Socioeconomic Status and Public Sector Worker Stereotypes: Results from a Representative Survey

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Isa Bertram,Robin Bouwman,Lars Tummers
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13461

Research Article

237

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium,

provided the original work is properly cited.

Lars Tummers is a professor of public

administration and organizational science

at Utrecht University, The Netherlands.

His main research interests are public

management, stereotypes, leadership,

and behavior change. Related to this,

he is developing—with others—an

interdisciplinary field combining psychology

and public administration, called Behavioral

Public Administration.

Email: l.g.tummers@uu.nl

Robin Bouwman is an assistant professor

of public administration at Erasmus

University Rotterdam (The Netherlands).

His research focuses on negotiations in the

public- and private sector, individual- and

group level decision making and behavior.

Email: bouwman@essb.eur.nl.

Abstract: What views do people have of public sector workers? Public sector workers are often portrayed negatively.

It is unclear, however, to what extent such negative perceptions are shared among different groups in society. Using

a large representative survey in the Netherlands, we study whether people’s socioeconomic status is related to having

more negative stereotypes about public sector workers. Contrary to expectations, education and income are unrelated

to stereotypes. We do find a relation with subjective income: People with low subjective income have more negative

stereotypes. Moreover, the sector people work in is highly relevant. People working in core governmental sectors such as

central and local government have positive stereotypes. Other groups—such as private sector and non-profit workers—

have a far more negative image of public sector workers. These findings help us to understand people’s perceptions of

public sector workers and the problems various groups have with the state.

Evidence for Practice

• People with low subjective income are more negative about public sector workers. Because negative

stereotypes can affect how citizens experience public service delivery, the public sector should find out why

this group is more negative, what the consequences thereof are, and whether this can be improved.

• People working in the private sector have the most negative public sector worker stereotypes. Negative views

among private sector workers could affect important aspects of public sector work, such as public-private

partnerships and outsourcing, or attracting high quality personnel.

• Compared to other sectors, those working in central and local government are positive about public sector

workers. In other words, there is a gap between the perceptions of central and local government workers

and the perceptions of others. This can lead to a blind spot of public servants about citizen satisfaction with

services, as well as a low perceived urgency for improvement.

What views do people have of public

sector workers? Some people say public

sector workers are lazy clock-watchers

(London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and

Hays2011). Others point to the fact that many

public sector workers are motivated to help people

(Perry2000). Understanding the public’s attitudes

toward government is a crucial topic in public

administration, since this forms the basis of people’s

perceptions of government’s legitimacy, as well

as perceived quality of performance (Tyler2006;

Van de Walle and Bouckaert2003). Increasingly,

governments are trying to improve the reputation

and image of government (Bustos Pérez2021;

Van de Walle and Bouckaert2003; Wæraas

and Byrkjeflot2012; Wæraas and Maor2014).

Understanding people’s attitudes toward government

workers is an important aspect of this (Wæraas and

Byrkjeflot2012). One way of approaching this matter

is by studying the stereotypes the public has of public

sector workers.

Stereotypes are “associations and beliefs about the

characteristics and attributes of a group and its

members that shape how people think about and

respond to the group” (Dovidio et al.2010, 8).

Studying the stereotypes of public sector workers has

a long tradition in public administration (for instance

Goodsell2004; Wilson1989), and recent research

has systematically mapped the stereotypes that people

have (De Boer2020; Willems2020). The literature

on public sector worker stereotypes does not, however,

discuss in depth the possibility that stereotypes may

differ between groups in a society. For instance, are

people with lower incomes more negative about

public sector workers, perhaps because they find them

elitist, or because they are dependent on them? Are

people working in the private sector more negative,

perhaps because of ideas about public sector workers’

work ethic?

In this study, we investigate whether citizens’

socioeconomic status is related to the stereotypes

Isa Bertram is a doctoral candidate at

the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht

University, in The Netherlands. With a

background in psychology, she researches

how psychological mechanisms affect

citizens and public sector workers in citizen-

state interactions.

Email: i.bertram@uu.nl

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 2, pp. 237–255. © 2022 The

Authors.

Public Administration Review

published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on

behalf of American Society for Public

Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13461.

Socioeconomic Status and Public Sector Worker Stereotypes:

Results from a Representative Survey

Isa Bertram Robin Bouwman

Lars Tummers

Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Utrecht University, The NetherlandsErasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

238Public Administration Review • March | Apr il 202 2

they have of public sector workers. Although scholars usually

include respondents’ socioeconomic status as control variables, we

argue that they warrant more direct attention. Research shows that

people with different levels of socioeconomic status tend to have

different attitudes toward their government (Van Ryzin, Muzzio

and Immerwahr2004). For example, people with lower levels of

education tend to have less trust in government (Christensen and

Lægreid2005) and those with lower income levels are more negative

about public sector performance (Porumbescu2017). This negativity

toward government among people with low levels of socioeconomic

status may translate to the context of stereotypes of public sector

workers. In addition, we might expect people with high levels of

socioeconomic status to have negative stereotypes of public sector

workers, for example because they look down on the supposed work

ethic of public sector workers: ‘clock-watchers’, with their nine-to-

five mentality (London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and

Hays2011). We thus examine the following research question:

How is socioeconomic status related to the stereotypes that

citizens hold of public sector workers?

