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.     

Determinants of Performance in Government: Focusing on the Effect of Organizational Politics and Conflicts in Organizations

Conflicts and politics in organizations are common in both the public and private sectors. However, there are few comprehensive studies regarding the relationship between politics, conflicts, and outcomes in the public sector. Therefore, this study sought to empirically explore the relationships between organizational performance, organizational conflicts, and organizational politics in the public sector. To analyze the effects of organizational politics and conflicts on performance in government organizations, hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed. The results indicated that organizational politics and relationship conflicts negatively affect organizational performance.     

ETHICAL CLIMATE AND RULE BENDING: HOW ORGANIZATIONAL NORMS CONTRIBUTE TO UNINTENDED RULE CONSEQUENCES

Rules help ensure consistent employee behaviour, yet rule bending occurs in public organizations every day. Previous research indicates that rule bending is influenced by organizational structure and personal characteristics (DeHart‐Davis 2007). This present study considers the influence of organizational norms on rule bending by exploring the impact of ethical climate, which signals to employees the best course of action when faced with situations that are ethical in nature (Victor and Cullen 1987, 1988). To investigate this relationship, survey data from employees of a large American local government are analysed. Results from a structural equation model show that three ethical climates – ‘organization interest’, ‘team interest’, and ‘rules/SOP’ – significantly influence rule bending. Findings suggest that organizational norms play a critical role for employee behaviour and public managers can consider rule bending and ethical climate as impetuses for organizational change.     

Operationalizing Strategy Content: An Example from the Transit Industry

While models of organizational strategy saturate private sector research, public sector research lags behind. The model created by Boyne and Walker (2004) is an exception. The main objective of this study is to operationalize this model using a unique data set from the US transit industry. Through a survey of 103 local transit agencies, we developed separate strategy profiles for each agency that help us answer important questions about organizational strategy. We find that not only do the organizations adopt a mix of strategic stances through the action areas; they also have distinct profiles, which vary greatly between agencies.     

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.     

Transition in government pay policies: The problem of legitimacy

In this article the problem of legitimacy is discussed in the context of pay-for-performance in government agencies. The doctrine of a new public management implies a direct single track between individual performance and organizational result. In practice, however, this seems to be much more complex. It will be argued on theoretical and empirical grounds that public agencies will be hard-pressed to resolve the tension between quality and efficiency imposed by the new pay system. An examination of four empirical cases in different national agencies reveals that the bonus system creates a delicate management problem and poses a risk for the perceived legitimacy of public sector pay.     

Predicting executive vacancies: An organizational approach

When an executive departs, some organizations experience a vacancy while others do not. Recent research shows that the occurrence and length of vacancy instances within and across sectors varies widely. However, the causes of such variance in vacancies have yet to be carefully addressed by public management research. This study explores the determinants of executive vacancy, focusing specifically on organizational-level characteristics of size, performance, and sector as well as the role of anticipation of a departure. We use data from public and private US doctoral universities to identify 230 leadership transitions between 1993 and 2013. In this context, we find that anticipation of departure is an extremely strong predictor of vacancy. Moreover, private universities are significantly less likely than their public counterparts to experience executive vacancy while organizational performance and size do not appear to influence vacancy.     

Planning, Performance And Public Services

The policies of the Labour government in the UK place renewed emphasis on rational planning in the public sector. The government’s assumption is that this approach to decision making will lead to improvements in performance. Although the theoretical costs and benefits of rational planning have been widely debated in the public administration literature, no systematic empirical research on the impact of planning on the performance of public organizations has been conducted. By contrast, the relationship between rational planning and the success of private firms has been investigated extensively. A meta‐analysis and critical review of this evidence suggests that planning is generally associated with superior performance. However, important questions remain unresolved. For example, under what circumstances does planning work best, and which elements of planning are most important? Therefore, although it may be appropriate to encourage public agencies to consider carefully the potential benefits of planning, rational processes should not be imposed upon them.     

