POWER, POLITICS, AND OTHER REASONS WHY SENIOR EXECUTIVES LEAVE THE FEDERAL-GOVERNMENT

Why do senior executives seriously consider leaving the federal service? Patricia Wilson answers this question focusing on factors that greatly expand those used in more conventional models of executive turnover. Specifically, she approaches public agencies as political systems in which subunit power and other political variables play an important role in such decisions. Her research finds subunit power-a structural and managerial phenomenon-to be an important determinant of senior executives' intent to leave the federal service. Wilson elaborates on the roles subunit power plays, particularly as mechanisms through which civil servants become ''empowered'' and thus more effective and successful implementors of public policy.