This study examines whether the norms and values of labor unions contradict public service motivation (PSM). Using Perry and Wise’s conceptualization of (PSM) this article tests four hypotheses by analyzing both quantitative data drawn from the employees of a large metropolitan city and qualitative data drawn from semistructured interviews conducted in two large Midwestern cities. I expect that as employees become socialized into union membership, they will increasingly identify with rational, affective, and normative union motives. The quantitative findings suggest that union socialization is associated with lower compassion, higher self-sacrifice, and greater commitment to the public interest. Union socialization is unrelated to attraction to policy making. This study supports the hypotheses that unions shape members’ motives through the socialization process. I rebut the argument that public sector union members are solely self-interested, but the findings suggest that union socialization can undermine one’s feelings of compassion.
AlonsoP.LewisG. B. (2001). Public service motivation and job performance: Evidence from the federal sector. American Review of Public Administration, 31, 363-380.
2.
AshrafJ. (1998). Collective bargaining and compensation at public junior colleges. Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, 27, 393-399.
3.
BarlingJ.KellowayE. K.BremermannE. H. (1991). Preemployment predictors of union attitudes: The role of family socialization and work beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 725-731.
4.
BelmanD.HeywoodJ. S. (1991). Direct and indirect effects of unionization and government employment on fringe benefit provision. Journal of Labor Research, 12(2), 111-122.
5.
BelmanD.HeywoodJ. S. (1995). State and local government wage differentials: An intra state analysis. Journal of Labor Research, 16, 187-201.
6.
BelmanD.HeywoodJ. S.LundJ. (1997). Public sector earnings and the extent of unionization. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 50, 610-628.
7.
BrownT. A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford.
8.
BuchholzR. A. (1978). An empirical study of contemporary beliefs about work in American society. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 2219-2227.
ChandlerT. D.GelyR. (1995). Protective service unions, political activities, and bargaining outcomes. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 5, 295-318.
11.
ChandlerT. D.GelyR. (1996). Toward identifying the determinants of public-employee unions’ involvement in political activities. American Review of Public Administration, 26, 417-438.
12.
CourseyD. H.PerryJ. L.BrudneyJ. L.LittlepageL. (2008). Psychometric verification of Perry’s public service motivation instrument: Results for volunteer exemplars. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 28(1), 79-90.
13.
DeHart-DavisL.MarloweJ.PandeyS. K. (2006). Gender dimensions of public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 66, 873-887.
14.
DelaneyJ. T.FioritoJ.JarleyP. (1999). Evolutionary politics? Union differences and political activities in the 1990s. Journal of Labor Research, 20, 277-295.
15.
DiIulioJ. D.Jr. (1994). Principled agents: The cultural bases of behavior in a federal government bureaucracy. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4, 277-318.
16.
DillmanD. A.SmythJ. D.ChristianL. M. (2009). Internet, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
17.
DonahueJ. D. (2008). The warping of government work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
FloraD. B.CurranP. J. (2004). An empirical evaluation of alternative methods of estimation for confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal data. Psychological Methods, 9, 466-491.
19.
FredericksonH. G.HartD. K. (1985). The public service and the patriotism of benevolence. Public Administration Review, 45, 547-553.
20.
FreemanR. B. (1986). Unionism comes to the public sector. Journal of Economic Literature, 24(1), 41-86.
21.
FreemanR. B. (1988). Contration and expansion: The divergence of private sector and public sector unionism in the United States. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2(2), 63-88.
22.
FullagarC. J. A.GallagherD. G.GordonM. E.ClarkP. F. (1995). Impact of early socialization on union commitment and participation: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 147-157.
23.
HoustonD. J. (2000). Public-service motivation: A multivariate test. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10, 713-728.
24.
HoustonD. J. (2006). “Walking the walk” of public service motivation: Public employees and charitable gifts of time, blood, and money. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 16(1), 67-86.
25.
HoustonD. J. (2008). Behavior in the public square. In PerryJ. L.HondeghemA. (Eds.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service (pp. 177-199). New York: Oxford University Press.
26.
