Peter Leisink

Organizational commitment among Dutch public sector employees

Organizational commitment has become a much researched subject over the past three decades. This article focuses on the relatively understudied public sector. On the basis of a large public-sector-wide survey, organizational commitment and its antecedents are assessed, including the contribution made by HRM practices. The findings are, to a large extent, in agreement with earlier studies in that they indicate the relatively major importance of job and organizational characteristics and the relatively minor importance of personal characteristics for affective commitment. Further, there is evidence of an effect of employees’ perception of HRM practices on organizational commitment, which is relevant for orienting management action. However, the findings with respect to normative commitment differ from previous studies. It is suggested that further research should be done that includes both organizational commitment and public service motivation as the latter could have an effect on normative commitment of public sector employees.

On the bright and dark side of public service motivation: the relationship between PSM and employee wellbeing

This paper reveals that the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and employee wellbeing depends on the societal impact potential (SIP) through the job and organizational type. In people-changing organizations, PSM relates to higher burnout and lower job satisfaction when SIP is high: employees sacrifice themselves too much for society. However, in people-processing organizations, low SIP relates to higher burnout and lower job satisfaction: employees experience frustration if they cannot contribute. This shows that whether PSM relates positively depends on institutional logics.

Talking the Talk of Public Service Motivation: How Public Organization Logics Matter for Employees' Expressions of PSM

This article aims to move beyond the public-private dichotomy in studying public service motivation (PSM) by showing how organizational logics matter for the type of PSM (instrumental, normative, or affective) that employees express. Using data from 50 interviews in police stations, prisons, hospitals, municipalities, and schools, we show that differences in service logic (the users feeling of the desirability of a service) and user logic (people-changing or people-processing services) matter for employees’ expressions of PSM in that this results in different emphases within public service motivation. We conclude that institutions such as organizational logics matter for PSM expressions and that research on PSM should account for differences between public service-providing organizations.

The European Sectoral Social Dialogue and the Graphical Industry

The European Commission and the ETUC have outlined policies to strengthen the sectoral level of European industrial relations, but the social dialogue has developed in only a limited number of sectors. This article examines some theoretical arguments which may contribute to a better understanding of the motives of industrial relations actors for participation in social dialogue and collective bargaining at the European level. These arguments will be used to explain why no social dialogue has been initiated in the graphical sector, and what this absence implies for the prospects of the Europeanization of collective bargaining in the sector.

Leadership Behavior in Public Organizations A Study of Supervisory Support by Police and Medical Center Middle Managers

Leadership behavior is recognized as an important variable in the Human Resource Management (HRM)-Performance chain. However, in most studies, leadership behavior is viewed as an independent variable, and one that influences employees’ attitudes and behavior. Because of this premise, claims that public managers’ discretionary room for supervisory support is constrained, and that personal motivation is the most important reason for a manager engaging in supervisory support, have not been systematically examined. This article fills this gap by examining the antecedents of supervisory support by middle managers in the police force and in an academic medical center in the Netherlands. The results show that the extent of the discretionary room that middle managers experience has an effect on supervisory support and that this relationship is mediated by their willingness to support employees. Furthermore, a manager’s supportive ability is an important additional antecedent.

Clarifying the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and In-Role and Extra-Role Behaviors: The Relative Contributions of Person-Job and Person-Organization Fit:

A core proposition of public service motivation (PSM) theory is that PSM is positively related to individual performance. Some studies, however, suggest that this relationship is mediated by person-job or person-organization fit. This study aims to further clarify the relationship between PSM and performance by, first, studying the mediation role of both person-job and person-organization fits and, second, by investigating this mediation for both in-role and extra-role behavior. Whereas in-role behavior is aimed at the individual task, extra-role is aimed at helping colleagues. This difference may matter for the role of PSM and fit. To this end, we conducted structural equation modeling with bootstrapping on self-reported survey data from public employees (n = 1,031). The analysis showed that person-job, but not person-organization fit, fully mediated the relationship between PSM and in-role behavior. The relationship with extra-role behavior was not mediated. The PSM-performance relationship may thus be more complex than previously envisioned, as both type of performance and person-job fit matter.

Only When the Societal Impact Potential Is High? A Panel Study of the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and Perceived Performance

Many studies find positive associations between public service motivation (PSM) and performance, but much of this literature is based on cross-sectional data prone to endogeneity and common method bias. Moreover, we know little about potential moderators. In this study, we test the moderating role of societal impact potential (SIP)—the degree to which the job is perceived to provide opportunities to contribute to society. We use cross-sectional data from 13,967 employees in 2010 and 2012 aggregated to construct longitudinal data for 42 organizations. As expected, the association between PSM and individual perceived performance is positive when SIP is high. However, when SIP is low, PSM is only weakly or not at all related to performance. This is an important insight for organizations that try to enhance performance through PSM. Our findings suggest that this can only be done when the employees think that their jobs allow them to contribute to society.

New union constituencies call for differentiated agendas and democratic participation

One element of the future of the trade unions is the recognition of the differentiation of the labour force and the need for differentiated bargaining agendas. However, putting new items on the agenda is not enough to attract categories of workers which are now generally underrepresented such as young workers, women and workers in the private service sectors. In addition, the form of collective agreements should facilitate a differentiated implementation through democratic participation and individual autonomy.for the workers involved. The article illustrates the need for this type of flexible unionism on the basis of empirical studies of white-collar workers and workers in the commercial service sectors. Since differentiation may be felt to call into question traditional union understandings of solidarity, this topic will be reflected on in the concluding section of this article.

Public value creation and strategic human resource management: public service motivation as a linking mechanism: A Public Values Perspective

2 Public management contributions for improving social service performance: public values, public service motivation and rule functionality 19 Gene A. Brewer 3 Public value creation and strategic human resource management: public service motivation as a linking mechanism 37 Wouter Vandenabeele, Peter Leisink and Eva Knies 4 Academia: habitat of contesting public values? 55 Henk J. van Rinsum and Arie de Ruijter 5 Public value and localism in the UK 71 Keith Grint and Clare Holt 6 The organization of social issues through sport: youths in public playgrounds 88 Jeroen Vermeulen

Employer's investments in hospital workers' employability and employment opportunities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employer’s investments (through job characteristics and managerial support) and employees’ employment opportunities, with employability, conceptualized as perceived up-to-date expertise and willingness to change, as a mediating variable. Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling on survey data collected from 1,626 employees of three Dutch hospitals. Findings – Consistent with the hypotheses, the results indicate that job characteristics and managerial support are indirectly related to employees’ beliefs on employment opportunities, with the relationship mediated by up-to-date expertise and willingness to change. Further, managerial support is directly related to employees’ employment opportunities. Practical implications – This paper shows that employers, by providing an attractive and challenging job in combination with adequate supervisory support, can enhance their employees’ employab...