What Makes Government Work Great: The Characteristics of Positive Public Service

Date01 December 2021
DOI10.1177/0091026020985559
AuthorB.J. Jones
Published date01 December 2021
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026020985559
Public Personnel Management
2021, Vol. 50(4) 610 –628
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0091026020985559
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Article
What Makes Government
Work Great: The
Characteristics of
Positive Public Service
B.J. Jones1
Abstract
Optimal work experiences in the public sector do not receive the attention they
deserve. And, though positive psychology research has shown that flourishing in the
workplace is connected to healthier and more fulfilled employees as well as improved
organizational performance, the public sector has largely taken a backseat as a subject
of study in this field. This article addresses this shortcoming by conducting in-depth
interviews of current and former public servants to identify the most prevalent
features of their best work experiences and their connection to the components
of prominent well-being theories. Five characteristics of positive public service
emerged: challenge, efficacy, camaraderie, empowerment, and service. Several well-
being components were connected to these characteristics as were other features
such as hardship, novelty, leadership, and helping others. These findings provide a
stronger theoretical basis to suggest that more can be—and should be—expected of
government work.
Keywords
positive psychology, well-being theory, self-determination theory, employee well-
being, government employee interviews, positive public service
Introduction
Negative opinions of public servants have been pervasive in the media and in society
at large, with too little done to counteract them. The vast majority of people do not
1Rutgers University-Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration, NJ, USA
Corresponding Author:
B.J. Jones, Rutgers University-Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration, 111 Washington
Street, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
Emails: baj63@rutgers.edu; jonesbj@upenn.edu
985559PPMXXX10.1177/0091026020985559Public Personnel ManagementJones
research-article2021
Jones 611
trust government to do what is right (Pew Research Center, 2019), politicians are
quick to take credit from public servants for policy successes and blame them when
things go wrong (Nielsen & Moynihan, 2017), and stereotypes of the lazy bureaucrat
abound (Baldwin, 1990; Van de Walle, 2004). In addition, there has been no shortage
of focus on negative aspects of government, such as corruption (Rose-Ackerman &
Paflika, 2016) and red tape (Blom et al., 2020). As a result, the prospect of fulfilling
and impactful government work is likely overshadowed and diminished. This discour-
aging situation can be addressed by cultivating a better understanding of positive gov-
ernment work experiences and increasing their prevalence by paying greater attention
to the needs and potential of public servants. Greater integration of research between
the fields of public administration and positive psychology, the scientific investigation
of human flourishing, can help facilitate this shift.
This article builds on promising examples that have emerged in recent years regard-
ing the well-being of the government workforce. Interest in researching the topic is
evidenced by an examination of the impact of leadership and autonomy on vitality
(Tummers et al., 2018), outcomes associated with engagement (Borst et al., 2019), and
the effects of community experiences on well-being (Boyd & Nowell, 2020). In prac-
tice, relevant examples have included large-scale resilience training of the U.S. Army
(Reivich et al., 2011), Appreciative Inquiry efforts with the U.S. Navy and City of
Cleveland (Cooperrider, 2012), and assessments of employee well-being in the British
Civil Service (J. Jones, 2019).
But an important fundamental question remains: What do optimal work expe-
riences really look like in the public sector? Conducting qualitative research can
help establish a stronger theoretical basis for understanding the components that
contribute most to public servants’ best experiences and their connection to ele-
ments of well-being that have been applied generally to individuals and organiza-
tions. As Ospina and Dodge (2005) state, “stories contain within them knowledge
that is different from what we might tap into when we do surveys, collect and
analyze statistics” (p. 147). This informs the approach taken in this study. Doing
so can help confirm the applicability of well-being theories and research specifi-
cally to the reality of government work experiences and whether there are impor-
tant distinctions that warrant further exploration in a public administration
context.
This article first presents a look at commonly used measures of government
employee experiences already used in the public sector and a summary of well-being–
related research. Then, a qualitative study entailing interviews used to assess public
servants’ best experiences, or “positive public service,” is summarized. For purposes
of this article, “public service” refers to work intended to advance the public interest
as performed by people who are employed in government. A theoretical framework is
proposed to capture the prominent characteristics of these experiences and their align-
ment with components of well-being. It is important to note that, as a first step, this
research was intended to create a model of optimal government work informed by
firsthand experiences and did not seek to develop validated factors or metrics. The
implications of this study are then discussed.

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