The Effect of Access to Training and Development Opportunities, on Rates of Work Engagement, Within the U.S. Federal Workforce

• Author: Michael P. Hassett
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221098189
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221098189

Public Personnel Management

2022, Vol. 51(3) 380 –404

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260221098189

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Article

The Effect of Access to

Training and Development

Opportunities, on Rates of

Work Engagement, Within

the U.S. Federal Workforce

Michael P. Hassett1

Abstract

This study aims to identify how the access to training and development opportunities

influence rates of work engagement in the U.S. federal workforce. Organizations with

high rates of work engagement tend to be happier and more efficient than those

with lower rates of work engagement. Studies have evidenced that organizational and

managerial characteristics can promote work engagement among employees. Through

the lens of high-performance work systems and the job demands-resource theory,

access to training and development is used as both a high-performance work practice

and a job resource to explore its effect on work engagement. Data were drawn from

the 2017 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, a nationally representative sample of

U.S. federal employees. By employing ordinary least squares analyses, this study shows

that there is a positive correlation between having access to training and development

opportunities and higher rates of work engagement across the federal workforce.

Keywords

federal government, training, work engagement, human resources, job resources

Introduction

The federal workforce deals with an array of unique challenges and demands that has

an impact on its employees. For example, many in the public view the federal govern-

ment as wasteful and ineffective, yet simultaneously rely on the needed services and

1Friends of Tonga Inc, Laurel, MD, USA

Corresponding Author:

Friends of Tonga Inc.; The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1315 East-West Highway,

Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA.

Email: michael.hassett@noaa.gov

1098189PPMXXX10.1177/00910260221098189Public Personnel ManagementHassett

research-article2022

Hassett 381

programs that it administers and provides. Similarly, the failures of the federal work-

force are consistently displayed as evidence that the government makes the country

worse off despite the many programs that are successful (Cohen et al., 2013).

Likewise, the federal workforce is under increased pressure to do more with less,

while receiving pay and promotions that many are dissatisfied with (Pitts et al., 2011;

Yang & Kassekert, 2010). This continuous assault on the federal government, along

with budget cuts, government shutdowns, furloughs, hiring and pay freezes, com-

bined with policies to cut down on “federal waste” have created serious gaps: the

federal workforce is aging, and younger generations are having to compete with

older and more experienced workers (even for entry-level jobs), which has ulti-

mately eroded the job security and the desirability of working in the federal work-

force. These realities have created a work environment untenable for many public

servants and have resulted in younger employees choosing to work elsewhere

(Naylor, 2018; Paquette, 2019; Rein, 2014).

Unfortunately, federal managers have little recourse available to ameliorate these

realities, since constraints are imposed on human resource (HR) policy that could

potentially attract new recruits (Jahn et al., 2019; Meier & O’Toole, 2011; Yang &

Kassekert, 2010). These factors have largely negatively affected federal employees’

behavior, attitudes, and performance. Specifically, this type of work environment pro-

duces low rates of engagement, which has led to the federal workforce losing high-

quality employees who they are then unable to replace (Yang & Kassekert, 2010).

For decades, scholars have studied work engagement and its effect on the work-

force at large. Employees who have high levels of work engagement tend to have

higher rates of job satisfaction, motivation, and job performance (Bakker, 2015).

Despite the increased attention surrounding work engagement, there are few studies

that explore work engagement in the public sector context (Borst, 2018; Vigoda-Gadot

et al., 2013), with even fewer examining the federal workforce. Of the public sector-

specific studies conducted on work engagement, they suggest that employees in the

public sector have lower rates of work engagement compared with their contempo-

raries in the private sector, which has engendered initiatives to help increase the rates

of engagement across the government (Van den Broeck et al., 2017).

Many recognize that job characteristics and work environment promote or reduce

rates of work engagement (Borst, 2018) and have conceptualized different ways to

think about how job characteristics may promote work engagement and other organi-

zational outcomes (Bakker, 2015; Selden & Sowa, 2015). Of the many frameworks

theorized, this article uses a combination of two as a framing device. The first is high-

performance work systems (HPWS). This framework explores how the strategic

implementation of individual effective high-performance work practices (HPWPs)

will cultivate a motivated and effective workforce (Kehoe & Wright, 2013; Kwon

et al., 2010; Mostafa et al., 2015; Selden & Sowa, 2015). Despite significant evidence

linking HPWS with positive outcomes, how HPWPs influence employee behavior and

attitudes remains unclear (Kehoe & Wright, 2013).

The second framework explored is the Job Demands-Resource (JD-R) theory,

which also provides a framework on how job characteristics influence employee