When Does Public Service Motivation Fuel the Job Satisfaction Fire? The Joint Moderation of Person–Organization Fit and Needs–Supplies Fit

Abstract

This study takes a comparative approach to study the ‘outcome’ performance of a work-integration social enterprise (WISE) and a ‘for-profit’ work-integration organization that both provided employment enhancement programmes to NEETs. Participants at both organizations completed general self-efficacy questionnaires before and after engagement on the programmes. Additionally, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were held with the owners and staff at both organizations. The results revealed no significant difference between the ‘outcome’ performance of the WISE and for-profit organization. However, an analysis of the organizational aims, values and structures suggests that the ‘added value’ offered by the WISE came from the different induction policy that it operated.     

Does Pursuing External Incentives Compromise Public Service Motivation? Comparing the effects of job security and high pay

Abstract

The pursuit of both job security and high pay as main reasons for job selection, according to self-determination theory (SDT), implies that people are controlled by external conditions (i.e. external regulation) and thus unlikely to be driven by altruistic values. Conceptually, however, pursuing high pay and pursuing job security seemingly carry disparate connotations. While the former signifies the love of money, which is thought to be incompatible with public service motivation (PSM), the latter accompanies motivation crowding-in, which may correlate positively with PSM. We tested this proposition by using the data collected from 514 municipal middle managers in Taiwan, and it received strong support. Results further show that pay satisfaction moderates the negative relationship between pursuing high pay and PSM. In the conclusion, we discuss how these findings shed light on contemporary administrative reform.     

Person or Job? Change in Person-Job Fit and Its Impact on Employee Work Attitudes over Time

Fit is generally conceptualized as a dynamic construct, but most research on person-environment fit has focused on fit in the current moment. We addressed this oversight by examining the dynamic relationships among person-job (PJ) fit, demand-ability (DA) fit, need-supply (NS) fit, and employee work attitudes over time using a three-wave survey design over a 12-month period. Results from 168 employees revealed that change in PJ fit was significantly related to changes in job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. In addition, DA and NS fit changes were significantly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction and commitment changes through PJ fit change. We also found that increases in job demands and employee abilities significantly decreased DA fit, and increases in employee needs significantly decreased NS fit whereas increases in job supplies significantly increased NS fit. Finally, we examined age as an important moderator for employees’ reactions to PJ fit changes, and found that younger employees reacted more strongly to increases/decreases in PJ fit than did older employees.     

Does Public Service Motivation Mediate the Relationship between Goal Clarity and both Organizational Commitment and Extra-Role Behaviours?

Research has not considered how goal clarity can affect work attitudes through public service motivation (PSM). As a result, a model was developed to examine the relationship between goal clarity, PSM, and two employee work attitudes and behaviours (i.e., organizational commitment and extra-role behaviours). Several important findings emerged from the model. First, goal clarity was positively associated with PSM. Second, goal clarity was positively associated with both organizational commitment and extra-role behaviours. Finally, PSM was found to partially mediate the relationship between goal clarity and both organizational commitment and extra-role behaviours. The implications these findings have for theory and practice are discussed.     

Leader–Member Exchange and Relational Quality in a Singapore Public Sector Organization

An objective of Singapore’s ongoing public sector reform (PS21) requires agencies to focus on getting the best out of its employees. One way of doing this is by creating a positive leader–member exchange (LMX) relationship, enabling supervisors to motivate their subordinates towards the development of organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). This article reports the extent of LMX and relational quality in a public sector agency experiencing PS21 reform and high staff turnover. In addition, we examined the effects of organizational justice perceptions and job satisfaction towards a subordinates’ OCB. A path model was developed to examine the relationships between LMX, organizational justice, job satisfaction, and OCB and tested by applying LMX theory. The path analysis results showed that LMX mediates the relationship between organizational justice perceptions and OCB. The results also showed that one’s job satisfaction led to higher level of OCB. The study findings have implications for theory and practice which have been presented in the discussion section.     

Public Service Leaders as ‘Change Agents’ – for Whom?

