Public administration scholarship needs to strike a better balance between large sample studies and in-depth case studies. The availability of large data sets has led us to engage in empirical research that is broad in scope but is frequently devoid of rich context. In-depth case studies can help to explain why we observe particular relationships and can help us to clarify gaps and inconsistencies in theory. Our argument for more case studies aims to encourage researchers to bridge insights from qualitative and quantitative research through triangulation. We describe the value of case study research, and qualitative and quantitative design options. We then propose opportunities for case study research in public personnel scholarship on patronage pressures, performance management, and diversity management.
AbnerG. B.KimS. Y.PerryJ. L. (2017). Building evidence for public human resource management: Using middle range theory to link theory and data. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 37, 139-159.
2.
AbolafiaM. Y. (2010). Narrative construction as sensemaking: How a central bank thinks. Organization Studies, 31, 349-367.
3.
AshikaliT.GroeneveldS. (2015). Diversity management in public organizations and its effect on employees’ affective commitment: The role of transformational leadership and the inclusiveness of the organizational culture. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 35, 146-168.
4.
AtkinsonM.RianiA. (2000). Robust diagnostic regression analysis. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
ChoiS. (2009). Diversity in the US federal government: Diversity management and employee turnover in federal agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19, 603-630.
13.
ChoiS. (2017). Workforce diversity and job satisfaction of the majority and the minority: Analyzing the asymmetrical effects of relational demography on whites and racial/ethnic minorities. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 37, 84-107.
14.
ChoiS.RaineyH. G. (2010). Managing diversity in U.S. federal agencies: Effects of diversity and diversity management on employee perceptions of organizational performance. Public Administration Review, 70, 109-121.
15.
ChoiS.RaineyH. G. (2014). Organizational fairness and diversity management in public organizations: Does fairness matter in managing diversity?Review of Public Personnel Administration, 34, 307-331.
16.
ChunY.RaineyH. (2005). Goal ambiguity and organizational performance in U.S. federal agencies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 15, 529-557.
17.
CohenG.BlakeR. S.GoodmanD. (2016). Does turnover intention matter? Evaluating the usefulness of turnover intention rate as a predictor of actual turnover rate. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 36, 240-263.
18.
CondreyS.BattaglioP. R. (2007). A return to spoils? Revisiting radical civil service reform in the United States. Public Administration Review, 67, 425-436.
19.
DenzinN. K. (2012). Triangulation 2.0. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 6(2), 80-88.
20.
DodgeJ.OspinaS. M.FoldyE. G. (2005). Integrating rigor and relevance in public administration scholarship: The contribution of narrative inquiry. Public Administration Review, 65, 286-300.
21.
DurantR. F.RosenbloomD. H. (2017). The hollowing of American public administration. The American Review of Public Administration, 47, 719-736.
22.
EcksteinH. (1975). Case study and theory in political science. In GreensteinF. I.PolsbyN. W. (Eds.), Handbook of political science (Vol. 7, pp. 79-138). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
23.
FaveroN.BullockJ. B. (2014). How (not) to solve the problem: An evaluation of scholarly responses to common source bias. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25, 285-308.
24.
FlyvbjergB. (2001). Making social science matter. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
25.
FredericksonH. G.SmithK.LarimerC.LicariM. (2015). The public administration theory primer (3rd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
26.
GalloN.LewisD. E. (2011). The consequences of presidential patronage for federal agency performance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22, 219-243.
27.
GeorgeA. L.BennettA. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
28.
GeorgeB.PandeyS. (2017). We know the Yin—But where is the Yang? Toward a balanced approach on common source bias in public administration scholarship. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 37, 245-270.
29.
GerringJ. (2007). Case study research: Principles and practices. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
30.
GerringJ. (2008). Case selection for case study analysis qualitative and quantitative techniques. In Box-SteffensmeierJ. M.BradyH. E.CollierD. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political methodology (pp. 645-684). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
31.
GreenC.BrockT. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narrative. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 701-721.
32.
