Political Storms and the Federal Workforce: How Volatile Environments Alter Career Choices

Under today’s divisive political rhetoric with direct assaults on agencies and career employees, practitioners and academics need to evaluate the impacts of working in contentious political environments. Encouraging a healthy discourse on what it means to work in a politicized agency, Susannah Bruns Ali uses archival research paired with semi- structured interviews to present a comprehensive view of how political actors and climates influence employee satisfaction and career changes.

To understand how the political nature of an organization impacts operations and employees, we must include the volatility or turbulence that the agency operates under. Ali’s approach to examining turnover and turnover intent is novel in incorporating both internal and external organizational factors into an integrative theoretical framework for studying careers of public sector employees. Her analytical focus builds from a theoretical framework to case studies of four agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with different responsibilities, task environments, and histories: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Political Storms and the Federal Workforce: How Volatile Environments Alter Career Choices unites researchers with careerists to explore how agencies can best sustain morale and performance when elected and appointed officials undermine staff. Understanding what that means for them personally and as managers and leaders will be both engaging and useful moving forward.

Susannah Bruns Ali is an associate professor at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs of Florida International University. Before returning to academia, she worked as a Policy Analyst at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she collaborated with the White House, Congress, various Federal Government agencies, and advocacy groups. She has received several awards, including: Presidential Management Fellowship, Presidential Letter of Commendation, the DHHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, Human Services awards from the State of Maryland, and the American University John D. Young Award for scholarship, leadership, and commitment to public service.