The Public Sector as a Career Choice: Antecedents of an Expressed Interest in Working for the Federal Government

• Author: L. Pamela Vaiana,Dennis Doverspike,Lei Qin,Marc Porter Magee,Andrea F. Snell
• Published date: 01 June 2011
• DOI: 10.1177/009102601104000203
• Date: 01 June 2011
• Subject Matter: Article

The Public Sector as a

Career Choice:

Antecedents of an

Expressed Interest in

Working for the Federal

Government

By Dennis Doverspike, PhD, ABPP, Lei Qin, Marc Porter Magee, PhD, Andrea

F. Snell, PhD, and L. Pamela Vaiana, MSE

Author’s Note: An analysis of the survey was originally conducted by the

Partnerships for Public Service and used to produce a technical report.

However, this paper did not rely upon any of the content or analyses from

that report. The content of this paper is original and does not rely upon the

report by the Partnership, other than the use of the same data. Permission

was obtained from IRB at the University of Akron for this secondary data

analysis. In conduction this research we conformed to all guidelines and

procedures of the IRB. Permission was also obtained from the Partnership to

use the data and conduct this analysis.

Data fro m a nationwide su rvey of recent c ollege gradua tes were used to

invest igate the quest ion of what facto rs, or antecede nts, might exi st that would

lead to an interest in wor king for the publ ic sector. As antece dents, three ge neral

classe s of variables we re identified including: dem ographics, re ligion and

volunt eer experienc es, and recent cr itical histor ical events (i. e., reactions to 9/11

and the Ir aq war). The dep endent variab le was an express ed interest in wo rking for

the fede ral governmen t. Secondary da ta analysis was carried out on su rvey

respon ses from 621 grad uating senior s. The results in dicated that m inority group

status , viewing gover nment as a form of p ublic service , and trust in the

govern ment were all sig nificant pred ictors of inter est in working f or the federal

govern ment.

Introduction

In designing human resource systems for the public sector, a common assumption has

been that there exists a group of individuals who are attracted to working for

Public Personnel Management Volume 40 No. 2 Summer 2011 119