Mission Match and Organizational Satisfaction: Testing the Mediating Role of Perceived Reputation

• Author: Yongjin Ahn
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221096857
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221096857

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(3) 355 –379

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260221096857

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Article

Mission Match and

Organizational Satisfaction:

Testing the Mediating Role of

Perceived Reputation

Yongjin Ahn1

Abstract

Motivational research has become one of the major topics in public administration.

However, public administration researchers have focused disproportionately on

public service motivation in accounting for behaviors/attitudes in the public sphere.

Somewhat neglected are the different, but no less important, motivations that impact

the everyday operations of government employees. To narrow the gap, this study

examines the effect of motivations based on organizational mission (mission match)

and perceived organizational reputation. Using a large-N sample of U.S. federal

employees, results show that mission-matched employees are more likely to be

satisfied with their organization. This relationship is mediated through perceived

organizational reputation. This study discuss the contributions of introducing

organizational reputation as a contextual factor that intervenes in bureaucratic

motivation and raise questions for further inquiry.

Keywords

mission match, organizational satisfaction, perceived organizational reputation,

bureaucratic motivation

Introduction

While President John F. Kennedy was touring National Aeronautics and Space

Administration (NASA) headquarters, he asked a custodian mopping the floors why

1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

Corresponding Author:

Yongjin Ahn, Department of Public Policy and Management, Sol Price School of Public Policy, University

of Southern California, 650 Childs Way, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Email: ahnyongj@usc.edu

1096857PPMXXX10.1177/00910260221096857Public Personnel ManagementAhn

research-article2022

356 Public Personnel Management 51(3)

he was working so late. The response from the custodian was, “Because I’m not mop-

ping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon” (Carton, 2018, p. 354). The famous

anecdote shows how NASA enhanced work meaningfulness for its employees by con-

necting day-to-day low-level tasks (e.g., fixing a wire or mopping the floor) to the

organization’s objective (putting a man on the moon), which made the organization’s

ultimate aspiration (mission of advancing science) more accessible. As infered from

this story, an organization’s mission works as a mechanism that enhances work moti-

vation by making employees perceive their work as important (Wright, 2007). An

organization’s mission affects the meaningfulness employees find in their job; it is a

motivational tool that links employees’ self-concept with performance (Weiss &

Piderit, 1999). Therefore, it is important that public employees have a high degree of

mission alignment with their organization.

This study examines how mission match, which is a mission-oriented motivation

that captures the degree to which individuals consider their organization’s mission

attractive and aligned with personal values, influences organizational satisfaction. In

general, employee satisfaction is related to “productive and responsible bureaucratic

activities” (Bertelli & Lewis, 2013, p. 517), leading to higher commitment and pro-

ductivity (Wright & Davis, 2003). Government organizations and nonprofits are faced

with difficulties in recruiting a competent workforce (Cantarelli et al., 2016; Light,

2019), and thus, enhancing the productivity of the remaining workforce is essential in

providing public service. Also, as employees entering public service have motives

other than extrinsic rewards (Perry & Wise, 1990), managers need to maintain a cer-

tain degree of job satisfaction among employees.

Past studies have shown that an organizational mission, particularly in the case of

public organizations, influences employees’ workplace attitudes/behavior (Besley &

Ghatak, 2018; J. Carpenter & Gong, 2016; Resh et al., 2018; Smith, 2016). Based on

logical extensions of such studies, it is intuitive that mission match is positively asso-

ciated with an employee’s satisfaction with their organization. However, less is known

of the mechanisms through which mission affects organizational outcomes. To fill this

gap, drawing from social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), the current research

links reputation motivation with organizational satisfaction. In this study, reputation

motivation refers to the extent to which people care about how their organization is

perceived by others. The goal of this line of inquiry is to examine how perceived orga-

nizational reputation serves as a psychological mechanism for the relationship between

mission match and organizational satisfaction. This is in line with calls for studies to

explore the mediating factors between constructs as presumptions about direct causal-

ity should be carefully scrutinized (Wright, 2007).

Incorporating bureaucratic reputation as a contextual factor has several benefits.

While most research on bureaucratic reputation focused on the institutional level

(Busuioc & Lodge, 2016; Carpenter, 2001, 2002, 2010; D. P. Carpenter et al., 2012;

Krause & Corder, 2007; Krause & Douglas, 2005; Moffitt, 2010; Salomonsen et al.,

2021; Wæraas & Byrkjeflot, 2012), scholars have only recently begun to examine

reputation judgments at the individual level including public employees’ perceived

reputation (Gilad & Alon-Barkat, 2018; Gilad et al., 2018; Hameduddin & Lee,