James L. Perry

Organizational Commitment Individual and Organizational Influences

Two models of the factors leading to organizational commitment are compared: the member-based model, which holds that commitment originates in the actions and personal attributes of the organizational member, and the organization-based model, which is based on the premise that commitment reflects a members reciprocation for the organizations having provided resources that satisfy important needs. Although the latter model received more support from the data, both models explained significant amounts of variance in commitment. Contrary to the preponderance of related research findings, extrinsic aspects of satisfaction were more strongly associated with organizational commitment, than were intrinsic aspects. This finding was attributed to the composition of the respondent sample, a group of blue-collar, unionized employees.

Building Theory and Empirical Evidence about Public Service Motivation

The motivation of public servants has long been a topic of public concern, debate, and scholarly interest. Recent developments give the topic new prominence. One is the ‘‘global public management revolution’’ (Kettl 2005), driven by governments’ search for continuously higher levels of productivity, service orientation, and accountability. Another development is the consistent failure of financial incentive schemes (Perry, Mesch, and Paarlberg 2006) that were adapted from the private sector beginning in the late 1970s. A third development, given impetus by the first two, is increasing attention to the merits of bureaucracy as an institution and normative order (Olsen 2006). The intersection of these developments helps account for the growth of scholarly interest in public service motivation. A long-standing problem in research about motivation is that it has been concentrated on industrial and business organizations (Perry and Porter 1982; Kelman 2005). The goal of this symposium is to highlight research that is conscious of the public context for motivation and intentional about incorporating public institutions into theory development and empirical research.

Civil Service Systems in Comparative Perspective

Preface 1. Introduction: Conceptualizing Civil Service SystemsNHans A. G. M. Bekke, James L. Perry, and Theo A. J. Toonen Part I: Theory and Data 2. Theory and MethodologyNB. Guy Peters 3. Data Requirements and AvailabilityNEugene B. McGregor, Jr. and Paul Solano Part II: History and Structure 4. The Evolution of Civil Service SystemsNJos C. N. Raadschelders and Mark R. Rutgers 5. Internal Labor MarketsNLois Recascino Wise 6. Civil Servants and RepresentativenessNFrits M. van der Meer and Renk L. J. Roborgh Part III: Context 7. Politicization as a Civil Service DilemmaNWilliam P. Hojnacki 8. Social Control of Civil Service SystemsNMichael Hill and Desi Gillespie 9. Public Opinion Towards the Civil ServiceNHal G. Rainey Part IV: Configurations 10. Configurations of Civil Service SystemsNFarrel Heady 11. Analyzing Fields of Change: Civil Service Systems in developing CountriesNE. Philip Morgan Part V. Change and Transformation 12. External Stress and Internal Strains: The Reform Agenda for National Civil Service SystemsNPatricia W. Ingraham 13. Exploring Variations in 1980s Public Management ReformNChristopher Hood 14. The Diffusion of Civil Service ReformNJohn Halligan 15. Conclusion: Assessment of Progress and a Research AgendaNHans A. G. M. Bekke, James L. Perry, and Theo A. J. Toonen

Does Service Affect Citizenship

The idea of citizen service has been given increasing attention as a remedy for problems of civic disengagement. This study reviews 37 empirical studies about the relationship between service and citizenship. A formal model of change is used to guide the review. Six types of citizenship outcomes are discussed: citizenship-related cognitive understanding, citizenship attitudes, citizenship skills, institutional change, philanthropic and civic behaviors, and political behavior. Based on the review, several conclusions are drawn about what is known about the service-citizenship relationship.

The Transformation of Governance: : Who Are the New Public Servants and What Difference Does It Make for Democratic Governance?

The latter 20th and beginning of the 21st century have ushered in new forms of governance, opening the gates to what has been variously described as a “new public service,” a “multisectored public service,” and a “state of agents.” As government authority is dispersed, we increasingly rely on these new public servants for service delivery and policy implementation. But who are now the agents of the state? How might the changed makeup of a new public service alter our expectations about democratic governance? The questions we investigate in this study are, first, now that the public sector has been transformed, what are the characteristics of the agents of the new governance? And are the new public servants, in the words of Charles Goodsell, “ordinary people”? We use the General Social Survey to shed light on our focal question. Our results suggest that public servants in for-profit settings resemble traditional civil servants in many ways. The growing ranks of social, health, and education public servants in nonprofit settings are distinct in many ways from civil servants and for-profit public servants. Implications of the changing composition of the public sector in an era of transformed governance are discussed.

Psychometric Verification of Perry's Public Service Motivation Instrument: Results for Volunteer Exemplars

This research note reports a confirmatory factor analysis for three of Perrys (1996) public service motivation (PSM) subdimensions: self-sacrifice, commitment to public interest, and compassion. A mail survey of national award-winning volunteers constitutes the sample. Results indicate strong support for Perrys instrument, most noticeably better results for self-sacrifice than those found in Perrys original exploratory work. Implications and recommendations for PSM instrument development are discussed.

Stipended Volunteers: Their Goals, Experiences, Satisfaction, and Likelihood of Future Service

Goal setting theory predicts that the initial needs, interests, and aspirations that volunteers bring to organizations are guiding forces in their work behaviors. Other theorists argue that environmental constraints and conditioned responses to positive or negative reinforcement of earlier behaviors are better predictors of subsequent behaviors than initial goals. In this study, the relationship of initial goals to subsequent service outcomes, satisfaction, and intention to volunteer was empirically investigated. Among a sample of 362 AmeriCorps members, the goals that stipended volunteers brought to their service were found to influence outcomes related to those goals 1 year later. Self-esteem was an important moderator of the relationship between goals and outcomes. The overall match of goal importance to goal achievement predicted both satisfaction and likelihood of future volunteering. The results have implications for research on volunteers and volunteer management.

COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE IN URBAN BUS TRANSIT: ASSESSING PRIVATIZATION STRATEGIES

The recent surge of interest in privatization reflects citizen and politician desires for reducing costs and improving quality of public services. This study assessed the costs and benefits of privatization in the context of urban bus transit. Five ownership-management structures were compared on a series of performance indicators. The results indicate that privately owned and operated systems produced more output per dollar and generated revenues than other types of systems. Publicly owned systems managed by contractors, however, performed no more efficiently and effectively than publicly owned, publicly managed systems. Despite these findings, large-scale shifts toward private ownership or away from contract management may be unlikely because of other factors influencing choices about ownership and management in the urban transit industry.

Merit Pay in the Public Sector: the Case for a Failure of Theory

Contingent pay has become very popular in response to criticisms of traditional pay policies in government. The new systems, however, have generally failed to increase productivity. Although many scholars have attributed failures of merit pay to poor implementation or weak top manage ment commitment, an alternative explanation is that the theory on which merit pay is based is flawed. It is argued here that merit pay is not appropriate for managerial work, imposes excessive informa tion demands on an organization, and diminishes an organizations ability to coordinate interdependencies.

Federal Merit Pay, Round II: An Analysis of the Performance Management and Recognition System

A decade ago, Congress passed the U.S. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). The merit pay provisions of the 1978 reforms were hailed as a means for making federal managers and their organizations more responsive, efficient, and effective. Merit pay proved instead to be demoralizing and counterproductive. Among its shortcomings were inadequate funding, pay inequities between managers and nonmanagers, and invalid performance appraisals.1 Congress sought to remedy these problems in 1984 by creating the Performance Management and Recognition System (PMRS), which covers grades 13, 14, and 15 supervisors and managerial officials and which was intended to strengthen pay-for-performance principles.