The Effects of Doing More with Less in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large‐Scale Survey

• Author: Christian Schuster,Carlos Losada,Adria Albareda,Marc Esteve
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12766
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

544 Public Administration Review • July | August 2017

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 4, pp. 544–553. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12766.

Adria Albareda is a doctoral candidate

at the Institute of Public Administration,

Leiden University, The Netherlands. His

research focuses on the role of interest

groups in European Union policy making.

He holds a research master ’ s degree in

public administration (Utrecht University)

and a degree in political sciences

(Autonomous University of Barcelona).

E-mail: a.albareda@fgga.leidenuniv.nl

Carlos Losada is associate professor in

the Department of Strategy and General

Management, ESADE Business School,

Barcelona, Spain. He is author of several

books and research projects. He has been

associate professor in ESADE ’ s Department

of Business Policy since 1988, specializing in

managerial function, corporate strategy, and

public management. From September 2000

to 2010, he was director general of ESADE.

E-mail: carlos.losada@esade.edu

Christian Schuster is assistant professor

of public management in the School of Public

Policy, University College London, United

Kingdom. His research draws on survey data,

experiments, and elite interviews to explore

civil service management, transparency,

corruption, and bureaucratic reform. His

work has appeared or is forthcoming in

journals such as

Public Administration, Public

Administration Review, Governance,

and the

European Journal of Political Research,

as well

as with the World Bank and Inter-American

Development Bank.

E-mail: c.schuster@ucl.ac.uk

Marc Esteve is associate professor of

international public management in the

School of Public Policy, University College

London, United Kingdom, and visiting

professor at ESADE Business School,

Barcelona, Spain. His primary research

interests focus on understanding how

individual characteristics influence decision

making, specifically in interorganizational

collaborations. He has published in journals

such as

Journal of Public Administration

Research and Theory, Public Administration

Review, International Public Management

Journal,

and

Public Administration.

E-mail: marc.esteve@ucl.ac.uk

Abstract : Since the onset of the Great Recession, “doing more with less” has become a policy mantra. To do more with

less, a range of governments have concurrently imposed wage cuts and greater work demands on public employees.

This article assesses the impact of these changes on the job satisfaction and work motivation of public employees in

34 European countries. Congruent with previous studies linking income and working hours with job attitudes,

the article finds a negative impact on both. There are no free austerity lunches: while public employees may work

longer hours for lower pay, they are less satisfied and less motivated when doing so. One caveat applies: the effect on

motivation—although not satisfaction—is mitigated when employees feel that their values are aligned with those of

their organization. This puts a premium on public managers fostering value alignment, particularly when it is hardest

to achieve: in times of cutbacks.

Practitioner Points

• Pay cuts and enhanced workloads have a significant negative effect on job satisfaction and motivation across

public sectors.

• If employees perceive that their personal values are aligned with their jobs, the effects of negative working

conditions on motivation are attenuated.

• Public sector leaders should put a premium on measures to strengthen value alignment, particularly when it

is arguably hardest to achieve: in times of cutbacks.

Marc Esteve

Christian Schuster

University College London, United Kingdom

Adria Albareda

Leiden University, The Netherlands

Carlos Losada

ESADE Business School, Spain

The Effects of Doing More with Less in the Public Sector:

Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey

I n the last decade, public organizations across the

globe have been put under stress by increasingly

demanding work environments. This trend is

driven by the concurrence of austerity measures and

greater citizen demands for quality public services

(Karanikolos et al. 2013 ; Raudla et al. 2015 ). In other

words, since the Great Recession, public employees

have been asked to do more with less. This trend

continues unabated in many countries, with ongoing

spending cuts in public sectors from Brazil to Greece

to several U.S. states, to name just a few. As a result,

delivering improved services through a motivated

workforce has become “one of the main challenges

for the public sector in the developed world” (Leslie

and Canwell 2010 , 297). At the same time, the

relationship between austerity, enhanced work

demands, and organizational behavior has become of

central importance to public sector governance.

Yet this relationship remains underexplored in the

post–Great Recession period. This is even though

austerity and cutbacks have been rediscovered as a

research topic by public management scholars since

the onset of the financial and economic crises in 2008

(see, e.g., Bozeman 2010 ; Lodge and Hood 2012 ;

Pandey 2010 ). These studies build on earlier, seminal

work on public management challenges during

recessions (Levine 1979 ). A subset of these studies

has hinted qualitatively at potential adverse impacts

of “salami slicing” and other cutback strategies on

bureaucratic behavior and attitudes (Hood 2010 ).

Cutbacks are, to cite just one mechanism, argued to

undermine the social contract in public organizations,

which is partially based on predictability of benefits

and pay. Therefore, cutbacks are argued to “pose a

direct challenge to employee motivation” (Pandey

2010 , 567). Practitioners echo this concern, fearing

a “negative impact on the morale of staff” (OECD

2012 , 36). At the same time, however, from an

empirical perspective, the “effects of salary cutbacks

and freezes on staff motivation are not clear” (OECD

2012 , 37).

This is an important omission. Great Recession and

post–Great Recession cutbacks across the globe can

be expected to shape public employees’ attitudes and

behavior: they directly affect the livelihoods and work

lives of public employees. Cutbacks tend to do so as

because “the public wage bill is typically a major target

during fiscal consolidations,” as, “especially during