2] See more at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhaff/27/27.pdf
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