Are there Gender Differences between Skills and Job Performance in Public Management Positions?

Public administrations are facing the challenge of continuous improvement of processes to meet both ethical and compliance standards. This study examines the extent to which non-job relevant factors (gender and tenure) may have a greater impact on managers' positions than job-relevant factors (skills and job performance) in the public sector. Our study with 412 public incumbent managers in different rank positions revealed that tenure and the innovation orientation skill, and gender are the main predictors to upper positions. Moreover, men have shown higher levels of counterproductive performance than women. This highlights the need for a review of human resources processes and the implementation of competency-based management models to achieve fairer procedures and improved ethical public governance.