Public Versus Private Employees: Debunking Stereotypes

Abstract

This article explores whether common negative stereotypes of public employees are consistent with the descriptive and empirical literature comparing public and private employees. It reviews this literature to explore specifically whether public employees are more lazy, security-seeking, insensitive, inefficient, and incompetent than private employees. Given the ethics crises in government in the 1980s, it also explores whether public employees are less ethical than private employees. The primary focus of the article is on the findings and methodology of the empirical comparisons of public and private employees. Suggestions for future public-private comparative studies of employees are proposed.