How a demanding employment relationship relates to affective commitment in public organizations: A multilevel analysis
Year: 2017
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: It has recently been recognized in the public administration literature that multiple reforms coexist in public organizations, ranging from the Weberian bureaucracy to New Public Management and, more recently, new public governance. This study develops a typology of the employment relationship with features of these macro‐level changes and tests their impact on the civil servant's affective commitment by including the individual‐level social exchange relationship. This multilevel model is tested with data from 936 employees in a public organization. The findings confirm the existence of different approaches to the employment relationship: overdemanding, mutual investment and moderately demanding. Civil servants in a mutual investment employment relationship are most affectively committed, and civil servants in a moderately demanding employment relationship benefit most from a positive social exchange relationship. Implications for public management theory and practice are discussed.
Source: Public Administration
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12378
Authors: Mieke Audenaert, Bert George, Adelien Decramer
Institutions: Ghent University, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Language: English
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2780876182