- Email:
- perry@iu.edu
- Research areas:
- Civil Society Civic Engagement and Volunteering
- Public Management
- Areas of Interest:
- Public service motivation
- Government and civil service reform
- National and community service
- Performance-related pay
Education
- Ph.D., Syracuse University, 1974
- M.P.A., Syracuse University, 1972
- B.A., University of Chicago, 1970
Courses
- Public Management
- Public Human Resource Management
Biography
James L. Perry is an internationally recognized leader in public administration and the study of public management. He joined O'Neill's faculty in 1985 and serves as Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Chancellor's Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs Emeritus. He is also an affiliate professor of philanthropic studies. Perry's 45 years of scholarship includes expertise in public management, public organizational behavior, government and civil service reform, national and community service, public service motivation, and performance-related pay. Perry has held faculty appointments at Yonsei University, University of California, Irvine, The University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Perry is presently co-editor of Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. He is former editor-in-chief of Public Administration Review and Journal of Public Affairs Education. He has authored or edited 10 books and more than 175 articles and book chapters, including the Handbook of Public Administration, Third Edition (Jossey-Bass, 2015, co-edited with Robert Christensen). His most recent books are Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-first Century (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) and Managing Organizations to Sustain Passion for Public Service (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which was selected as Best Public Sector Human Resources Book by the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations of the American Society for Public Administration.
Perry is recipient of many prestigious professional awards including the Yoder-Heneman Award for innovative personnel research from the Society for Human Resource Management. He received the Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration and the Distinguished Research Award, both awards given jointly by the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). ASPA has recognized Perry with two additional awards: the Paul P. Van Riper Award for Excellence and Service and the Dwight Waldo Award for career contributions to the literature of public administration. In 2015, Perry received the H. George Frederickson Award for career contributions to the field of public management from the Public Management Research Association. The American Political Science Association recognized Perry with the 2017 John Gaus Award for a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration. In 2018 the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) awarded Perry the Routledge Prize for lifetime achievement. Perry received the 2021 Keith Provan Award from the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division. He has been selected for three Fulbright Fellowships. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Highlights
- Keith Provan Award, Academy of Management, Public and Nonprofit Division, 2021
- Routledge Prize for Outstanding Contributions to Public Management Research, International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM), 2018
- John Gaus Award, American Political Science Association (2017)
- H. George Frederickson Award, Public Management Research Association, 2015
- Dwight Waldo Award (2008) and Paul P. van Riper Award (2006), American Society for Public Administration
- Visiting Distinguished Professor, The University of Hong Kong, 2014-16
- Distinguished Service, Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, American Society for Public Administration, 2009
- Three-time Fulbright Scholar and National Academy of Public Administration Fellow
- Charles H. Levine Memorial Award for Excellence in Public Administration (1991), American Society for Public Administration and National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration
Selected Works
- Managing Organizations to Sustain Passion for Public Service, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (2021)
- Winner of the Best Public Sector Human Resources Book from the Section on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations of the American Society for Public Administration.
- 2022 Best Book Award from the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management
Download the Instructor's Guide
- Public Service and Good Governance for the Twenty-first Century, (Ed.) Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, (2020)
- Handbook of Public Administration, Third Edition, (co-edited with R. Christensen) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass (2015)
- "Revisiting the motivational bases of public service: Twenty years of research and an agenda for the future," (with A. Hondeghem, L. R. Wise), Public Administration Review, 70(5): 681-690 (2010)
- "Back to the future? Performance-related pay, empirical research, and the perils of persistence," (with T. Engbers, and S. Y. Jun), Public Administration Review, 69(1), 39-51 (2009)
- "Conceptualizing and measuring collaboration," (with A.M. Thomson and T. K. Miller), Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 19(1): 23-56 (2009)
- Civic Service: What Difference Does It Make? (with A.M. Thomson).Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2004. (*Winner of the Best Book Award, Public and Nonprofit Division, Academy of Management)
- "Measuring public service motivation: An assessment of construct reliability and validity" Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 6: 5-22 (1996)
- "The motivational bases of public service," (with L. Wise), Public Administration Review, 50(3): 367-73 (1990)
- “Managerial compensation based on organizational performance: a time series analysis of the effects of merit pay,” (with J. L. Pearce and W. B. Stevenson), Academy of Management Journal, 28 (2): 261-278 (1985)
- Winner of the Yoder-Heneman Award for innovative personnel research from the Society for Human Resource Management.