Jessica E Sowa
Biographic Data
| ID | 4385415 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jessica E Sowa |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jessica E |
| FAMILY NAME | Sowa |
| SIGNATURE | SOWA J E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Carolina |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4636-151X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 76 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Roundtables
Rhetoric Versus Reality? A Comparative Study of Public and Non‐Public Sector Employees' Perceptions of Discrimination
How people are treated in the workplace is of increasing concern, with many scholars arguing that the government, as an employer, should set the standard for equitable treatment. While attention to equity in public administration has grown in research and practice, minimal work has comparatively explored discrimination in the public and non‐public sectors. Drawing on data from the 2018 European Social Survey, this study explores possible differen…
Volunteer Management
Winner of the 2025 Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division Book Award and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) 2025 Outstanding Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Book Award Volunteers play a critical role in serving communities and delivering public services. Volunteers serve across many areas — in schools, human service organizations, emergency services, and more. By providing services to t…
Essential but Ignored
Routine, manual, or blue-collar workers play a substantial role in delivering public services, especially at the local level. Despite their prevalence, scholars know little about the specifics of managing these human resources. This contribution challenges common stereotypes about blue-collar workers and argue a truly inclusive knowledge base on public- sector human resource management (HRM) must include these workers. Building upon the job chara…
Editors’ Essay
As we take the helm of Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (PPMG), we want to take this opportunity to communicate our direction and ideas for the future of the journal. This starts with considering theory and its role in public management. The role of theory is to help us make sense of the world around us—to take stock of what we know and attempt to bring order out of chaos. Across academic fields and disciplines, peer-reviewed jour…
Reinvigorating the Spirit of Strategic Human Resource Management
The Nonprofit Human Resource Management Handbook
Retaining Critical Human Capital
Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—pro…
Policy and Management
As part of this special issue, this article explores the relationship of public management research to the study of public policy and the policy process. Beginning with a review of the study of public management, this article then examines some current big questions in public management, with a focus on where these questions intersect with policy studies. This article concludes with several recommendations for fostering cross‐field research
Considering the Public in Public Management Research
How Public Service Leadership Is Studied
This exploratory study surveys the public service leadership literature from a selection of leading public administration journals over a 25‐year period (1987–2012). Patterns in methods used to study public leadership are explored, along with how those methods vary across settings within the public service sector and the treatment of leadership in the analysis. While the number of empirical studies of public service leadership has grown, the dive…
Focusing the Public Leadership Lens
Although there is no shortage of general studies and theories of leadership, the same cannot be said for public leadership. This concern surfaced as a critical issue among scholars at the 2008 Minnowbrook III conference. Drawing from that discussion, this article calls for invigorating the study of public leadership within public administration (PA). We present the case for public leadership, that is, leadership for the public good, where challen…
Do Government Tools Influence Organizational Performance
This article explores whether the multiple tools used by government to implement social policy influence organizational performance. This analysis focuses on three tools—grants, contracts, and vouchers—and their use in the field of early childhood care and education. Through analysis of a field-based study of 22 organizations, the authors explore qualitative evidence and examine the relative consequences of each tool using multivariate modeling. …
Implementing Interagency Collaborations
Collaborative mechanisms are increasingly being used to deliver public services in the United States, with many scholars seeking to understand the operation and impact of these ventures. This article contributes to this research by breaking apart interagency collaborations used to deliver services, demonstrating the variations that can occur within a single form of collaborative service delivery. Examining collaborations to deliver early care and…
The Impact of Nonprofit Collaboration in Early Child Care and Education on Management and Program Outcomes
The use of interorganizational relationships such as collaboration, partnerships, and alliances between public, private, and nonprofit organizations for the delivery of human services has increased. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on collaboration by exploring one kind of interorganizational relationship—interagency collaboration—in the field of early care and education. It examines variations within interagency collabor…
No Longer Unmeasurable? A Multidimensional Integrated Model of Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness
Few topics in nonprofit research and practice have received greater attention in recent years than organizational effectiveness. In spite of this intellectual interest, little consensus has emerged, either theoretically or empirically, as to what constitutes organizational effectiveness and how best to measure it. In this article, we introduce a multidimensional and integrated model of nonprofit organizational effectiveness (MIMNOE). The model ca…
Administrative Discretion and Active Representation
Recent studies of the theory of representative bureaucracy have focused on active representation, whereby administrators in public organizations work to advance the interests of particular groups, achieving policy outcomes that directly address the needs of those groups. The concept of administrative discretion is central to these studies, as an administrator must have the discretion to produce results that reflect the values and beliefs of these…
Focusing the Public Leadership Lens
Although there is no shortage of general studies and theories of leadership, the same cannot be said for public leadership. This concern surfaced as a critical issue among scholars at the 2008 Minnowbrook III conference. Drawing from that discussion, this article calls for invigorating the study of public leadership within public administration (PA). We present the case for public leadership, that is, leadership for the public good, where challen…
How Public Service Leadership Is Studied
This exploratory study surveys the public service leadership literature from a selection of leading public administration journals over a 25‐year period (1987–2012). Patterns in methods used to study public leadership are explored, along with how those methods vary across settings within the public service sector and the treatment of leadership in the analysis. While the number of empirical studies of public service leadership has grown, the dive…
Policy and Management
