Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review previous research on public appointments to systematize existing knowledge, identify gaps and discuss implications for future research in this field.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is based on a systematic literature review, carried out using the Scopus database. We selected academic articles published in journals ranked in the 2018 CABS Academic Journal Guide plus public administration articles in journals classified by Google as falling within the areas of public policy and administration. The papers were analysed according to four categories: geographical area, theoretical framework, research method and organizational setting.

Findings

Results show the lack of research regarding areas like Latin America or East Asia; from a theoretical viewpoint, given the lack of explicit theoretical approaches, future research should have more formal and clear theoretical frameworks. Moreover, given the dominance of case study and review/reflection studies, alternative research methods, such as surveys or mixed methods are suggested for future works.

Research limitations/implications

We identify a new research agenda to revive the focus on public appointments as a tool for intra- and inter-organizational governance in the public sector. Specifically, we argue that how the process of public appointments is managed has huge democratic implications, and public managers have a key role to play in that respect by designing effective governance systems and organizational procedures. The selection of papers has been limited to articles published in peer- review journals ranked in the 2018 CABS Guide; no distinctions have been made regarding journals' positioning in the ranking. Moreover, this work takes a managerial and organizational approach, while the research on public appointments is clearly interdisciplinary, with previous contributions coming mainly from political scientists.

Originality/value

Despite the relevant body of literature on this topic, this study represents the first manuscript to summarize the state of the art of this theme, providing a research agenda on this very relevant but quite neglected issue in public governance.

中文翻译：

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公共任命作为公共治理的工具：系统的文献综述

目的

本文的目的是回顾以前有关公职任命的研究，以系统化现有知识，找出差距并讨论对该领域未来研究的意义。

设计/方法/方法

本文基于使用Scopus数据库进行的系统文献综述。我们选择了在2018年CABS学术期刊指南中排名的期刊上发表的学术文章，以及Google分类为公共政策和行政领域的期刊中的公共管理文章。论文根据地理区域，理论框架，研究方法和组织设置四个类别进行了分析。

发现

结果表明，缺乏对拉丁美洲或东亚等地区的研究；从理论的角度来看，由于缺乏明确的理论方法，未来的研究应具有更正式，更清晰的理论框架。此外，鉴于案例研究和审查/反思研究的主导地位，建议在未来的工作中采用其他研究方法，例如调查或混合方法。

研究局限/意义

我们确定了一个新的研究议程，以恢复对公共任命的关注，将公共任命作为公共部门内部和组织间治理的工具。具体而言，我们认为，如何管理公共任命过程具有巨大的民主意义，而公共管理者在这方面可以通过设计有效的治理体系和组织程序来发挥关键作用。论文的选择仅限于在《 2018 CABS指南》中排名的同行评审期刊上发表的文章; 对于期刊在排名中的位置，没有任何区别。此外，这项工作采用管理和组织的方法，而关于公职任命的研究显然是跨学科的，以前的贡献主要来自政治学家。

创意/价值

尽管有大量有关此主题的文献，但该研究还是第一篇总结该主题最新技术的手稿，提供了有关这一在公共治理中非常相关但却被忽略的问题的研究议程。