Does public managers' type of education affect performance in public organizations? A systematic review

Abstract

Although scholars agree that public managers' education could affect performance in public organizations, no attempt has been made to synthesize the empirical evidence on this relationship. Consequently, we ask, do public managers with a general management education, such as an MPA, or a specialist education, such as an MD in the context of a hospital, affect different types of performance in public organizations? Based on a preregistered systematic literature review, we find 548 effect sizes from 50 quantitative studies by screening more than 12,000 potentially eligible studies. Our meta-regression analyses show that specialist managers have a statistically significant small average advantage on field-specific performance compared to other managers, and that generalist managers have a statistically significant small average advantage on financial performance compared to other managers. Based on these results, we recommend that future research investigate the theoretical linkages between public managers' education and performance in public organizations.