Hal G. Rainey

• Ph.D., Ohio State University 1978, Public Administration
• M.A., Ohio State University 1973, Psychology
• B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1968, English and Psychology

Rainey teaches public administration and organization theory. His research has concentrated on identifying the distinctive features of organizations and management in the public sector, especially as contrasted with business organizations, and on leadership, incentives, performance, and organizational change in government.  His book, Understanding and Managing Public Organizations is forthcoming in its fifth edition in 2014.  His research has appeared in such journals as Administration & Society, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and Social Science Quarterly.

Rainey is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.  He received the Charles Levine Award for Excellence in Public Administration, conferred jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.  In 2009 he received the Dwight Waldo Award for career contributions to scholarship in public administration.  In 2011 he received the John Gaus Award from the American Political Science Association and delivered the Gaus lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Association.  The Gaus Award honors “the recipient’s lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.”  He has served as chair of the Public Administration Section of the American Political Science Association and chair of the Public and Nonprofit Division of the Academy of Management.

Rainey has served on governmental commissions at the state and local levels, and in a variety of training, consulting and practical research roles with federal, state, and local agencies.  Before entering academics, he served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and a VISTA volunteer.

• Large Scale Organizational Change
• Leadership in Public and Nonprofit Organizations
• Organizational Incentive Systems
• Work-related Attitude Surveys in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

• Charles Levine Award for excellence in teaching, research, and service, conferred jointly by the American Society for Public Administration and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, 1995.
• Outstanding Alumnus, School of Public Policy and Management, The Ohio State University, 2005.
• Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, 2005.
• Dwight Waldo Award, for outstanding contributions to the literature of public administration through an extended career, from the American Society for Public Administration, 2008.
• Charles H. Levine Memorial Lecture in Public Administration and Policy, School of Public Affairs, American University, March 29, 2011.
• John Gaus Award and Lectureship from the American Political Science Association, 2011, honoring “a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.”
• Paine-Monroe Lecture, Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri, September 5, 2012; broadcast on C-Span.
• William Duncombe Award for Excellence in Doctoral Education, from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA), 2015.
• George Frederickson Award for Career Contributions to Public Management Research and to the Intellectual Development of the field, from the Public Management Research Association, 2016.

• PADP 6960 – Public Management
• PADP 8460 – Organizational Behavior in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
• PADP 8420 – Leadership in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

• Hal G. Rainey, Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 4th edition. San Francisco: Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2009.  The first edition, published in 1991, won the Best Book Award, Public Sector Division, Academy of Management, 1992.
• Hal G. Rainey, “Sampling Designs for Analyzing Publicness: Alternatives and Their Strengths and Weaknesses. “Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2011.
• Hal G. Rainey, “Goal Ambiguity and the Study of American Bureaucracy.”  In Robert Durant (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of American Bureaucracy, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Mary K. Feeney and Hal G. Rainey, “Personnel Flexibility and Red Tape in Public and Nonprofit Organizations: Distinctions due to Institutional and Political Accountability.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2010.
• Hal G. Rainey and Chan Su Jung, “Extending Goal Ambiguity Research in Government.” In George A. Boyne, Gene A. Brewer and Richard M. Walker (Eds.) Public Management and Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Hal G. Rainey, John C. Ronquillo, and Claudia N. Avellaneda, “Decision-Making in Public Organizations.” In Paul C. Nutt and David Wilson (Eds.) The Blackwell Handbook of Decision Making. West Sussex, United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons, 2010: 349-377.
• Sungjoo Choi and Hal G. Rainey, “Managing Diversity in U.S. Federal Agencies: Effects of Diversity and Diversity Management on Employee Perceptions of Organizational Performance.” Public Administration Review, Vol. 70, no. 1 (January/February, 2010): 109-121.
• Jung Wook Lee, Hal G. Rainey, and Young Han Chun, “Goal Ambiguity, Work Complexity, and Work Routineness in Federal Agencies.” American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 40, no. 3 (May, 2010): 284-308.
• Jung Wook Lee, Hal G. Rainey, and Young Han Chun, “Of Politics and Purpose: Political Salience and Goal Ambiguity in U.S. Federal Agencies.” Public Administration, Vol. 87, no. 2 (September, 2009): 457-484.