Why do Third Sector Employees Intend to Remain or Leave their Workplace?

Abstract

Third sector employees have claimed to enjoy high job satisfaction and low turnover intentions because their work is considered intrinsically rewarding. Employees have strong motivation for public service and they consider the organization’s goals as their own. This makes work meaningful and thus reduces turnover intentions. Changes in the third sector institutional environment, however, have intensified the working environment. This probably undermines job quality and thus increases turnover intentions. The analysis conducted among Finnish third sector employees showed that third sector employees report more turnover intentions than their counterparts in the public or private sector. This is mostly because of low job quality. Motivation for public service was not enough to retain employees in the organization if their values were not congruent with those of the employer organization. Thus, connection between public service motivation and turnover intentions is dependent on the organizational context. More important than employees’ desire to help others is their sharing of the employer organization’s values and that the organization provides high job quality.

Is Public Service Motivation a Better Explanation of Nonprofit Career Preferences Than Government Career Preferences?

“… 1. Existing research also suggest that nonprofit employees and volunteers are also driven by egoistic motives (Mesch, Tschirhart, Perry, & Lee, 1998; Selander & Ruuskanen, 2016; Veludo-de-Oliveira, Pallister, & Foxall, 2015). …”

Social Innovation for Work Inclusion – Contributions of Swedish Third Sector Organizations

“…The role of third sector actors has mainly been discussed in regard to WISE and cross-sector partnerships in social innovation studies (Leca et al 2019;Oeij et al 2018) and in regard to professionalization and organizational management in civil society studies (Hvenmark 2013(Hvenmark , 2016. It is concluded that TSOs are increasingly run by paid employees rather than unpaid volunteers, despite their long tradition of combining employment and volunteering in their operations (Jutterström et al 2018;Selander & Ruuskanen 2016). Surveys reveal that employees in Swedish TSOs find their work to be more meaningful, free, and flexible than in the private or public sector, while the working conditions, wage levels, and career opportunities are considered to be poorer (Jutterström et al 2018;Unionen 2016).…”