Do White House Chiefs of Staff Manage Up?

• In Event: Managing the White House and Federal Agencies

Abstract

Practitioners and presidency scholars alike cite the White House Chief of Staff as crucial to protecting the president’s time, focusing the president’s attention, managing the president’s advisors, and implementing the president’s decisions. But are Chiefs of Staff so influential? That is, do Chiefs of Staff “manage up” in ways that affect the president’s workflow?

This study tests the “manage up” hypothesis. Specifically, we examine presidents’ daily work patterns from the start of Jimmy Carter’s presidency to the end of Ronald Reagan’s – a total spanning 4383 days, 2 presidencies, 6 Chiefs of Staff, and 1 vacancy. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom, we find these Chiefs of Staff had only limited impact on the duration or composition of their respective President's work patterns. In fact, the main difference between Chiefs of Staff is not the president does his job; rather, it is how much personal access the President grants to each.

Author

• Matthew N. Beckmann, University of California, Irvine