Eunju Rho

Eunju Rho is an associate professor of public administration at Northern Illinois University. Her scholarship examines what managerial, organizational and contextual factors enable local governments to perform effectively and serve the public interest. She studies how public managers engage external environments through networking and contracting, how employee attitudes and identity shape performance from within, how governments communicate with and earn the trust of citizens and how local governments govern emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Rho’s research has appeared in top journals, including Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, American Review of Public Administration, International Public Management Journal, and Journal of Applied Communication Research. She is co-author of The Power of Public Management: Unveiling the Forces Behind Organizational Performance (Taylor & Francis, forthcoming) and co-leads the Survey of Artificial Intelligence in Local Government (SAIL-GOV), a multi-institutional, international research initiative. Rho’s work has been recognized with the Paul A. Volcker Junior Scholar Research Grant Award from the American Political Science Association and a Best Paper Proceedings selection from the Academy of Management.

Rho is active in professional service. She has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Policy Studies and serves on the editorial boards of Public Administration Review and Public Performance & Management Review. She chaired the American Society for Public Administration’s Section on Korean Public Administration, was elected to the Executive Committee of ASPA’s Section on Public Administration Research, and chaired the international conference program of the Korean Association for Public Administration. At NIU, she serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Public Service Leadership degree and certificate and is a 2026-27 Fellow in the university’s Emerging Faculty Leaders Program. She teaches the department’s performance management sequence along with courses in leadership, strategic planning, and organizational theory. Her teaching has been recognized with the Department of Public Administration’s Professor of the Year award (2020, 2023) and the Louis Brownlow Faculty Member of the Year Award from the ASPA Greater Chicago Chapter (2024).

Area of Expertise

• Public management and organizational performance
• Local government management (networking, contracting, leadership mobility)
• Employee attitudes, motivation, and organizational behavior
• Citizen satisfaction and government communication
• AI adoption and governance in local government

Selected Publications

Rho, E., Kang, S. C., & Ryu, S. (2026). Exploring the dynamics of the O’Toole-Meier model of performance: A systematic literature review. International Review of Public Administration, 31(3), 298–328.

Kim, S., Rho, E., & Teo, Y. X. J. (2024). Citizen satisfaction research in public administration: A systematic literature review and future research agenda. American Review of Public Administration, 54(5), 460–485.

Ju, I., Rho, E., & Jung, J. (2025). Exploring public sector YouTube influencer PR strategies: A mixed-methods field study. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 53(4), 293–314.

Rho, E., & Han, S. (2021). Relative managerial networking and performance: The moderating role of environmental context. Public Administration Review, 81(2), 205–219. 

Rho, E., Kim, S., & Han, S. (2021). Taking context and strategy seriously: The contracting out decision in the U.S. public education. Public Management Review, 23(9), 1398–1422. 

Rho, E., & Lee, K. (2018). Gendered networking: Gender, environment, and managerial networking. Public Administration Review, 78(3), 409–421.

Rho, E., Yun, T., & Lee, K. (2015). Does organizational image matter? Image, identification, and employee behaviors in public and nonprofit organizations. Public Administration Review, 75(3), 421–431.

Rho, E. (2013). Contracting revisited: Determinants and consequences of contracting out for public education services. Public Administration Review, 73(2), 327–337.