Professionalism of Florida Senior Management Service and Selected Exempt Service Administrators

The policy of the State of Florida recognizes high-level public administration as a profession and expects administrators to be competent and to practice managerial, political, and ethical roles. Conceptual frameworks of high-level administrators' credentials (knowledge and skills) and behaviors (managerial, political, and ethical roles) in public administration literature are reviewed. Operational definitions are developed for the concepts of professional credentials, managerial roles, political roles, and ethical roles. A model is presented which views a professional public administrator from two different perspectives: (1) knowledge and skills and (2) practices and views of managerial, political, and ethical roles. Hypotheses are developed for specific research questions. Survey instruments were developed and sent via the World Wide Web to State of Florida high-level agency administrators. The response rate was 32.9 percent. Overall, the sample was representative of the population, except that female respondents were under represented. Results indicate that Florida high-level administrators surveyed exhibit high professional credentials based on experience, education, training, political acuity, and public service attitudes. Results indicate that these administrators exhibit and place high importance on many of the expected behaviors or roles. Results fail to show the anticipated positive association between measures of professional credentials and professional behaviors. Results indicate little professional credentials and professional behavior differences in those administrators entering these high-level positions voluntarily (hired into the position) compared to those entering involuntarily (position was converted from the career service system). Overall, Florida high-level administrators exhibit the high level of professional competence and professional behaviors described in the public administration literature and prescribed in Florida public policies. Strengths and weaknesses of these administrators are discussed. Theoretical, policy, and practical implications of the findings are discussed as well as are the limitations and directions for future research.