Julie Langer

Julie Langer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Northern Illinois University. Her research explores identity, culture, and decision-making in public and nonprofit organizations. A central focus of her work is examining how these organizations leverage their identity to navigate the tension between the rational and substantive dimensions of organizational life, balancing service provision with the fulfillment of their democratic roles. Langer’s work has been funded by the Illinois Innovation Network Social Innovation Program and recognized with best paper awards from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, and the journal Nonprofit Management and Leadership. Her research has been featured in top journals, including Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, Public Management Review, Administration & Society, and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Before entering academia, Julie led collective impact initiatives to address the skills gap in Chicago’s health services sector.

Areas of Expertise

Public management
Nonprofit management
Organizational behavior
Organizational identity
Sector theory

Selected Publications

Langer, J., Camarena, L., & Jong, J. (2024). Organizational Culture and Effectiveness in Community Based Nonprofits . Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Langer, J., & Feeney, M. K. (2023). Who “We” are matters: the influence of organizational identity orientation on public participation in government . Public Management Review, 1-20.

LeRoux, K., Langer, J., & Plotner, S. (2022, August). Nonprofit Messaging and the 2020 Election: Findings from a Nonpartisan Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) Field Experiment . In Nonprofit Policy Forum. De Gruyter.

Langer, J. (2022). Bureaucracy and the Imaginal Realm: Max Weber, Rationality and the Substantive Basis of Public Administration . Perspectives on Public Management and Governance.

Langer, J., Siciliano, M., and LeRoux, K. (2022). Applying the Repertory Grid Technique to Advance Nonprofit Collaboration: A Situational Theory of Partner Selection . VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.

Langer, J.A., and Feeney, M.K. (2022). Organizational Identity Orientation: A Public Sector Research Agenda . In The Handbook of Research on Motivation in Public Administration. Edmund C. Stazyk and Randall S. Davis, Edward Elgar Publishing.

Langer, J. (2021). Understanding the Spirit of the Sectors: Exploring Identity in a New Era of Organizing . Administration & Society.

LeRoux, K., and Langer, J. (2019). From nonprofit leader to elected official: Examining political ambition in the nonprofit sector . Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 48(1), 208-226.