Working across the divide: Job involvement in the public and nonprofit sectors

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2009

Publication Title

Review of Public Personnel Administration

Volume

29

Issue

2

First page number:

103

Last page number:

133

Abstract

Job involvement is a principal factor in the lives of most people; employees in the workplace are mentally and emotionally influenced by their degree of involvement in work. Using the data from the National Administrative Studies Project III, this study empirically compares the level of job involvement between managers in the public and nonprofit sectors and explores different aspects including demographic, managerial, and institutional factors that contribute to the apparent differences. The results of the study indicate that the mean level of nonprofit managers' job involvement is significantly greater than for public managers. Each sector had specific variables that significantly and uniquely contributed to job involvement. Overall, the results suggest a need to more fully investigate the various mechanisms and functions of situational and organizational contexts, organizational norms, and culture that were associated with job involvement regardless of sector. Implications and limitations of this research are also discussed.

Keywords

Civil service; Corporate culture; Employees – Attitudes; Job enrichment; Job satisfaction; Nonprofit organizations – Employees

Disciplines

Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation | Public Administration | Public Policy | Work, Economy and Organizations

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

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