Public and private managers' perceptions of flexibility of personnel procedures, authority over personnel actions, and approval times for basic personnel tasks are compared. A phone survey of 78 top managers of Syracuse, New York area organizations followed by 210 responses from middle and upper managers to a mail survey constitutes the data source. Differences were studied using two approaches of organizational characterization: a category scheme dividing organizations into core public, hybrid, and core private groupings based on the nature of the primary product or service produced and Bozeman's (1987) publicness model. Results, in part, indicate private managers perceive more flexible personnel proce dures, greater authority over personnel actions, and shorter approval times for hiring and dis missing employees compared to public managers.
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