Abstract

This article examines how far senior staff in English educational and health service organizations view themselves as leaders who are ‘change agents’ for government-driven reform and independent change agendas. The contribution of external leadership development provision to shaping these self-perceptions is explored. Special attention is paid to national leadership development bodies with different degrees of formal association with government. Whatever this relationship, such provision and other development support apparently reinforced a strong sense of personal agency (choice of action) associated with being a leader, empowering senior staff to adopt a modestly mediatory stance towards both reform and leadership development provision.     

Citizens’ Entrepreneurial Role in Public Service Provision

Abstract

In public service provision, citizens are conventionally reactive, portrayed as ‘users’, ‘customers’, ‘co-producers’, or ‘participators.’ Occasionally, following dissatisfaction, citizens themselves proactively create alternative services, namely, entrepreneurial exit (EE). Laymen then become providers of previously governmental professional services. Drawing upon six EE manifestations, findings suggest that if the newly-introduced service gains social acceptance, existing provision may change in one of the three modes: (a) First-order incremental change, legitimization of EE as an alternative service provision; (b) Second-order participative change, increased public participation in service provision fostered by EE; and (c) Third-order reformative change, existing service provision is reformed to satisfy citizens’ demands.     

European Insurance Markets＇ Size and Trends in Regulatory Environment in the Context of Its Complexity

In today＇s globalized world, regulatory issues are heatedly debated, and experts can be divided into two groups based on their attitudes towards these issues. In the first group, representatives are in favor of stricter regulation, and representatives of the second group are in favor of removing legislative barriers in the markets of financial services. An important objective of the European Commission in recent years is to integrate the individual segments of the financial services into a whole so as to ensure the proper functioning of the whole to satisfy all the member states. The aim of this paper is to show the complexity of the regulatory environment, to point out the large number of institutions that cooperate in the creation of legislative measures, and also to highlight the different approaches to regulation in individual member countries and these issues do not ease the situation.     

Public–Private Partnerships in the Health Care Sector: A systematic review of the literature

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become popular worldwide as a way of improving health care service delivery. In order to enhance our knowledge of PPPs in the health care sector, we conduct a systematic review of forty-six articles published in peer-reviewed journals for the period of 1990–2011. Six lines of research in the PPP domain are identified: effectiveness, benefits, public interest, country overview, efficiency and partners. The main findings suggest that although PPPs are used to address internationally emerging public health issues, questions as to their actual effectiveness, efficiency and convenience, still remain unanswered. We propose viable recommendations and ideas for future research.     

Public–private sector wage differentials and the business cycle

This paper uses microeconomic data for the period from 1990 to 2004 to examine the relationship between public–private sector wage differentials and labour market conditions in Finland. The results show that the public sector wage premium is strongly counter-cyclical. On average, a 10 percent increase in the local unemployment rate increases the public–private sector wage gap by one percent. Separate analyses by government sector and quantiles of the distribution of wages reveal that it is local government workers and those working at lower skill levels who benefit more from increasing unemployment rate. The paper also exploits the longitudinal structure of the data to examine whether the results are constant over time. These results indicate that the cyclical pattern primarily emerges in years with deteriorated labour markets.     

Public–private innovation: barriers in the case of mobility as a service in West Sweden

Departing from open innovation (OI), this case study explores the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in West Sweden. An analysis of 19 interviews reveals how representatives from involved actors perceive internal and external barriers as hampering the regional public transport authority’s attempts to collaborate with private actors, and that the perception of barriers is incongruent across public and private actors. Transferability to other cases of public–private OI is discussed, and implications for public actors are proposed. The paper expands the knowledge of preconditions for MaaS’ development and of the unique conditions for OI in public–private settings.     

Does Super-Department Reform Improve Public Service Performance in China?

Echoing the global public management reform movement, China’s authorities advocated ‘super-department’ reform (SDR) to curb interdepartmental conflict and administrative inefficiency. However, the related performance consequences have not been empirically investigated. We test the reform’s effects on citizen satisfaction with public services through a natural experiment involving twenty-five counties in Guangdong province (2009–2012) and the difference-in-differences method. The results show that the reform has improved public service performance, but its effects are marginal and unsustainable. We discuss the theoretical contributions and policy implications of the findings and identify future research avenues.     

