In the face of looming retirements in the federal service, retaining and motivating the next generation of workers has emerged as a critical concern for human resource professionals in federal agencies. While a growing body of work provides advice and strategies on making government work more inviting for the members of the Millennial generation, those born after 1982, not much is known about the turnover intentions of those already in public service. Do Millennial workers in the federal agencies resemble older workers in terms of their work motivations and turnover intentions? This study compares Millennial and older generation workers in U.S. federal agencies, in terms of their turnover intentions and work motivations. The analyses show that they are more likely than their older counterparts to report an intention to leave their jobs, and most work attributes do not matter more for Millennial workers' decisions to leave.

The results reveal the importance of early prevention programmes, which should begin before high school, and targeting efforts towards male students and all students who are not yet smokers but susceptible to smoking. Findings also suggest that prevention policies that challenge the cultural perceptions of smokers among Turkish youth are needed.

Research has shown that individuals with greater public service motivation (PSM) values are more likely to work for government, because government jobs offer more public service opportunities; the question then arises of whether they are also drawn into other activities that offer service opportunities, such as participation in voluntary organizations. This study examined the volunteering behavior of government employees in different domains. Using the Americans’ Changing Lives survey, logistic regression models were estimated to examine the relationship between employment in the government sector and self-reported volunteering in five different types of organization. The results indicated that government employees engage in significantly more volunteering than their private-sector counterparts. When separate models were run for volunteering in each organization type, controlling for several other factors, the results showed that these initial big differences were driven primarily by their volunteering in two specific types of organization: Educational institutions and political groups.

According to the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) approach, anecdotes about policy can be used to clarify whether and how policy narratives impact individual public opinion, which in turn shapes aggregate public opinion. This study focuses on the effect of narratives in shaping opinions regarding charter schools, one of the most controversial policy alternatives in the school-choice debate. This policy lends itself well to being examined using an NPF approach, since both the supporters and skeptics use strong and distinct narratives to present their case and to advocate for their cause. To examine whether different policy narratives on charter schools influence individuals opinions and attitudes and preferred policy outcome, a quasiexperimental design is used to compare baseline and follow-up opinion data for individuals who read policy narratives reflecting different positions. The results indicate that policy narratives influence public opinion, and that congruence and issue familiarity matter in the nature of the change.

The scarcity of citizen involvement in the public sphere is an ongoing concern within the literature on democratic citizenship. This study examines two dimensions of engagementattentiveness and participation-in several political voice activities, looking at citizens working in the public and non-profit sectors in comparison with private-sector employees. Government employees serve the public interest by providing public services in various ways, but they are also individual citizens with varying values, opinions, and attitudes. How does this dual role shape their civic engagement behaviors and habits of political attentiveness? Are they more politically attentive or more likely to engage in political voice activities than individuals working in other sectors? How do non-profit workers fare? Are they more similar to public workers or private workers with regard to participation in these activities? Using the Current Population Survey (CPS) Special Supplement on civic engagement, the analyses here indicate that both government and non-profit employees are significantly more likely to engage in political voice activities than those working in the private sector. By focusing on political voice activities, knowledge, and media use, the study contributes to the literature by providing a more comprehensive profile of individual participation by sector. The findings generate new questions about what such participation might mean for democratic citizenship.

No abstract

No abstract

Although existing research has focused on the link between employee sector and formal volunteering, no differentiation is made between formal and informal social participation. This study compares the formal and informal social participation of public-, non-profit-, and private-sector employees using recent data from two sources. The results indicate that both government and non-profit employees report higher levels of formal and informal social participation, as measured in several ways. Findings provide a more complete understanding of the multifaceted ways in which citizens can get involved, and emphasize the importance of motivational differences.