Performance and Equality in Public Sector Wages

Abstract

The present paper describes how democratic values—reflected by work equality values—paired with the organizational performance characteristics—defined by the height of organizational inputs and outputs—affect gender differences in wages. It is suggested here that despite the democratic conception of the public sector's equal employment opportunities, variations in the organizational performance of 83 local authorities account for gender differences in wages. The study assumes that organizational inputs (type and level of resources) and outputs (type and level of provided services) generate gender differences in individual earnings, when controlling for human capital factors. The results show that variations in organizational performance affect women's but not men's wages. However, the effect of individual level (demographic, human capital and employment) characteristics, reflecting the meritocracy‐based and democratic nature of public sector employment rather than the level of organizational performance explains most of the variance in gender differences in wages. These results point to the slow shift from the principle of administrative values of democracy and equality to the adoption of performance‐related mechanisms in the determination of public sector wages.     

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION FOR DECISION MAKING IN AUSTRALIAN STATE AGENCIES

Is the state of a performance measurement system the most important element for promoting the utilization of performance indicators (PIs) in the public sector? Or are there other more influential factors, such as organizational culture, or even individual perceptions on the merit of performance measurement for their agency? Through a survey on a small group of managers specializing in performance measurement in 21 Australian state government agencies, this research examines the relative influence of the following factors on the use of PIs for internal decision making: the agency's performance measurement system, stakeholder support for the agency's performance measurement, organizational culture, the external environment, and individual perceptions on the impact of performance measurement in the agency.     

Satisfaction with and Success of Employee Training from a Public Service Motivation Perspective

New public management requires modernization processes, including modern human resource practices, to enhance public sector performance. According to human capital theory, well-qualified and highly motivated public sector employees improve institutional performance; this study investigates the extent to which employee training as human resource practice can enhance one component of employees’ public service motivation (PSM), namely public interest, and their competencies as employee outcome. We examine public interest as a mediator or a moderator of the relationship between satisfaction with employee training and the resulting competence gain. The findings indicate a positive direct effect of satisfaction with employee training on competence gains and a mediating effect of public interest.     

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.     

Ethics in organizations: a perspective on reciprocation

Some scholars have assigned the responsibility for ethical conduct in the public sector to individual administrators. Supporters of this perspective contend that individuals are able to introduce ethics into the administrative process by assuming personal responsibility for ethical action. The inference is that organizations cannot be expected to assume responsibility for ethical conduct.

Conversely the contention that individual ethics are inadequate in organizations is posed as a counter argument. Supporters of this contention argue that individual integrity does not mean that organizations will act ethically. They argue that organizational ethics are independent of individual ethics. Hence, they are treated as separate entities that do not compliment each other.

An argument that organizations and individuals engage in complimentary actions which lead to ethical conduct is largely absent in the literature. I argue that there is a reciprocal relationship between individuals and organizations. Thus, individual and organizational ethics are not separate but interactive entities     

A Preliminary Examination of Citizen Orientation and Multiple Dimensions of Organizational Performance

In this article, I discuss citizen orientated public management in relation to extant frameworks and theories in public management and organization research, including the role of the public servant, collaborative public management, citizen coproduction, and relational bureaucracy. Following the discussion, I hypothesize about the relationship between public organizations’ citizen orientations and multiple dimensions of organizational performance. I use data from approximately 900 New York City elementary and middle schools from 2008 to 2011 to examine the relationship. Preliminary findings indicate that a citizen orientation is positively related to multiple dimensions of public organization performance.     

WHAT WORKS BEST WHEN CONTRACTING FOR SERVICES? AN ANALYSIS OF CONTRACTING PERFORMANCE AT THE LOCAL LEVEL IN THE US

During the last decade the field of public administration has undergone a period of renewed interest in the topic of performance and effectiveness. Key contributions to the growing stream of research on public sector performance include work focusing on the adoption and implementation of performance measurement in the public sector (see, for example, Julnes and Holzer 2001; Behn 2003 ); theoretical and empirical research on management’s effect on organizational performance (see, for example, O’Toole and Meier 1999; Meier and O’Toole 2002 ); and efforts to identify the determinants of organizational effectiveness (see, for example, Rainey and Steinbauer 1999; Brewer and Selden 2004 ). Surprisingly, this literature includes very few studies that explicitly address the issue of performance in contracting for services (exceptions include Domberger and Hensher 1993; Romzek and Johnstone 2002 ). In the United States alone, hundreds of billions of dollars are contracted out every year, and innumerable policies and programmes are implemented, at least in part, through contractual arrangements between public agencies and private providers ( Savas 2000; DeHoog and Salamon 2002; Kelman 2002; Cooper 2003 ). Moreover, contracting for services appears to be a growing trend in Western Europe and other regions ( Kettl 2000; Savas 2000 ). With the stakes so high, there is a pressing need for research that identifies factors and practices that contribute to success in contracting for services. This paper takes on the challenge by developing a model of contracting performance and testing it using Substantively Weighted Analytic Techniques (SWAT), a new methodology that allows researchers to isolate high performance among a large number of observations in order to identify variables practitioners can manipulate to improve practice ( Meier and Gill 2000 ).     

