Job Values in Today's Workforce: A Comparison of Public and Private Sector Employees

Abstract

Unlike workers in the ′70s and ′80s who valued interesting work above everything else, the results of this study suggest today's workers place the highest value on good wages and job security. A comparison of public and private sector workers revealed private sector workers place the highest value on good wages, while public sector workers valued interesting work the most. No significant difference was found between public and private sector employees in the importance placed on job security. These results suggest employers need to keep in touch with current employee values in order to design jobs, reward systems, and human resource policies that will result in maximum job satisfaction and productivity. These results also suggest that reward systems may not be equally effective in both the public and private sectors.

Are public officials really less satisfied than private sector workers?A comparative study in Brazil

“…On assessing data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY), DeSantis and Durst (1996) show that public employees report higher work satisfaction than private employees regarding organizational climate and quality of supervision. Karl and Sutton (1998) compared 170 public organizations with 47 private firms in the U.S. The results indicate that private sector workers value good wages the most, while public sector workers place higher value on significant and interesting work.…”

“…For example, questions related to job security and social environment, public employees display higher levels of work satisfaction than private employees (DeTienne et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2012). However, when the questions are about compensation and the possibility of growth, private employees report significantly higher levels of work satisfaction (see also Rainey, 1983;Buelens and Broeck, 2007;Karl and Sutton, 1998).…”

Employment sector and pay gaps: Genetic and environmental influences

“…The second group of attributes relates to individual psychological factors. Many studies have found that some individuals are more attracted to and motivated to begin public service work (e.g., Perry and Wise 1990); public sector employees value non-monetary benefits more highly (e.g., Crewson 1997, Karl andSutton 1998), and public sector jobs are especially attractive to risk-averse individuals 1 Using data for German males, Dustmann and van Soest (1998) found that the positive effect of education on public sector employment choice disappears after controlling education with family background variables. Based on this finding, they conclude that the positive relationship found in standard models is not structural but rather reflects unobserved heterogeneity.…”

Wie is die trotse ambtenaar? Een onderzoek naar de determinanten van beroepstrots

“…Uit onderzoek blijkt dat loopbaanontwikkelingsmogelijkheden belangrijk worden geacht door ambtenaren voor hun ontwikkeling van trots (Vermeeren & Van Geest, 2012: 323 (Karl & Sutton, 1998;Perry & Wise, 1990;Rainey, 1982 Voor hypothese zes -aard van het werk -zijn alle respondenten op basis van hun antwoorden ingedeeld in de groep overwegend uitvoerende ambtenaren dan wel overwegend beleidsvoorbereidende/beleidsmakende ambtenaren (zie de appendix voor verdere uitleg). Voor het toetsen van de variabele behorende bij hypothese zeven -relatie met collega's -zijn de antwoorden op de bijbehorende stelling gedichotomiseerd naar (helemaal) oneens en (zeer) mee eens.…”