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How a demanding employment relationship relates to affective commitment in public organizations: A multilevel analysis
Author(s) -
Audenaert Mieke,
George Bert,
Decramer Adelien
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/padm.12378
Subject(s) - civil servant , bureaucracy , typology , social exchange theory , civil servants , public management , multilevel model , corporate governance , investment (military) , public sector , social psychology , political science , business , sociology , public relations , public administration , psychology , economics , management , economy , machine learning , politics , anthropology , computer science , law
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.