Abstract
Staff-member relationships can determine the success or failure in any office and can have a profound effect on public policy within the state legislature. Existing literature has studied the effect of leaders’ management style within a business setting, as well as within an elected office setting. However, little research exists when dealing with the perspective of legislative staff. Hans J. Ladegaard studied male and female management styles in a Denmark, global business corporation. He determined that there were two very distinct interaction styles with the leaders and their staff between each gender, but it is unclear if that finding applies in the California setting. I believe it is important to study the legislative staff of elected men and women in the California state legislature to see if there is a difference in leadership styles between both a male and female elected official. I used multiple data sources for this this thesis. My primary data was obtained through an electronic survey administered to Assembly and Senate staff. I supplemented the survey with face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of legislative staffers to allow for further conversation and analysis in my research. Support staff included receptionists, schedulers, legislative directors and aides, capitol directors, as well as chiefs-of-staff who work closely with the elected officials. Through the use of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), a statistical analysis program, I analyzed the data through simple analysis tools such as frequency distributions, cross tabulations, as well as calculations of chi-square statistics. Gender may not be as significant as it once was. My results show me that in general legislative staff seems to be relatively content in the workplace whether working for a male or female member. However, there are hints of differences between the sexes with respect to specific aspects of member-staff relations. Overall, this research provides enough evidence that the relationship of legislative staff and the effect of gender of the elected official deserve further exploration.