Abating the Consequences of Managerialism on the Forgotten Employees: The Issues of Support,Control, Coping,and Pay

With the widespread and continuing adoption of managerialism in the public sector, ignoring the impact of change on employees could prevent managerialism from achieving its goals. Subsequently, this study investigates the efficacy of an augmented demand-control-support (D-C-S) model in predicting three of the key employee outcomes in the context of organizational change—psychological health, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Analyses of a survey of 207 employees in the Australian public sector, a sector that has undergone, and continues to undergo, substantial change toward managerialism, found that the augmented D-C-S model explained a significant proportion of the employee outcomes in the public sector context. The most important variables were work-based social support and job control. Coping style and perceptions of work conditions, such as pay, were also significant. The augmented D-C-S model provides a useful, proven tool for managers operating within the contemporary public sector.     

Organizational Commitment,Job Satisfaction and Attitudes toward Organizational Change: A Study in the Local Government

The present study investigates the direct and indirect relationships among job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes toward organizational change and their dimensions. Results indicated that employees in the investigated departments are highly satisfied with supervision and coworkers, whereas they are slightly satisfied with work conditions and job security, but they have low satisfaction with pay and promotion facets of the job. Results further demonstrated that employees in the investigated departments are remaining with their current departments either because they want to do so, or because they have to do so, but not because they feel they ought to do so.     

In Search of the Holy Grail in Public Service: A Study on the Mediating Effect of Public Service Motivation on Organizational Politics and Outcomes

ABSTRACT

There appears to be a research gap in terms of examining whether PSM will hold fast even in the midst of a politically charged work environment. This article investigates how highly motivated government employees would react to the potentially adverse effects of political perception (POP) on organizational commitment, job satisfaction and workplace stress. The findings indicated that PSM exists among the respondent municipal social workers in the Philippines and that this motivation directly translates to positive outcomes. However, PSM did not have the expected mediating effect which is a departure from the commonly held view about its buffering power and mitigating role.     

Job Satisfaction of Public Sector Employees in Sub-Saharan Africa: Testing the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire in Ghana

Public sector administration in sub-Saharan Africa experiences a myriad of problems of the logical perception between worker dissatisfaction and demotivation of job standards. This study tested the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) in a typical public sector organization in sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 100 usable surveys were analyzed with SPSS. A very low level of job satisfaction was indicated, and more than 83% of respondents indicated dissatisfaction in their pay and the amount of work they do. Significant differences in job satisfaction scores were also found in the educational level of staff, and between genders. The study outcome highlights the roles of employees and organizational weak spots of human resource management (HRM) practices in a typical sub-Saharan African country, and provides an alternative pathway in employee satisfaction and performance outcome.     

The Mediating role of Job Satisfaction in the Relationship between Organizational Justice and Employee Outcomes

Grounded in Social Exchange Theory and Equity Theory, this study examined the mediating role of job satisfaction on the relationships between organizational justice and employee’s outcomes. The study applied PLS-SEM to analyze data obtained from 142 employees. The results show significant relationships exist between organizational justice dimensions and job satisfaction and between job satisfaction and employee’s outcomes. Furthermore, the study found the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the hypothesized relationships. This paper contributes to the existing human resources literature on employees’ outcomes and guides management on how to improved employees’ job satisfaction and employee outcomes.     

How does council–manager conflict affect managerial turnover intention? The role of job embeddedness and cooperative context

Turnover intention is an important yet underexamined concept in local government studies. Although the association between council–manager conflict and managerial turnover intention is well documented, the underlying mechanisms have not yet been elucidated. This study fills this research gap by analysing two variables in the relationship: organizational job embeddedness and cooperative context. Results from partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) reveal that organizational job embeddedness mediates the link between task conflict and managerial turnover intention. The results also indicate that a cooperative context can moderate the negative indirect relationship between council–manager task conflict and managerial turnover intention.     

Funding,Management, and Individual-Level Factors: What Factors Matter in Predicting Perceived Organizational Effectiveness?