GroeneveldS.TummersL.BronkhorstB.AshikaliT.Van ThielS. (2015). Quantitative methods in public administration: Their use and development through time. International Public Management Journal, 18, 61-86.
33.
GroeneveldS.VerbeekS. (2012). Diversity policies in public and private sector organizations: An empirical comparison of incidence and effectiveness. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 32, 353-381.
34.
GueorguievaV.AcciusJ.ApazaC.BennettL.BrownleyC.CroninS.PreechyanudP. (2009). The Program Assessment Rating Tool and the Government Performance and Results Act: Evaluating conflicts and disconnections. The American Review of Public Administration, 39, 225-245.
35.
HeijesC. (2011). Diversity management in the public sector: Moving from hobbyism toward integration an exploratory case study in the Netherlands. Public Personnel Management, 40, 309-326.
36.
HeinrichC. J. (2012). How credible is the evidence, and does it matter? An analysis of the Program Assessment Rating Tool. Public Administration Review, 72, 123-134.
IvancevichJ. M.GilbertJ. A. (2000). Diversity management: Time for a new approach. Public Personnel Management, 29, 75-92.
39.
JamesO.PetersenC. (2017). International rankings of government performance and source credibility for citizens: Experiments about e-government rankings in the UK and the Netherlands. Public Management Review. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/14719037.2017.1296965
40.
JilkeS.Van RyzinG. G.Van de WalleS. (2016). Responses to decline in marketized public services: An experimental evaluation of choice overload. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26, 421-432.
41.
KaufmanH. (1960). The forest ranger: A study in administrative behavior. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.
42.
KelloughJ. E. (2006). Understanding affirmative action: Politics, discrimination, and the search for justice. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
43.
KelmanS.FriedmanJ. N. (2009). Performance improvement and performance dysfunction: An empirical examination of distortionary impacts of the emergency room wait-time target in the English National Health Service. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19, 917-946.
44.
KerlingerF. N.LeeH. B. (2000). Foundations of behavioral research (4th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College.
45.
KimT.MullinsL. B. (2016). How does supervisor support and diversity management affect employee participation in work/family policies?Review of Public Personnel Administration, 36, 80-105.
46.
KingG.KeohanR. O.VerbaS. (1994). Designing social inquiry. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
47.
KoballaT. R. (1986). Persuading teachers to reexamine the innovative elementary science programs of yesterday: The effect of anecdote versus data-summary communications. Journal of Research of Science Teaching, 23, 437-449.
LathamG. (2012). Work motivation: History, theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
50.
LeeS. Y.WhitfordA. B. (2012). Assessing the effects of organizational resources on public agency performance: Evidence from the US federal government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23, 687-712.
51.
LijphartA. (2012). Patterns of democracy (2nd ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
52.
LovrichN.HopkinsR.SchafferP.YaleD. (1981). Participative performance appraisal effects upon job satisfaction, agency climate, and work values: Results of a quasi-experimental study in six state agencies. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 1(3), 51-73.
53.
LurieI.RiccucciN. M. (2003). Changing the “culture” of welfare offices from vision to the front lines. Administration & Society, 34, 653-677.
54.
MaitlisS.ChristiansonM. (2014). Sensemaking in organizations: Taking stock and moving forward. The Academy of Management Annals, 8, 57-125.
MeierK. J.HicklinA. (2008). Employee turnover and organizational performance: Testing a hypothesis from classical public administration. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 18, 573-590.
57.
MillerS. M. (2014). The relationship between short-term political appointments and bureaucratic performance: The case of recess appointments in the United States. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25, 777-796.
58.
MoonK. K. (2017). Fairness at the organizational level: Examining the effect of organizational justice climate on collective turnover rates and organizational performance. Public Personnel Management, 46, 118-143.
59.
MoynihanD. P. (2008). The dynamics of performance management: Constructing information and reform. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
60.
NaffK. C.KelloughJ. E. (2003). Ensuring employment equity: Are federal diversity programs making a difference?International Journal of Public Administration, 26, 1307-1336.
61.
