Integrating emotive competencies in public affairs education

ABSTRACT

Emotion is the “how” of NASPAA competencies related to leading and managing in a culturally-conscious manner. In this article, we describe the role of emotion in public service and we detail the mechanism by which emotion fosters a collective mind-set for effective public service leadership and cultural literacy. We indicate specifically where emotive competencies could be integrated into the foundational skills demanded of all graduates of accredited programs. We further argue that they should be integrated into MPA core curricula. This normative argument captures the ethics of emotional labor: To graduate students from MPA programs without emotive capacities is to leave them poorly equipped for the practice of public service and to do so would be unethical. To demonstrate what is possible in public affairs education, we turn to an example from the Government of India Civil Service Competency Dictionary for a framework of emotive competencies in human resource management.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional labor
• NASPAA
• accreditation
• emotional intelligence
• cultural competence

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pallavi Awasthi

Pallavi Awasthi is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration/Real Estate Development at the Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University. Pallavi completed her Ph.D. in Public Affairs from the Florida International University in July 2020. She also holds a Masters in Public Administration and a Masters in Personnel Management. Pallavi’s research intersects emotions in public service, leadership development, local government capacity building, and sustainable community development. Her research has featured in the governance journal and the ASPA section on comparative administration. Prior to her doctoral studies, she was a consultant with UNDP on a government of India leadership development in civil services project’. In addition, she has about 10 years of research and consulting experience in leadership development and organizational behavior in both the public and private sectors in India. She was awarded the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership Doctoral Scholar Award, the APPAM Equity & Inclusion Fellowship Award, and the ASPA Young Scholars fellowship Award.

Sharon H. Mastracci

Sharon Mastracci is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. She studies gender in public organizations and emotional labor and dirty work in public service. She was a 2014-2015 Fulbright scholar to the United Kingdom and a 2020 Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.