Nous comparons, au moyen du dispositif d'enquêtes couplées sur les Changements Organisationnels et l'Informatisation (COI), les effets des changements sur l'évolution de l'engagement au travail des salariés des secteurs public et privé. Le constat que nous établissons est celui d'une non convergence entre les secteurs. Les agents de l'État font part d'une baisse de leur implication face aux changements organisationnels, alors que dans le secteur privé ces changements s'accompagnent du développement ou au moins du maintien de l'implication au travail. Par ailleurs, les salariés du secteur privé déclarent un sentiment de reconnaissance équitable au travail qui décroît à mesure qu'augmentent les changements informatiques et qui se détériore lorsque les changements des outils de gestion atteignent un niveau élevé, mais ces effets sont amortis par la présence conjointe de changements dans les deux domaines. C'est quasiment l'inverse que l'on observe dans le secteur public avec un effet négatif des changements gestionnaires qui s'atténue avec leur intensité et une combinaison des deux domaines de changements qui conduit la plupart du temps à un renforcement de la perception d'un déséquilibre de la balance investissements-bénéfices. Ces résultats persistent lorsque l'on prend en considération la sélection volontaire des salariés dans les deux secteurs, ainsi que le turnover de la main d'oeuvre observé dans le secteur privé. Nous montrons enfin que la mise en place dans la période de changements d'un salaire variable avec la performance n'est pas à la source des écarts constatés entre les deux secteurs. SummaryUsing a linked employer-employee survey on computerisation and organisational change (COI), we compare the effects of organisational changes on the evolution of employee commitment in public and private sector organisations. Our main finding is that of a non-convergence between the two sectors. Confronted with organisational changes, civil servants express a declining involvement whereas in the private sector these changes are associated with the development or at least the maintenance of work involvement. Furthermore, private sector employees report that their feeling of fair work recognition decreases with the intensity of computer changes and deteriorates when changes in management tools reach a high level, but these effects are weakened by the joint presence of changes in both areas. It is almost the opposite that is observed in the public sector, with a negative effect of managerial changes that is lessened when their intensity grows and a combination of changes in both areas that strengthens most of the time the perception of an effort-reward imbalance. These results hold if we take into account both the voluntary selection of employees in each sector and the labour force turnover observed in the private sector. We finally show that the implementation of performance pay during the period of changes is not the source of the observed differences between the two sectors.

We investigate the human sustainability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and management changes using a French linked employer-employee survey on organizational changes and computerization. We approach the human sustainability of changes through the evolutions of work intensity, skills utilization, and the subjective relationship to work. We compare in the private sector and the state civil service the impacts of ICT and management changes on the evolution of these three dimensions of work experience. We find that intense ICT and management changes are associated, in the public sector, with work intensification and knowledge increase. In the private sector, ICT and management changes increase the use of skills, but at a rate decreasing with their intensity and without favoring the accumulation of new knowledge. However, their impacts on the subjective relationship to work are much stronger, with public sector employees expressing discouragement, as well as the feeling of an increased effort-reward imbalance when private sector employees become more committed. We find that this divergence is neither explained by the self-selection of employees in the two sectors nor by implementation of performance pay. We identify two partial explanations: one is related to employee turnover in the private sector, the other to the role of trade unions. These results suggest that the human sustainability of ICT and management changes depends on their intensity and on how their implementation takes into account the institutional context of the organization.

We investigate the human sustainability of ICT and management changes using a French linked employer-employee survey on organizational changes and computerization (COI). We approach the human sustainability of changes through the evolutions of work intensity, skill utilization and the subjective relationship to work. We compare in the private sector and the State civil service the impacts of ICT and management changes on the evolution of these three dimensions of work experience. We find that when ICT and management changes are intense, they are positively associated in the public sector with work intensification and new knowledge. In the private sector ICT and management changes increase the use of skills, but at a rate decreasing with their intensity and without favoring the accumulation of new knowledge. However, their impacts on the subjective relationship to work are much stronger, with public sector employees expressing discouragement as well as the feeling of an increased effort-reward imbalance when private sector employees become more committed. We tested that the self-selection of employees, the specific sources and paths of changes and the implementation of performance pay did not explain this divergence. We identify two partial explanations: one is related with employee turnover in the private sector, the other one with the role of trade unions. These results suggest that the human sustainability of ICT and management changes depends on their intensity and on how their implementation takes into account the institutional context of the organization.

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