The Determinants of U.S. City Manager’s Sense of Power

Research on public managers’ power at the national level has investigated an extensive range of contributing factors. Studies in local governments, however, have focused more on structural characteristics of governments under which managers serve. This paper proposes and tests a more comprehensive model to explain city managers’ sense of power. Community base, political savvy, and tenure of the city managers positively affect their sense of power. However, powerful councils with high job engagement and are supported by outside groups reduce managers’ sense of power. Results show no significant relationship between administrative capacity and city manager’s sense of power. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.