We aim to understand whether public sector stereotypes are related

to people’s socioeconomic status. This knowledge is indispensable

to understanding potential consequences of stereotypes and how

to deal with them. Negative job stereotyping affects people’s

performance and wellbeing at work (Allport1954; Chen and

Bozeman2014; Schmader and Hall2014). It can also affect the

interaction between the stereotyper (here, citizens) and the one

being stereotyped (the public sector worker; Dovidio et al.2010).

People with low levels of socioeconomic status are more likely to

need public services and to interact with public sector workers.

If low socioeconomic status citizens have negative stereotypes

of public sector workers, these can inform the expectations that

they bring to the table, and could in turn impact the interaction

itself. For example, low socioeconomic status citizens may

show hostility toward public sector workers because of negative

stereotypes, leading to reduced service delivery or less benefits

based on public sector workers’ idea of the client’s deservingness

(Jilke and Tummers2018). By examining whether and how

patterns of stereotypes differ between people with different levels of

socioeconomic status, this study serves as a stepping stone for future

studies examining how public sector worker stereotypes affect state-

citizen interactions, and how such interactions can be improved.

Our purpose is not to test potential causal relationships – rather, by

taking a correlational, descriptive approach, our research can help

identify fruitful avenues of further research.

We study socioeconomic status and public sector worker stereotypes

in the Netherlands, based on a preregistered, large-n, representative,

cross-sectional citizen panel survey. In what follows, we provide

an overview of the conceptual framework, outlining the state of

the literature which inform our two hypotheses, using education

and income as measures of socioeconomic status. Additionally,

we take an exploratory approach to investigate the role of other

factors, including additional factors of socioeconomic status,

and respondents’ own sector of employment. Contrary to our

hypothesis, we find that respondents’ levels of income and

education are not related to their public sector worker stereotypes.

However, we do find an interesting relation to their levels of

subjective income. We find that people with low subjective income,

i.e., who have difficulty getting by on their present income, have

more negative stereotypes of public sector workers than those with

high subjective income.

Additionally, we find that respondents’ stereotypes are strongly related

to their own occupational sector. Those working for central or local

government have very positive public sector worker stereotypes.

So do people working for state companies. However, private sector

workers, the self-employed, those working in public sector jobs such as

healthcare and education, and those in the non-profit sector are much

more negative. It seems that the views of the public sector are heavily

dependent on whether someone works in the core public sector. We

discuss these findings, relate them to the academic literature, and

provide future research suggestions and implications for practice.

Conceptual Framework

Public Sector Worker Stereotypes

Stereotypes can be defined as the characteristics and traits that

people associate with a certain group and its members. These

beliefs about the typicalities of a group will in turn shape how

people perceive and respond to that group (Dovidio et al.2010, 8).

The concept of stereotypes has been studied from a multitude of

perspectives, leading to a vast literature and different conceptions

of what stereotypes are and how they should be studied (Bordalo,

Coffman, Gennaioli, and Shleifer2016). Taking a socio-cognitive

perspective, stereotypes can be understood as cognitive schemas

that people use to make sense of the world (Allport1954;

Schneider2004; Tajfel1981). By categorizing people into groups

and generalizing about their characteristics, people simplify the

information that they process every day. Relying on such cognitive

shortcuts allows us to make efficient use of our cognitive resources.

When we encounter someone we do not know, we use these

mental schemas to interpret the situation and to form expectations

(McGarty, Yzerbyt, and Spears2002).

We can also approach stereotypes as a cultural or sociological

phenomenon. Scholars who understand stereotypes in this way

argue that stereotypes are social constructions, created through

everyday communication, which are then reified and assume “an

independent and sometimes prescriptive reality” (Augoustinos

and Walker1996, 222). Especially in the case of public sector

stereotypes, this cultural view on stereotypes is important.

Stereotypes about public sector workers are not controversial—

unlike stereotypes about gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation.

Therefore, they are often openly discussed and joked about. We can

see this, for example, in the fact that “the lazy bureaucrat” has been

such a common character in popular media (Lichter, Lichter, and

Amundson2000; Pautz and Warnement2013; Van de Walle2004).

Public administration scholars have called for increased attention to

the mostly negative views of public sector workers (Goodsell2004).

Results from numerous studies suggest that the general public has

quite negative stereotypes of public sector workers. For example,

public sector workers are usually thought of as being more boring,

less creative, and lazier compared to private sector workers (Chen

and Bozeman2014; Goodsell2004; Lewis and Frank2002). People

see public sector workers as less productive and less hardworking

(Demmke2005; Frank and Lewis2004; Marvel2015a). Furthermore,