Self-selection or socialization of public- and private-sector managers?

Personal values and value congruence of public administration graduate students: An exploratory study in China

“…The boundary if established would introduce value differences between non‐profit sector and public enterprise employees, as consistently witnessed by studies in western contexts (e.g. Baldwin, ; Becker & Connor, ). However, the existence of this sector boundary cannot be supported by the result here.…”

Evidence of lower risk tolerance among public sector employees in their personal financial matters

“…The question that remains is whether there is a self‐selection of risk‐averse individuals into the public sector or do they become more risk‐averse in the process of adapting to the organizational demands and culture. Becker and Connor (2005) concluded that most differences in values between the sectors are due to acculturation and not self‐selection, but risk tolerance was not a characteristic they studied. Interpreted according to Schneider's Attraction, Selection, and Attrition (ASA) model (Schneider, Goldstein, & Smith, 1995), the cycle begins with the attraction of inherently less risk tolerant people into government positions due to features such as greater job security and guaranteed benefits.…”

Citizens’ attitudes towards the public sector, public servants, and politicians – Development and validation of practical survey scales

“…Consequently, the attitudes towards the public sector in general and public servants as a part of this sector are highly related, and the scales are not clearly distinct. Potentially, social processes of self-selection and socialization of public servants within the sector result in related perceptions among citizens, which, in turn, explains the related attitudes towards these two entities (Becker and Connor 2005;De Cooman et al 2011).…”

“…For example, in the research area related to public service biases, attitude studies can add a substantial nuance by clarifying the extent to which certain individuals are more susceptible to such biases as compared to others. In addition, other streams in the field of public management can benefit from such tools, as attitudes potentially relate to the expectations and the cognitive processes in public performance evaluations Jilke 2017), the choice of being involved in citizen participation initiatives and co-production (Whitaker 1980;Irvin and Stansbury 2004 ;Clark and Jang 2013;Roberts 2004;Willems, 2017), as well as the decision to enter into public service careers (De Cooman et al 2011;Becker and Connor 2005;Goulet and Frank 2002;Willems 2014).…”