Sector attraction and the role of job information: Evidence from a conjoint experiment

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• Author: Ivan P. Lee,Sebastian Jilke
• Date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13760

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Sector attraction and the role of job information:

Evidence from a conjoint experiment

Ivan P. Lee

1

| Sebastian Jilke

2

1

School of Public Affairs, Watts College of Public

Service and Community Solutions, Arizona State

University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

2

McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown

University, Washington, DC, USA

Correspondence

Ivan P. Lee, School of Public Affairs, Watts

College of Public Service and Community

Solutions, Arizona State University, Tempe,

AZ, USA.

Email: ivan.lee@asu.edu

Abstract

Are public and private employees different? And is this difference due to the fact

that different people are attracted to work for government rather than companies?

It has been proposed that individuals with certain characteristics, such as having

high levels of risk aversion or public service motivation (PSM), are more likely to

self-select into public service. This study argues that this sector attraction effect

depends on the amount of job-related information available to job seekers at dif-

ferent stages of the job search process. We test our hypotheses using a three-

stage conjoint experimental design. The employment sector only matters to job

seekers when little direct information is provided. Once more job-related informa-

tion is available to them, it diminishes. This effect is especially strong for people

with high levels of PSM. These findings suggest that the sector attraction effect is

situational, which has important implications for theory and practice of public sec-

tor attraction.

Evidence for practice

•The job search is not a one-time event, but a multistage decision-making pro-

cess. Job seekers may access different information and consider different

aspects of job alternatives in different stages of this process.

•This study demonstrates that individuals become insensitive to the sector differ-

ence (e.g., public vs. private) of jobs once more direct job-related information

becomes available.

•It is important to consider the focus of recruitment messages so that they can

better suit individuals’concerns and attentions.

Are public and private employees different? And is this differ-

ence due to the fact that different people are attracted

to work for government rather than private companies?

Over the past decades, public management scholars have

addressed this fundamental question with different

approaches. One of the most prominent attempts is to

address it through the lens of sector attraction which pro-

poses that individuals with certain characteristics, such as

having high levels of risk aversion (Bellante & Link, 1981;

Bonin et al., 2007; Buurman et al., 2012;Dong,2017;

Pfeifer, 2011) or public service motivation (PSM; Asseburg &

Homberg, 2018;Choi,2016; Christensen & Wright, 2011;

Perry & Wise, 1990), are more likely to self-select into the

public sector. In the long run, this selection could affect the

personnel landscape of organizations (Schneider, 1987), cre-

ating differences between the public and private sector

workforces.

However, the key propositions of sector attraction

have not been adequately assessed to date; do people

with certain underlying characteristics have a preference

for employment in the public over the private, for-profit

sector? The attraction effect of the public sector per se

has seldom been isolated and tested experimentally. On

top of that, the job search process as such is typically

treated as uniform. We argue that the job search is not a

one-time event, but rather a process in which job seekers

continuously respond to and are affected by situational

factors before reaching a final job choice decision. Thus,

sector attraction will be conditioned by the amount of

job-related information that is available to job seekers at

different stages of the job search process. This means that

when little job-related information is available to people

with high levels of risk aversion, for instance, they are

more attracted to public sector employment. This is so

Received: 19 February 2023 Revised: 31 August 2023 Accepted: 6 October 2023

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13760

982 © 2023 American Society for Public Administration. Public Admin Rev. 2024;84:982–996.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/puar