Tenure v. Temporary: How Tenure Protections Enhance Representative Bureaucracy

The theory of representative bureaucracy identifies conditions under which we can expect the passive representation of minority bureaucrats to translate into representation effects. Some conditions previously identified... [ view full abstract ]

The theory of representative bureaucracy identifies conditions under which we can expect the passive representation of minority bureaucrats to translate into representation effects. Some conditions previously identified include: bureaucrat exercises discretion, saliency of policy area, presence of hierarchy, mission of the organization, professionalization, socialization, and critical mass. Thus far, scholars have not examined how the safety or vulnerability of the bureaucrat may influence their willingness to provide representation. Are bureaucrats who feel vulnerable in their positions less likely to play a representative role? Using higher education data, the current study compares client outcomes of tenured employees and at-will employees through the lens of representative bureaucracy. The nuanced nature of the data from all US public and private four-year universities allows us to isolate representation effects across many underrepresented groups, with special attention to differences in representation effects between tenure-protected and term employees. We find that tenure-protected employees have strong positive representation effects on African-American and Latino student outcomes including at the intersection of race and sex for some groups. We find a similar positive effect for African-American and Latino representation effects from term employees, but the effect erodes at the intersection of race and sex.