IngrahamP. W. (2006). Building bridges over troubled waters: Merit as a guide. Public Administration Review, 66, 486-495.
27.
JoreskogK. G.SorbomD. (1993). LISREL 8: Structural equation modeling with the SIMPLIS command language. Chicago, IL: Scientific Software International.
28.
KearneyR. C. (2010). Public sector labor-management relations: Change or status quo?Review of Public Personnel Administration, 30(1), 89-111.
29.
KlineR. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford.
30.
KlingnerD. E.NalbandianJ.LlorensJ. (2010). Public personnel management: Contexts and strategies (6th ed.). New York, NY: Longman.
31.
KochanT. A. (1979). How American workers view labor unions. Monthly Labor Review, 102(23), 15-22.
32.
MarshH. W.HauK.-T.WenZ. (2004). In search of golden rules: Comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s (1999) findings. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 11, 320-341.
MoeT. M. (2006). Political control and the power of the agent. Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, 22(1), 1-29.
35.
MoeT. M. (2009). Collective bargaining and the performance of the public schools. American Journal of Political Science, 53, 156-174.
36.
MoynihanD. P.PandeyS. K. (2007). The role of organizations in fostering public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 67(1), 40-53.
37.
MuthenL. K.MuthenB. O. (1998-2010). Mplus user’s guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Authors.
38.
PandeyS. K.MoynihanD. P. (2006). Bureaucratic red tape and organizational performance: testing the moderating role of culture and poltical support. In BoyneG. A.MeierK. J.O’TooleL. J.WalkerR. M. (Eds.), Public service performance: Perspectives on measurement and management. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
39.
PandeyS. K.StazykE. C. (2008). Antecedents and correlates of public service motivation. In PerryJ. L.HondeghemA. (Eds.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service (pp. 101-117). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
PerryJ. L. (1996). Measuring public service motivation: An assessment of construct reliability and validity. Journal of Public Adminsitration Research and Theory, 6(1), 5-22.
41.
PerryJ. L. (1997). Antecedents of public service motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 7, 181-197.
42.
PerryJ. L. (2000). Bringing society in: Toward a theory of public-service motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10, 471-488.
43.
PerryJ. L.PorterL. W. (1982). Factors affecting the context for motivation in public organizations. Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 89-98.
44.
PerryJ. L.RaineyH. G. (1988). The public–private distinction in organization theory: A critique and research strategy. Academy of Management Review, 13, 182-201.
45.
PerryJ. L.VandenabeeleW. (2008). Behavioral dynamics: Institutions, identities, and self-regulation. In PerryJ. L.HondeghemA. (Eds.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service (pp. 56-79). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
46.
PerryJ. L.WiseL. R. (1990). The motivational bases of public service. Public Administration Review, 50, 367-373.
47.
RaineyH. G. (1983). Public agencies and private firms: Incentive structures, goals, and individual roles. Administration and Society, 15, 207-242.
48.
RiccucciN. M. (1987). Black employment in municipal work forces. Public Administration Quarterly, 11(1), 76-89.
49.
RiccucciN. M. (1988). A typology for union discrimination: A public sector perspective. Public Personnel Management, 17(1), 41-51.
50.
RiccucciN. M. (1990). Women, minorities, and unions in the public sector. New York, NY: Greenwood.
51.
RiccucciN. M. (2010). Public administration: Traditions of inquiry and philosophies of knowledge. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
52.
SchofieldA. (1983). Rebel girls and union maids: The woman question in the journals of the AFL and IWW, 1905-1920. Feminist Studies, 9, 335-358.
53.
VisserJ. (2006). Union membership statistics in 24 countries. Monthly Labor Review, 129(1), 38-49.
54.
WaddingtonJ.WhitstonC. (1997). Why do people join unions in a period of membership decline?British Journal of Industrial Relations, 35, 515-546.
55.
WrightB. E. (2007). Public service and motivation: Does mission matter?Public Administration Review, 67(1), 54-64.
56.
YangK.ZhangY.HolzerM. (2008). Dealing with multiple paradigms in public administration research. In YangK.MillerG. J. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in public administration (2nd ed., pp. 25-44). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
