Working Across the Divide
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| Author | Jessica Word, Sung Min Park |
| DOI | 10.1177/0734371X09331619 |
| Published date | 01 June 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Administration
Volume 29 Number 2
June 2009 103-133
© 2009 Sage Publications
Working Across the Divide
10.1177/0734371X09331619
http://roppa.sagepub.com
hosted at
Job Involvement in the Public and
http://online.sagepub.com
Nonprofit Sectors
Jessica Word
Sung Min Park
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Job involvement is a principal factor in the lives of most people; employees in the
workplace are mentally and emotionally influenced by their degree of involvement in
work. Using the data from the National administrative Studies Project III, this study
empirically compares the level of job involvement between managers in the public and
nonprofit sectors and explores different aspects including demographic, managerial,
and institutional factors that contribute to the apparent differences. The results of the
study indicate that the mean level of nonprofit managers’ job involvement is signifi-
cantly greater than for public managers. each sector had specific variables that sig-
nificantly and uniquely contributed to job involvement. Overall, the results suggest a
need to more fully investigate the various mechanisms and functions of situational and
organizational contexts, organizational norms, and culture that were associated with
job involvement regardless of sector. Implications and limitations of this research are
also discussed.
Keywords: nonprofit and public human resource management; job involvement; job
design; motivation; red tape
Recent research has shown an increased interest in the role of nonprofit organiza-
tions and their management. Increased interest has occurred not only within the
field of nonprofit management but also in the area of public administration and
management research. The interest of public management and administration scholars
in this field stems from increasingly close ties between the public and nonprofit
sectors through contracting out of public services (gazley & Brudney, 2007) and the
growth of nonprofit management specializations and degrees in many public admini-
stration programs across the country (Mirabella & Wish, 2000). These developments
Authors’ Note: The authors shared first authorship of this article. The authors would like to thank the
anonymous reviewers of this article and Hal g. Rainey for their thorough and helpful comments on an
earlier version of this article. The authors also express sincere gratitude to Barry Bozeman for releasing
data resources. an earlier version of this article was presented at the 68th annual conference of the
academy of Management, anaheim, California, august 8 to 13, 2008.
103
104 Review of Public Personnel administration
suggest that there are and will continue to be similarities in management between the
two sectors.
Theoretical and anecdotal evidence suggests there are both great similarities and
great differences between the two sectors. The similarity of serving a public interest
has been one of the major forces promoting stronger ties and relationships between
the two sectors (Mirabella & Wish, 2000). However, differences in culture and legal
structures and the increasing amount of interdependence between the two sectors
have created some tensions and negativity toward partnerships, especially on the part
of nonprofit executives (gazley & Brudney, 2007). Differences between operational
and employee characteristics between the two sectors might also contribute to ten-
sions. However, little research has been conducted that probes differences between
the sectors at the operational level or that examines how these differences affect
employees.
The similarities and differences between public and nonprofit organizations are
the result of the origins, purpose, history, culture, and legal structures of the two
sectors as well as differences between the makeup of each sector’s work forces. Just
as Rainey and Bozeman (2002) called for a more empirical examination of the dif-
ferences and similarities in management between the public and private sectors, this
article calls for a more empirical examination of the differences and similarities
between the public and nonprofit organizations that compares theoretical assertions
to empirical observations. This research begins by exploring some of the expected
differences and similarities between the two sectors predicted by the literature. The
research then uses data from the National administrative Studies Project III (NaSP-
III) to empirically compare the level of job involvement between managers in the
two sectors and discusses possible reasons for differences, including differing demo-
graphic, managerial, and institutional factors. This research is intended to contribute
to both the study and practice of public administration and nonprofit management
through clarifying theoretical and empirical differences in management between the
two sectors.
The Public and Nonprofit Sectors
Development and Origins of the Sectors
Some of the very first observations made about the fledgling government of the
United States were made by French philosopher alexis de Tocqueville in his work
Democracy in America, first published in 1835. Similarly, some of the earliest observa-
tions about the american voluntary or nonprofit sector were also made by Tocqueville
(1835/2000), when he commented on the tendency of individuals in american society
to form voluntary and moral associations to address unmet community and individual
Word, Park / Job Involvement in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors 105
needs. Tocqueville went on to explain that it is this voluntary spirit and tendency of
americans to form voluntary associations that make american democracy and govern-
ment work in the face of a culture of individualism. From these early comments, it
was clear that from the very outset of our country the fate of the public and nonprofit
sectors was intertwined.
The connection between the public and nonprofit sectors in part comes from what
is believed to be their origins in society. economic theory suggests that the govern-
mental and nonprofit sectors have developed in response to the failure of economic
markets to meet all of society’s needs (Weisbrod, 1975). The failure of markets to
meet the needs of society is known as market failure. Market failure occurs because
markets fail to provide adequate quantities of collective goods, because there are
insufficient profits to be gained from providing these goods because of underspecified
property rights (Steinberg, 2006). Non-market-based organizations such as govern-
ments and nonprofit organizations are then created to meet these collective needs. If
the needs are broad enough to appeal to the majority in a democratic society, then
most of these needs can and will be met by governments.
The question then arises, when and why do nonprofit organizations exist, if gov-
ernments fill in the gaps in the face of market failure? governments are only par-
tially able to fill the gap between the demands for goods and services and their
supply because, in general, a majority of citizens must support a policy or program
to create government action (Steinberg, 2006; Weisbrod, 1975). Because of diversity
of population in terms of culture, heritage, and economic differences, governments
in the United States are often limited in their ability to act because no majority con-
sensus can be reached. The wide heterogeneity of needs and preferences of indi-
viduals for goods and services gives rise to an alterative organizational form to
provide collective goods, through organizations that are not contained in either the
government or the market. The failure of both government and markets is needed to
explain the existence and the rise of the nonprofit or third sector.
alternative theories relating to the origins of the two sectors suggest that inherent
qualities shape the two sectors and those within them. Sociological and institutional
theorists suggest that nonprofit organizations are not the result of the market but
instead result from the combination of religious motivation (Ben-Ner & Van
Hoomissen, 1991), public policy (Weisbrod, 1988), the desire to restrain the role of
the state in civic life, and public policy and public opinion about the appropriateness
of profit in certain areas (Dimaggio & anheier, 1990). Instead of suggesting that
nonprofit and public sector organizations arise because of the market, these theories
suggest that the process has more to do with the construction of community values
and meaning. This, like the literature surrounding public service motivation, sug-
gests that it is perhaps the nonmarket similarities and differences between the public
and nonprofit sectors that shape their place in society.
106 Review of Public Personnel administration
Similarities Between the Sectors
The theoretical underpinnings of both nonprofit organizations and governments
lead us to point out that one of the most substantial similarities between the two is
that they both exist, to some extent, to supply collective goods or create some sort of
public benefit. In addition, because both are owned and created collectively, neither
can distribute excess revenues for individual gains (DiMaggio & anheier, 1990;
Weisbrod, 1998). For this reason, both nonprofits and governments often provide
services in areas where the quality is difficult to measure and where markets cannot
be trusted to allocate the goods and services because businesses with profit motives
...
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