Employee Fit and Job Satisfaction in Bureaucratic and Entrepreneurial Work Environments

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17693056
• Date: 01 March 2019
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X17693056

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2019, Vol. 39(1) 135 –155

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X17693056

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Article

Employee Fit and Job

Satisfaction in Bureaucratic

and Entrepreneurial Work

Environments

Julie Langer1, Mary K. Feeney2, and Sang Eun Lee2

Abstract

Job satisfaction has long proved an elusive construct in public management research.

Typically, research investigating job satisfaction in the public sector has emphasized a

direct link between work environment and individual attitudes. But, some argue that

the interaction between work environment and employee attitudes is a more accurate

starting point for understanding satisfaction. This analysis investigates the effect that

bureaucratic and entrepreneurial work environments have on job satisfaction when

employee–organization value congruence is introduced as a mediating factor. The

results indicate that job satisfaction has a direct negative relationship with centralized

work environments and an indirect positive relationship with entrepreneurial ones,

and thus highlight a more complex relationship between work environment and job

satisfaction than previously thought. While some environmental reforms may directly

influence satisfaction, these findings indicate that value congruence is an important

individual-level mechanism that can transform the relationship between the external

environment and individual attitudes at work.

Keywords

job satisfaction, person–organization fit, value congruence, work environment

Introduction

The study of an employee’s fit within an organization is an area of research steeped in

a vibrant and venerable history of academic thought (Chatman, 1989; Kristof-Brown,

1University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

2Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Corresponding Author:

Julie Langer, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, 412 S. Peoria

Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.

Email: jlange8@uic.edu

693056ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X17693056Review of Public Personnel AdministrationLanger et al.

research-article2017

136 Review of Public Personnel Administration 39(1)

Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005). More than 100 years ago, Parsons (1909) noted that

individuals who align their values and work environment will generally be happier,

more satisfied, and more productive over the course of their lifetime. Scholars from

diverse backgrounds in management, public administration, psychology, and organi-

zational behavior have investigated both the effects of work environment (Odom,

Boxx, & Dunn, 1990; Shalley, Gilson, & Blum, 2000) and employee–organization

value congruence (Jin, McDonald, & Park, 2016; Posner, 1992; Wright & Pandey,

2008) on employee attitudes and behaviors in the workplace.

In the public sector, early concerns regarding the appropriate structure of govern-

ment, the role of individual values in the workplace (Simon, 1952; Waldo, 1952), and

anxieties about the government’s ability to attract and retain skilled workers led to an

increase in research investigating the effect of public work environments on employee

attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction (Frank & Lewis, 2004; Thompson,

1994). In many instances, public sector employees were found to be less satisfied than

their private sector counterparts with respect to how well their job fulfilled their need

for autonomy and respect (Wright & Davis, 2003). Such findings were often attributed

to the bureaucratic work environments of public sector organizations, characterized as,

“gargantuan, cynically impersonal, bound up in meaningless paperwork, and beset by

excessive, duplicative and unnecessary procedures” (Bozeman & Feeney, 2011, p. 5).

In an effort to suppress these “bureaucratic pathologies,” increase job satisfaction, and

enhance organizational productivity, modern reinvention reforms aimed to improve

the bureaucratic work environment at every level of American government (F. J.

Thompson, 1994).

In the United States, reinvention reforms were especially prevalent during the

1990s as evidenced by the National Performance Review (NPR) at the federal level

and Hard Truths/Tough Choices; an Agenda for State and Local Reform, a report by

the National Commission on State and Local Public Service. These reports, which

were part of the New Public Management (NPM) movement, highlighted the need for

public agencies to be more entrepreneurial, efficient, flexible, and responsive to citi-

zen needs. This managerial revolution in the public sector was broadly aimed at alter-

ing both the values and work environments of government organizations. Early

supporters of the NPM believed such reforms would not only increase efficiency and

accountability in government agencies, but also foster more innovative and dynamic

work environments where employees would feel empowered and more satisfied in

their roles (F. J. Thompson, 1994).

Although strong sociological and structural undercurrents dominate much of the

early public management literature centered on environmental reform such as evi-

dences by the NPM movement, behavioral theorists have long debated the influence

of person effects versus situation effects on individual attitudes and behaviors. Because

behavior is the result of a close relationship between individuals and their environment

(Lewin, 1938), interactional psychology suggests that elements of both the person and

the context need to be addressed simultaneously to more accurately predict individual

attitudes and behaviors (Terborg, 1981). From an organizational perspective, the

employee–organization value congruence construct has been widely employed to