Are We Really on the Same Page? An Empirical Examination of Value Congruence Between Public Sector and Nonprofit Sector Managers

Abstract

Much attention has recently been paid to comparative work in the public and private sectors looking at work values, motivations, and the impact of government reform movements in organizations. Several studies have compared the public and private sectors in the dimension of values; but none have questioned the popular assumption that nonprofit and public managers share the same or a similar set of values or the value expectations they have for each other. This paper reports on the results of an empirical survey of public and nonprofit managers that compares their individual democratic, ethical, and professional values. In brief, the results lend strong support to the assumption that nonprofit employees share the same value set as their public sector counterparts; but their value sets do have statistically significant differences in the perceived level of importance of altruism, generosity, and individualism.Résumé Une grande attention est récemment accordée à des travaux comparatifs dans les secteurs public et privé, consacrés aux valeurs de travail, aux motivations, et aux conséquences des mouvements de réforme du gouvernement dans les organisations. Plusieurs études ont comparé les secteurs public et privé sous l'aspect des valeurs. Mais aucune n'a remis en question l'hypothèse répandue selon laquelle les responsables dans les secteurs à but non lucratif et public partagent les mêmes valeurs, ou ensemble de valeurs similaires, ou attentes de valeurs qu'ils ont l'un envers l'autre. Ce document présente les résultats d'une étude empirique des responsables dans les secteurs à but non lucratif et public qui compare leurs valeurs démocratiques, éthiques et professionnelles. Pour résumer, les résultats étayent fortement l'hypothèse que les employés dans le secteur à but non lucratif partagent les mêmes valeurs que leurs homologues du secteur public, mais que leurs valeurs ont des différences statistiquement significatives dans le niveau perçu de l'importance de l'altruisme, de la générosité et de l'individualisme.Zusammenfassung In letzter Zeit schenkte man der vergleichenden Arbeit im öffentlichen und privaten Sektor, bei der Arbeitswerte, Motivationen und die Auswirkungen von Initiativen zur Führungsreform in Organisationen betrachtet werden, viel Aufmerksamkeit. Mehrere Studien haben den öffentlichen und den privaten Sektor hinsichtlich ihrer Werte verglichen; doch keine der Studien hinterfragte bislang die verbreitete Annahme, dass Manager gemeinnütziger und öffentlicher Organisationen die gleichen oder ähnlichen Werte bzw. die gegenseitigen Werterwartungen teilen. Dieser Beitrag veranschaulicht die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Umfrage von Managern öffentlicher und gemeinnütziger Organisationen, im Rahmen derer die jeweiligen demokratischen, ethischen und professionellen Werte verglichen werden. Kurz gesagt unterstützen die Ergebnisse die Annahme, dass Mitarbeiter gemeinnütziger Organisationen die gleichen Werte teilen wie ihre Gegenstücke im öffentlichen Sektor; doch weisen ihre Werte sehr wohl statistisch bedeut...

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