Working Extra Hours in the Australian Public Service: Organizational Drivers and Consequences

• Author: Jeannette Taylor
• Date: 01 June 2018
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16658335
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X16658335

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2018, Vol. 38(2) 193 –217

© The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16658335

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Article

Working Extra Hours in the

Australian Public Service:

Organizational Drivers and

Consequences

Jeannette Taylor1

Abstract

Why do government employees work long hours, and what are the consequences?

Although there is generally little scope for extra pay in return for extra hours in the

Australian Public Service (APS), a significant proportion of its employees work long

hours. This study draws from the organizational citizenship behavior literature in an

attempt to understand why APS employees work extra hours. It uses the 2015 APS

Employee Census to examine the APS employees’ patterns of working hours and the

links between working extra hours and three outcomes: job performance, personal

well-being, and intention to leave one’s agency. Several organizational factors are

found to be positively associated with working extra hours. Many who work extra

hours also believe that their job performance is high, but they report poor well-being

and are thinking of leaving their agency.

Keywords

working hours, overtime, organizational citizenship behavior, job performance,

turnover intention

There seems little question that a significant proportion of today’s labor force works

long hours (Reich, 2001). In Australia, both researchers and journalists cite the national

figure of 44 to 45 hr per week (Van Wanrooy, Jakubauskas, Buchanan, Wilson, &

Scalmer, 2008; Wright, 2015). How about the Australian Public Service (APS)?

Although the working conditions in the public sector can be argued to be different

1The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Jeannette Taylor, Political Science & International Relations (M257), The University of Western Australia,

35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.

Email: jeannette.taylor@uwa.edu.au

658335ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X16658335Review of Public Personnel AdministrationTaylor

research-article2016

194 Review of Public Personnel Administration 38(2)

from those in the private sector, it is equally likely that a significant portion of the

federal government workforce put in long hours. If so, why do they do it? According

to a source from the APS Commission (APSC), there is generally little scope for extra

pay for APS employees who work extra hours. The more junior employees often

accrue flex leave (flexible working arrangements), whereas middle and senior manag-

ers are given time off in lieu. There must be other reasons for long hours.

This study examines the APS employees’ motives behind working extra hours, and

their views of the consequences. It has three objectives. First, it reports on their work-

ing hours. To what extent do they work during their personal time (e.g., during their

lunch breaks and weekends)? In this study, public employees who exceed the standard

37.5 hr per week are considered to be working “extra hours.” Second, it attempts to

understand why they work extra hours. What factors in their agency drive them to

work extra hours? Third, it investigates their views on the links between working extra

hours and three employee outcomes: job performance, well-being, and intention to

leave one’s agency. Do those who work extra hours perceive they are more or less

productive? Do they believe that it has affected their health well-being? Are they con-

sidering leaving their agency? Why?

By addressing these questions, this research makes two notable contributions. First,

it fills a gap in public administration on working hours. There are few studies that

focus exclusively on long hours or overtime work in the public sector workplace

(Balfour & Neff, 1993; Bullock, Wenger, & Wilkins, 2014; Ryu, 2015). The focus is

largely on working hours–related topics, such as work–life balance (den Dulk &

Groeneveld, 2012; J. Kim & Wiggins, 2011) and family-friendly human resource (HR)

policies (Mastracci, 2013). Yet, employees have various motives for working extra

hours, such as loyalty to one’s agency or career aspirations. Understanding what moti-

vates government employees to work extra hours, especially when they are not directly

compensated, is useful for improved HR management policies.

Second, this study conceptualizes working extra hours as a form of organizational

citizenship behavior (OCB) because working beyond the required number of hours is

similar to going beyond the call of duty in OCB. By situating this study in the OCB

literature, it provides a systematic and novel approach to examine and better under-

stand long working hours in the public sector. It also has the capacity to contribute to

the OCB literature. Despite a progressive growth in recent years, OCB studies in the

public sector are considerably fewer than those in the private sector (Kim, 2005;

Taylor, 2013; Vigoda-Gadot & Beeri, 2012). Importantly, although employees who put

in extra hours to finish work are understood to be performing OCB, this type of behav-

ior is rarely examined in OCB studies in any depth.

Working Extra Hours as an OCB

As a component of employee performance, OCB contains two main characteristics.

The first is its extra-role element, in that OCB represents discretionary behavior that

goes beyond assigned tasks. The second is its importance for organizational effective-

ness (Williams & Anderson, 1991). Whether OCB should be confined to activities that