Scholars have examined organizational effectiveness in state and federal government agencies to determine which factors matter. Their findings revealed that public organizational effectiveness is affected by environmental, human resource management, organizational, and individual-level factors. However, what is conspicuously absent is the impact funding has on organizational effectiveness. To further previous literature, this article examined agency funding levels as well as management and individual-level factors to determine the relationship these factors had on organizational effectiveness. In doing so, a model was developed to predict perceived organizational effectiveness, and it was tested on 330 United States government workers in the state of New York. The findings from the analysis were clear: perceived organizational effectiveness was impacted by employee perceptions regarding the level of funding the agencies were allocated. Additionally, the level of role ambiguity and employee participation in decision-making as well as employee job performance and public service motivation levels were also found to matter. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed in the article.     

Analyzing the Link Between Job Satisfaction and Performance in Educational Institutions

The relationship between job satisfaction and organizational performance has been one of the most controversial issues in organizational management. This study examines how job satisfaction affects organizational performance analyzing the panel data collected from educational institutions in Korea. The results demonstrate that teachers’ organizational satisfaction is likely to improve students’ performance in standardized tests, whereas their work satisfaction is negatively related to it. Private school teachers showed higher organizational satisfaction than public school teachers and produced higher students’ test scores. No significant difference in work satisfaction between public and private school teachers was found.     

Organizational Structure,Work Involvement,and Job Performance of Public Servants

The purpose of this study is to understand the predicting role of organizational structure on job performance. Work involvement is tested as a mediator in the hypothesized link. The study presents the results of a cross-sectional survey of 256 public servants in public service departments and agencies in Malaysia. The research results have provided marginal support for the key theoretical propositions. The significant and positive impact of job codification indicates the importance of this factor in predicting job performance of public servants. The empirical link is mediated by work involvement, which suggests that there is an indirect influence of job codification on job performance. This study aims to provide additional empirical evidence on the influence of organizational structure and job performance in the public sector.     

Dialogue and the Administrator-Mediator

Abstract

Conflict resolution is a widespread challenge in organizational life. Many common sense ideas about conflict fail to take into account communication behavior in a psychosocial context. Instead, they focus on “moves” and established techniques as the way to solve problems. This article presents a deeper conceptualization of conflict, mediation, and peacemaking that focuses upon psychosocial and existential issues embedded in both conflict and peacemaking. The central theme is that a host of human developmental variables interfere with “authentic dialogue.” These are the key for constructive and lasting dispute resolution.     

An examination of job attitudes of white,black, and hispanic nurses in a public hospital

This paper reviews the literature on racial differences in job satisfaction and examines differences among whites, blacks and hispanics in job-related attitudes for a sample of nurses employed in a public hospital. Levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job burnout were compared among the three race categories. Results indicated that significant differences existed for levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job burnout among whites, blacks and hispanics. Hispanics reported significantly higher job satisfaction than whites and blacks, and whites reported less organizational commitment and higher levels of job burnout than blacks.     

Creating Better Employees through Positive Leadership Behavior in the Public Sector

This paper advances the notion that leaders’ behavior in public organizations impacts employee emotions and workplace functioning. The paper proposes a conceptual model showing the impact that specific leader behaviors have on employee momentary emotions and thereby subjective well-being, organizational citizenship behavior, and job performance. Findings from research on leader behaviors and follower outcomes in private organizations and workplace emotions are used to show the importance of understanding and promoting types of leader behaviors that enhance employee and organizational outcomes within public institutions. It is expected that this model will facilitate future research in this area.     

Cargo cult science,armchair empiricism and the idea of violent conflict

In this paper I develop a philosophical and methodological critique of ‘rationalist’—or ‘social scientific’—approaches to the study of civil war and violent conflict, especially the work of Paul Collier and David Laitin. Rationalist scholars purport to develop universal explanations for the outbreak and the protracted duration of violent conflict using econometric techniques and rational choice reasoning. My critique of their ‘scientific method’ can be summarised in two propositions: first, the scientific approach is considered to be a ‘cargo cult’ science—the cult being universal law-like causalities underpinning social phenomena. Second, most empirical research in this tradition is based on doubtful statistics enriched with anecdotal evidence rather than by empirical field work. Hence, rationalist scholars largely conduct an ‘armchair empiricism’ instead of immersing themselves in the complex nature of social mechanisms in a specific space-time context. I briefly sketch out an alternative approach based on critical realism and how such a research programme could work in practice for studying the political economy of violent conflicts.     

