The Changing Face of Public Service: Understanding the Dedication, Altruism, and Career Choices of Government and Nonprofit Employees

In recent decades, government has increasingly contracted out the delivery of public goods and services to the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. As a result, the face of public service continues to evolve as employees carrying out the public's work can now be found across all three sectors--government, nonprofit, and for-profit. The blurring of the boundaries across sectors, increased mobility of employees, and declining social capital raises numerous questions about the motivations and behavior of today's public servants. This dissertation examines how the growing use of nonprofit and for-profit providers to deliver public services has changed how individuals view their options for a career in public service, a question that has important implications for human resource managers tasked with recruiting and retaining talented employees. This dissertation examines what it means to be a public servant in several ways. First, I describe the current climate of public service, explore what we mean by "public", and provide an overview of theories on motivation and sector choice or dedication. Next, I present three studies that each addresses a different research question that explores the meaning of public service. The first study, presented in Chapter 2, examines how the altruism of government and nonprofit employees compares to for-profit sector workers. Employing data from the 2011 Volunteer Supplement of the Current Population Survey, I examine the association between employment sector and whether one volunteers, using separate models for formal volunteering, informal volunteering, and the number of hours that volunteers devote to volunteering. The second study, presented in Chapter 3, examines sector switching among government, nonprofit, and for-profit sector employees using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). I use hazard models to determine the probability of employees switching job sectors during both a stable economy using panels from the 2004 SIPP and the recent recession panels from the 2008 SIPP. The third study, presented in Chapter 4, explores the career goals of a sample of Master in Public Administration and Master in Public Policy students in the Washington, DC area using data from an original survey. I use logistic regression to explore the factors associated with graduate students' decisions to make charitable donations and volunteer, as well as their desire to work in public service, government, and nonprofit organizations.Across studies, I find important distinctions between sectors as well as levels of government that shed light on the dedication, prosocial behaviors, and sector choice of individuals today with the rise of privatization and increased employee mobility. I am hopeful that this study will help reignite attention to public sector distinctiveness and raise interest in developing contemporary management, recruitment, and retention strategies in the context of the changing environment.