As part of this special issue, this article explores the relationship of public management research to the study of public policy and the policy process. Beginning with a review of the study of public management, this article then examines some current big questions in public management, with a focus on where these questions intersect with policy studies. This article concludes with several recommendations for fostering cross‐field research
Retaining Critical Human Capital
Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—pro…
Implementing Interagency Collaborations
Collaborative mechanisms are increasingly being used to deliver public services in the United States, with many scholars seeking to understand the operation and impact of these ventures. This article contributes to this research by breaking apart interagency collaborations used to deliver services, demonstrating the variations that can occur within a single form of collaborative service delivery. Examining collaborations to deliver early care and…
Do Government Tools Influence Organizational Performance
This article explores whether the multiple tools used by government to implement social policy influence organizational performance. This analysis focuses on three tools—grants, contracts, and vouchers—and their use in the field of early childhood care and education. Through analysis of a field-based study of 22 organizations, the authors explore qualitative evidence and examine the relative consequences of each tool using multivariate modeling. …
Considering the Public in Public Management Research
Administrative Discretion and Active Representation
Recent studies of the theory of representative bureaucracy have focused on active representation, whereby administrators in public organizations work to advance the interests of particular groups, achieving policy outcomes that directly address the needs of those groups. The concept of administrative discretion is central to these studies, as an administrator must have the discretion to produce results that reflect the values and beliefs of these…
No Longer Unmeasurable? A Multidimensional Integrated Model of Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness
Few topics in nonprofit research and practice have received greater attention in recent years than organizational effectiveness. In spite of this intellectual interest, little consensus has emerged, either theoretically or empirically, as to what constitutes organizational effectiveness and how best to measure it. In this article, we introduce a multidimensional and integrated model of nonprofit organizational effectiveness (MIMNOE). The model ca…
The Impact of Nonprofit Collaboration in Early Child Care and Education on Management and Program Outcomes
The use of interorganizational relationships such as collaboration, partnerships, and alliances between public, private, and nonprofit organizations for the delivery of human services has increased. This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on collaboration by exploring one kind of interorganizational relationship—interagency collaboration—in the field of early care and education. It examines variations within interagency collabor…
Do Government Tools Influence Organizational Performance
This article explores whether the multiple tools used by government to implement social policy influence organizational performance. This analysis focuses on three tools—grants, contracts, and vouchers—and their use in the field of early childhood care and education. Through analysis of a field-based study of 22 organizations, the authors explore qualitative evidence and examine the relative consequences of each tool using multivariate modeling. …
Implementing Interagency Collaborations
Collaborative mechanisms are increasingly being used to deliver public services in the United States, with many scholars seeking to understand the operation and impact of these ventures. This article contributes to this research by breaking apart interagency collaborations used to deliver services, demonstrating the variations that can occur within a single form of collaborative service delivery. Examining collaborations to deliver early care and…
Focusing the Public Leadership Lens
Although there is no shortage of general studies and theories of leadership, the same cannot be said for public leadership. This concern surfaced as a critical issue among scholars at the 2008 Minnowbrook III conference. Drawing from that discussion, this article calls for invigorating the study of public leadership within public administration (PA). We present the case for public leadership, that is, leadership for the public good, where challen…
How Public Service Leadership Is Studied
This exploratory study surveys the public service leadership literature from a selection of leading public administration journals over a 25‐year period (1987–2012). Patterns in methods used to study public leadership are explored, along with how those methods vary across settings within the public service sector and the treatment of leadership in the analysis. While the number of empirical studies of public service leadership has grown, the dive…
Considering the Public in Public Management Research
The Nonprofit Human Resource Management Handbook
Retaining Critical Human Capital
Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—pro…
Policy and Management
As part of this special issue, this article explores the relationship of public management research to the study of public policy and the policy process. Beginning with a review of the study of public management, this article then examines some current big questions in public management, with a focus on where these questions intersect with policy studies. This article concludes with several recommendations for fostering cross‐field research
Reinvigorating the Spirit of Strategic Human Resource Management
Editors’ Essay
As we take the helm of Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (PPMG), we want to take this opportunity to communicate our direction and ideas for the future of the journal. This starts with considering theory and its role in public management. The role of theory is to help us make sense of the world around us—to take stock of what we know and attempt to bring order out of chaos. Across academic fields and disciplines, peer-reviewed jour…
Essential but Ignored
Routine, manual, or blue-collar workers play a substantial role in delivering public services, especially at the local level. Despite their prevalence, scholars know little about the specifics of managing these human resources. This contribution challenges common stereotypes about blue-collar workers and argue a truly inclusive knowledge base on public- sector human resource management (HRM) must include these workers. Building upon the job chara…
Volunteer Management
Winner of the 2025 Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division Book Award and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) 2025 Outstanding Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Book Award Volunteers play a critical role in serving communities and delivering public services. Volunteers serve across many areas — in schools, human service organizations, emergency services, and more. By providing services to t…
Roundtables
Rhetoric Versus Reality? A Comparative Study of Public and Non‐Public Sector Employees' Perceptions of Discrimination
How people are treated in the workplace is of increasing concern, with many scholars arguing that the government, as an employer, should set the standard for equitable treatment. While attention to equity in public administration has grown in research and practice, minimal work has comparatively explored discrimination in the public and non‐public sectors. Drawing on data from the 2018 European Social Survey, this study explores possible differen…
Business (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (12 works) · Public relations (11 works) · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering (8 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Economics (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Sociology (5 works)