Commentary: Public and Private Sector Employee Perceptions: Making the Differences Matter

• Author: John M. Palguta
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12365
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• Date: 01 May 2015

Commentary

John M. Palguta is vice president

for policy at the nonpartisan, nonprof‌i t

Partnership for Public Service. Prior to join-

ing the Partnership in 2001, he was a career

member of the federal Senior Executive

Service and director of policy and evaluation

for the U.S. Merit System Protection Board,

the culmination of a federal career spanning

almost 34 years, and devoted to public

sector human resource management and

related public policy issues.

E-mail: jpalguta@ourpublicservice.org

490 Public Administration Review • May | June 2015

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 75, Iss. 3, pp. 490–491. © 2015 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12365.

• “Considering everything, how satisf‌i ed are you

with your organization?” (very satisf‌i ed = 1, very

dissatisf‌i ed = 5)

When we published the f‌i rst Best Places results in

calendar year 2003, the government-wide Best Places

index score was 60.5, meaning that about 60.5 per-

cent of all federal employees gave, on average, a posi-

tive response (strongly agree or agree; very satisf‌i ed or

satisf‌i ed) to these three questions. By 2010, that score

had increased to 65.0. It then started a precipitous

decline, and in 2014 a new low was reached when,

among the 392,752 federal employees who responded

to the survey, only about 56.9 percent of them gave,

on average, a positive response to our three key ques-

tions.  e composite responses from private sector

employees (compiled by Hay Group based on survey

responses from more than 6.7 million employees at

400 companies around the world) saw movement

in the opposite direction. In calendar year 2014, for

example, the comparable Best Places score for the pri-

vate sector was 72—more than 15 points higher than

in the federal workforce. Clearly, federal employees

were reacting very dif‌f erently to their work environ-

ment compared with their private sector counterparts.

 e good news is that there is considerable inter-

est in the public sector in taking action to improve

employee satisfaction and engagement.  is interest

is driven by a growing recognition of the positive

correlation between improved organizational ef‌f ective-

ness and increased employee engagement. In fact, the

Barack Obama administration has made strengthen-

ing federal employee engagement and organizational

performance a cross-agency priority goal.  e f‌i ndings

in the article by Bullock, Stritch, and Rainey can help.

In that context, here are three suggested responses to

the “so what” question for the public sector:

1. Because public sector employees are more

likely than those in the private sector to feel

rewarded and motivated by perceived social

impact—that is, helping others and doing

The very well-done article “International

Comparison of Public and Private Employees’

Work Motives, Attitudes, and Perceived

Rewards” by Justin B. Bullock, Justin M. Stritch, and

Hal G. Rainey provides some thought-provoking

research and analysis about similarities and dif‌f er-

ences in what attracts and motivates employees in

each sector.  is is particularly timely and relevant

information for public administrators and public

policy of‌f‌i cials in the United States given the beating

that much of the public sector workforce has taken

over the last several years with diminished resources,

increased workloads, politically or ideologically driven

denigration of public service, and, on occasion,

diminished pay and benef‌i t packages. Knowing what

motivates and engages employees in the workplace can

be a powerful tool for countering some of the nega-

tive impact of those developments. As with any tool,

however, it can be wasted if it is not used or if it is not

used well. Answering the “so what” question can help.

After reading the article by Bullock, Stritch, and

Rainey, I found myself ref‌l ecting on the results of the

annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey con-

ducted by the U.S. Of‌f‌i ce of Personnel Management.

My organization, the Partnership for Public Service,

uses the results of that survey to track and compare

employee satisfaction and commitment within and

among individual federal organizations. We also track

employee satisfaction government-wide against a pri-

vate sector benchmark. We publish the results online

at http://www.bestplacestowork.org.

In our Best Places to Work in the Federal Government

rankings, we use a weighted average of the positive

responses to three questions to create a Best Places

index score.  ose questions are as follows:

• “I recommend my organization as a good place to

work.” (strongly agree = 1, strongly disagree = 5)

• “Considering everything, how satisf‌i ed are you

with your job?” (very satisf‌i ed = 1, very dissatis-

f‌i ed = 5)

Public and Private Sector Employee Perceptions:

Making the Dif‌f erences Matter

John M. Palguta

Partnership for Public Service