Public Sector Professionals: The Effects of Public Sector Jobs on Motivation, Job Satisfaction and Work Involvement

Abstract

This article reports on an empirical study of the job characteristics of public sector professionals and the impact of these characteristics on motivation, job satisfaction, and work involvement. We collected data from a random sample of professional and blue-collar workers in state government. The findings are: 1) though public sector professionals job characteristics are consistent with the normative data from the job diagnostic survey, job satisfaction and work involvement are lower than those of blue-collar workers, and work motivation is no higher than that of blue-collar workers; 2) job characteristics do not explain variations in professionals' satisfaction, motivation, and involvement, rather they are explained by social satisfaction, fulfillment of employees' intrinsic needs (especially growth needs), and information from others on job performance. These findings contradict some studies in organizational behavior literature and raise questions about the nature of public sector work. We specifically discuss the role of job design for improving public sector professional work.