Nicholson-CrottyS.Nicholson-CrottyJ.FernandezS. (2017). Performance and management in the public sector: Testing a model of relative risk aversion. Public Administration Review, 77, 603-614.
62.
OberfieldZ. W. (2014). Accounting for time: Comparing temporal and atemporal analyses of the business case for diversity management. Public Administration Review, 74, 777-789.
63.
OspinaS. M.DodgeJ. (2005). It’s about time: Catching method up to meaning—The usefulness of narrative inquiry in public administration research. Public Administration Review, 65, 143-157.
64.
PettyR. E. (1994). Two routes to persuasion: State of the art. In d’YdewalleG.BertelsonP.EelenP. (Eds.), International Perspectives on Psychological Science: Vol. II. The state of the art (pp. 229-247). Hove, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum.
65.
PittsD. W. (2009). Diversity management, job satisfaction, and performance: Evidence from U.S. federal agencies. Public Administration Review, 69, 328-338.
66.
PittsD. W.WiseL. R. (2010). Workforce diversity in the new millennium: Prospects for research. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30, 44-69.
67.
PollittC. (2006). Academic advice to practitioners—What is its nature, place and value within academia?Public Money & Management, 26, 257-264.
68.
Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, c. 34.
69.
RadinB. A. (2011). Does performance measurement actually improve accountability. In DubnickM.FredericksonH. G. (Eds.), Accountable governance: Problems and promises (pp. 98-110). New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
70.
RaimondoE.NewcomerK. E. (2017). Mixed-methods inquiry in public administration: The interaction of theory, methodology, and praxis. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 37, 183-201.
71.
RheeD. Y. (2014). The impact of performance information on congressional appropriations. Public Performance & Management Review, 38, 100-124.
72.
RiccucciN. M. (2010). Public administration: Traditions of inquiry and philosophies of knowledge. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
73.
RiccucciN. M.Van RyzinG. G.LiH. (2016). Representative bureaucracy and the willingness to coproduce: An experimental study. Public Administration Review, 76, 121-130.
74.
RobinsonD. (2005). The search for community cohesion: Key themes and dominant concepts of the public policy agenda. Urban Studies, 42, 1411-1427.
RubinE.WeinbergS. (2016). Does changing the rules really matter? Assessing procedural justice perceptions under civil service reform. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26, 129-142.
78.
SabharwalM. (2014). Is diversity management sufficient? Organizational inclusion to further performance. Public Personnel Management, 43, 197-217.
79.
SabharwalM.LevineH.D’AgostinoM. (2016). A conceptual content analysis of 75 years of diversity research in public administration. Review of Public Personnel Administration. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0734371X16671368
80.
ScheinE. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). New York, NY: John Wiley.
81.
ShadishW.CookT.CampbellD. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
82.
ShafritzJ. (1973). Position classification: A behavioral analysis for the public service. New York, NY: Praeger.
83.
SoniV. (2000). A twenty-first-century reception for diversity in the public sector: A case study. Public Administration Review, 60, 395-408.
84.
StakeR. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 443-466). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
85.
SteinmoS. (2010). The evolution of modern states. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
86.
StevensJ. (1996). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. (2008). An investigation of allegations of politicized hiring and other improper personnel actions in the Civil Rights Division. Retrieved from https://www.oig.justice.gov/special/s0901/final.pdf
89.
Van DoorenW.Van de WalleS. (Eds.). (2008). Performance information in the public sector: How it is used. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
90.
VaughanD. (1997). The challenger launch decision: Risky technology, culture, and deviance at NASA. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
WeickC. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.
93.
WiseL. R.TschirhartM. (2000). Examining empirical evidence on diversity effects: How useful is diversity research for public-sector managers?Public Administration Review, 60, 386-394.
94.
WooldridgeJ. M. (2003). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach (2nd ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
95.
ZellnerA. (1981). Philosophy and objectives of econometrics. In CurrieD.NobayR.PeelD. (Eds.), Macroeconomic analysis: Essays in macroeconomics and econometrics (pp. 24-34). London, England: Croom Helm.