Comparing public servants' behavior in South Korea and the United States: How emotional labor moderates the relationship between organizational commitment and job performance

The relationship between organizational commitment and job performance matters in public service delivery, and so does the emotive dimension of the citizen—state interaction. However, public management theories and principles must take national culture into account, because comparative investigation reveals limits to generalizability across cultures. This study provides an example. It examines the link between commitment and performance as well as the moderating effect of emotional labor for public service workers in Korea and the United States. Probably due to the differing effect of collectivist versus individualist norms, findings reveal that authentic emotive expression bolsters the relationship between organizational commitment and job performance in Korea, while its opposite, inauthentic emotive expression weakens the link between commitment and performance in the United States. 공공서비스를 전달하는 과정에서 조직몰입과 직무성과의 관계는 중요한 문제이며, 이에 못지않게 시민-국가 상호작용에 있어서 감정적 차원 또한 중요한 문제이다. 공공관리 이론이나 원리를 연구할 때 국가차원의 문화를 고려할 필요가 있는데, 이는 비교연구의 수행이 서로 다른 문화들을 일반화하는 데 따른 한계점을 파악할 수 있게 해 주기 때문이다. 본 연구는 이러한 측면에서 하나의 본보기를 제시한다. 이 연구는 몰입과 성과의 관계를 고찰할 뿐만 아니라 감정노동의 조절효과를 미국과 한국의 공공부문 종사자들을 통하여 살펴본다. 본 연구의 결과는 한국의 공공조직에서 진성 감정표현이 조직몰입과 직무성과를 강화해 줄 수 있으며, 이와는 대조적으로 미국의 공공조직에서는 비진성 감정표현이 몰입과 성과의 관계를 약화시킬 수 있다는 점을 보여준다. 이러한 결과는 집단주의 문화와 개인주의 문화가 서로 다른 영향을 미친 것으로 보인다.     

Mapping Organizational Change in the State: Challenges and Classifications

The article discusses possible answers to the question of what constitutes different types of change of state organizations. Drawing upon contributions from organization theory and public administration, classifications of different types of births, survivals, and deaths, are discussed and outlined, providing a mapping of organizational change in state administration along the horizontal as well as the vertical dimension. As an illustration, the article also shows how a detailed classification has been used in the Norwegian State Administration Database.     

Linking Organizational Climate to Work Engagement: A Study in the Healthcare Sector

Using a two-level structural equation approach, this article investigates the links between organizational climate and work engagement in a sample of public hospitals in Italy. Drawing from the Job Demands-Resources model, the model posits a positive association between work engagement and a climate promoting worker’s autonomy, empowerment, and well-being, whereas it suggests that a climate based on efficiency and goal attainment is not favorable for engagement. Results support the hypotheses and suggest that performance based models implemented in recent years as part of public sector reforms are not conducive to engaged workers. Implications for research on work engagement in the public sector and for public management are drawn.     

Work Engagement in the Public Service Context: The Dual Perceptions of Job Characteristics

Interest in work engagement research has increased significantly due to its positive influence on both employee and organizational performance. Studies show how engagement is explained through job characteristics in the Job Demands-Resource model, yet a more nuanced approach has been proposed. In this qualitative study, home caregivers’ perceptions of job characteristics are investigated. Semi-structured interviews and observations reveal three main themes: Optimization, helping others, and emotional work. These show a dual perception of job characteristics consequently influencing the experienced engagement. Using Public Service Motivation literature, these dual perceptions are discussed.     

Strategic change,leadership and accounting: A triptych of organizational reform

Strategic change in public sector organizations has been well documented. This article suggests that public management research would benefit from a greater appreciation of how calculative practices are deeply imbricated with, and constitutive of, organizational life. In turn, the article argues that the field of interdisciplinary accounting has much to learn from public administration, especially in terms of leadership. The overarching argument is that understanding strategic change in public organizations can be enhanced by bringing together insights from the academic fields of public administration and interdisciplinary accounting. In this respect, organizational reform can be understood as a triptych, involving strategic change, leadership and accounting practices. We illustrate this thesis through a case study of strategic change in the world's largest public service broadcaster—the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It is shown how, during the tenure of one organizational leader—John Birt—accounting became pivotal to his leadership.