Career Dynamics of Congressional Legislative Staff: Preliminary Profile and Research Questions
基于1995年对40名国会工作人员的深度访谈，初步描绘了立法工作人员的职业发展模式，发现其职业阶梯短、责任上升快，并存在短期与长期两种职业路径，为理解其职业规范与政策角色提供了研究问题。
This article explores the work experiences of congressional staff and develops a preliminary profile of the career dynamics typical of legislative staffers. The findings are based on data gathered during forty intensive exploratory interviews conducted during the first half of 1995, the early days of the 104th Congress. The data suggest that legislative staff careers mirror those stages of professional careers in general but reflect adaptions to the congressional context. Congressional staff have very short career ladders; substantial responsibility can be achieved relatively quickly. Legislative staff careers can accommodate different career orientations and varying emphases on personal loyalty, partisan politics, substantive policy areas, and geographical focus. Staffers tend toward two patterns of career duration: short-and long-term. These dynamics suggest some intriguing research questions about the relationship between staffers' career dynamics and their professional norms, commitments, accountability relationships, and policy roles.