What Foster the Climate for Merit?: Test of a Mediation Model

ABSTRACT

The failure of performance management in the public sector can be conceived as the failure to create the right climate for merit. This study proposes a mediation model explaining howorganizational climate for merit can be fostered. The analysis of the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey reveals that constructive use of effective performance feedback and encouraging participation will help create a climate for merit and that such associations were mediated by organizational justice perception and trust toward their supervisor.     

Does organizational performance affect employee turnover? A re-examination of the turnover–performance relationship

A common problem with using organizational performance as the dependent variable is the ignoring of feedback effect. The current conceptualization of the turnover–performance relationship is mostly unidirectional, focusing on how turnover affects organizational performance. Only a few scholars have investigated the possible reverse relationship between turnover and performance. Aiming to further the research on the feedback effect of organizational performance, this study employed cross-lagged structural equation models that are especially suitable for modelling the possible reverse relationships between variables. Data were collected from public elementary and middle schools in New York City over a three-year period. The results consistently show that organizational performance was negatively related to subsequent employee turnover. This research contributes to the development of a more valid and comprehensive understanding of the relationship between employee turnover and organizational performance.     

The Pursuit of Responsive Museum Governance: Community Engagement in Turkish Public Museums

The public museum sector does not remain untouched by the main trends and changes in public administration, even if it has some different characteristics from other government agencies in terms of administrative priorities and purpose. This is why the sector has been largely influenced by the prevailing administrative model of the era. Today, community engagement has become one of the main topics in the sector in parallel with the changes in public administration. Thus, the objective of this study is to propose and test a model that explains Turkish public museums’ community engagement performance. Findings of the research show that goal clarity is the most important factor in the community engagement performance of Turkish public museums, whereas museum infrastructure is surprisingly the least significant factor. Furthermore, this study reveals the positive correlation between the fulfilment of endogenous and exogenous functions of the public museums. Therefore, any effort to make them more engaged in their community should not be regarded as an alternative of their primary functions, namely endogenous functions.     

Understanding the organizational learning culture—Innovative behavior relation in local government: The roles of knowledge sharing and job autonomy

Drawing from research on organizational learning culture, knowledge sharing (KS), and job characteristics theory, this study investigates the mediating role of KS in the link between organizational learning culture (OLC) and employee's innovative behavior (IB), as well as how this mediating effect might be moderated by job autonomy (JA). Data captured from 1420 public employees of 33 local governments in South Korea shows that OLC affects employees' IB, while the effect size is reduced when controlling for the role of KS. Further, JA moderates the positive relationship between KS and IB, such that the relationship becomes invigorated at higher levels of JA. The findings also reveal that the indirect effect of OLC on IB through KS is more pronounced at higher levels of JA, which offers evidence of moderated mediation. We discuss the significant implications of our findings for future research and practice.     

The Influence of Leader Behaviors on Organizational Commitment: A Study in the Australian Public Sector

Abstract

Over the past decade the area of organizational commitment has received considerable attention from both researchers and managers. Of particular interest are the links between this and other constructs such as trust, task performance, and turnover. Despite the widespread acknowledgment of the importance and value of organizational commitment, there has been limited research that has specifically addressed the relationship between leader behavior and employee commitment, particularly in the public sector. The present study examines the nature of the relationships between organizational commitment and two dimensions of leader behavior—supportive behaviors and extinction behaviors—in an Australian Federal Government organization. It was found that, while controlling for demographic variables, both extinction and supportive leader behaviors affect organizational commitment. Furthermore, a significant interaction of these two variables was found. This indicates that an increase in supportive leader behaviors together with a decrease in extinction leader behaviors will likely lead to a more than proportionate increase in levels of organizational commitment. Implications for managers and further research directions are discussed.