Auditor Independence and the Cost of Capital Before and After Sarbanes–Oxley: The Case of Newly Issued Public Debt

An important aim of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) was to reduce the cost of capital by enhancing auditor independence. However, prior literature has argued that SOX has been ineffective in meeting this objective. We contribute to this debate by first providing evidence suggesting that auditor independence has increased following SOX. Though we posit an inverse relationship between auditor independence and cost of capital, it is an open question whether this relationship has become stronger or weaker following SOX. An examination of this relationship reveals that auditor independence is more strongly related to bond rating and bond yield premium in the post-SOX period relative to the period before SOX. This evidence suggests greater price sensitivity of corporate debt to the level of auditor independence following SOX. We also show that controlling for the effect of auditor independence and other factors, cost of debt decreased following SOX.     

The Theoretical Perspectives and Managerial Implications of the Balanced Scorecard （BSC） in the Italian Public Utilities

The present work aims to conduct a critical analysis of control systems and tools of performance assessment in local public services companies, with a particular reference to the public transport sector. The interest in this issue arises for various reasons, from the growing economic significance of the sector at a national level, measurable in terms of production value and the number of operators involved, to the spread of outsourcing policies, liberalization and privatization, and the use of the standard cost to establish the level of funding. In the field of public utilities, until a few years ago, the concept of control was intended only in a ＂bureaucratic＂ sense as the capacity to fulfill the formal obligations linked to the strong regulatory context, ignoring aspects that have become fundamental today, such as economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of management. The approach used is deductive and the study ends with the presentation of the possible implications of the use of standard cost and the presentation of an application hypothesis of a balanced scorecard （BSC） for local public transport （LPT）.     

Person–organization fit and employee outcomes: test of a social exchange model

Data obtained from subordinate–supervisor dyads (N = 314) of a large manufacturing company in South Korea were used to test a moderated mediation model of the processes linking person–organization (P–O) fit and employee work attitudes and behaviors. The results revealed that the influence of P–O fit on work attitudes and behaviors was indirect through perceived social exchange with organization. In addition, the relationship between P–O fit and perceived social exchange with organization was moderated by leader–member exchange (LMX) quality. Specifically, a high-quality LMX enhanced the positive effects of P–O fit on perceived social exchange with organization.     

Organizational Control and Work Effort – Another Look at the Interplay of Rewards and Motivation

Providing rewards is a central element of organizational control systems. However, the literature is hardly helpful from a practitioner's perspective: it typically focuses on monetary rewards at the expense of non-monetary, affiliative rewards, and yet researchers disagree over the usefulness of the prior ones. Some scholars claim that monetary rewards merely replace task-related (‘intrinsic’) motivation by reward-induced external pressure (‘extrinsic’ motivation). Empirical findings are mixed, partially given the different conceptualizations of intrinsic motivation. We shed more light on the impact of both monetary and non-monetary, affiliative rewards on the willingness to exert work effort and a potential detrimental interaction with different forms of intrinsic motivation. Our experimental results suggest that monetary and affiliative rewards have different effects: affiliative rewards clearly have beneficial effects, whereas the picture for monetary rewards is more nuanced than typically assumed in literature.     

Public infrastructure provision and skilled–unskilled wage inequality in developing countries

In this paper, we develop several static three-sector general equilibrium models with diverse labor market structures to investigate the effects of government provision of public infrastructure on the skilled–unskilled wage inequality in developing countries. The basic full employment model shows that the production sectors' relative dependence on the public infrastructure provision plays a crucial role in determining the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. Different relative dependences on public infrastructure may even result in opposite changes in the skilled–unskilled wage inequality. The above results are robust even when we extend the basic full employment model to three fundamentally different cases.     

Co-Production and the Co-Creation of Value in Public Services: A suitable case for treatment?

Co-production is currently one of cornerstones of public policy reform across the globe. Inter alia, it is articulated as a valuable route to public service reform and to the planning and delivery of effective public services, a response to the democratic deficit and a route to active citizenship and active communities, and as a means by which to lever in additional resources to public service delivery. Despite these varied roles, co-production is actually poorly formulated and has become one of a series of ‘woolly-words’ in public policy. This paper presents a conceptualization of co-production that is theoretically rooted in both public management and service management theory. It argues that this is a robust starting point for the evolution of new research and knowledge about co-production and for the development of evidence-based public policymaking and implementation.