Public service work and public-serving institutions are evolving by incorporating neoliberal modes of working more and more. Contemporary research oftentimes neglects to account for these changes in how we understand public service work, however. This article draws on the meaningfulness in work and public service motivation literature to explore how public service workers are making sense of their work and work environments to create meaningful work experiences under evolving conditions. The findings from 45 interviews with public and nonprofit managers are presented and compared. The changing world of work has implications for how public and nonprofit workers narrate and find meaningfulness in work but not what they find meaningful about their work. The findings suggest that both public and nonprofit workers create positive meaningfulness in work but in dissimilar ways. The findings also suggest that organizational leaders play a substantial part in workers’ meaningfulness-making process. The findings hold theoretical and practical implications for understanding the role workplaces and organizational leaders play in workers’ experience of meaningful public service work.
BaileyC.MaddenA. (2016). What makes work meaningful-or meaningless?MIT Sloan Management Review, 57(4), 1–9.
2.
BaileyC.MaddenA.AlfesK.ShantzA.SoaneE. (2017). The mismanaged soul: Existential labor and the erosion of meaningful work. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 416–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.11.001
3.
BakkerA. B. (2015). A job demands–resources approach to public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 75(5), 723–732. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12388
4.
BassousM. (2015). What are the factors that affect worker motivations in faith-based nonprofit organizations?Voluntas, 26(1), 355–381. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-013-9420-3
5.
BeckU. (2014). The brave new world of work. Policy Press.
6.
BoydN.NowellB.YangZ.HanoM. C. (2018). Sense of community, sense of community responsibility, and public service motivation as predictors of employee well-being and engagement in public service organizations. The American Review of Public Administration, 48(5), 428–443. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074017692875
7.
BrewerG. A.SeldenS. C. (1998). Whistle blowers in the federal civil service: New evidence of the public service ethic. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 8(3), 413–440. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024390
8.
BromleyP.MeyerJ. W. (2017). “They are all organizations”: The cultural roots of blurring between the nonprofit, business, and government sectors. Administration & Society, 49(7), 939–966. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399714548268
9.
BromleyP.OrchardC. D. (2016). Managed morality: The rise of professional codes of conduct in the US nonprofit sector. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(2), 351–374. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764015584062
10.
BundersonJ. S.ThompsonJ. A. (2009). The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings, and the double-edged sword of deeply meaningful work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(1), 32–57. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.2009.54.1.32
11.
CatlawT. J.MarshallG. S. (2018). Enjoy your work! The fantasy of the neoliberal workplace and its consequences for the entrepreneurial subject. Administrative Theory and Praxis, 40(2), 99–118. https://doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2018.1454241
12.
ChalofskyN.KrishnaV. (2009). Meaningfulness, commitment, and engagement: The intersection of a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(2), 189–203. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1523422309333147
13.
CohenG. (2018). Cultural fragmentation as a barrier to interagency collaboration: A qualitative examination of Texas Law Enforcement Officers’ perceptions. American Review of Public Administration, 48(8), 886–901. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074017744659
14.
CohenN.ArieliT. (2011). Field research in conflict environments: Methodological challenges and snowball sampling. Journal of Peace Research, 48(4), 423–435. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022343311405698
15.
CreswellJ. W.PothC. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
16.
CunninghamI. (2010). Drawing from a bottomless well? Exploring the resilience of value-based psychological contracts in voluntary organizations. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(5), 699–719. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585191003658862
DeanM. (2010). Governmentality: Power and rule in modern society (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.
19.
DempseyS. E.SandersM. L. (2010). Meaningful work? Nonprofit marketization and work/life imbalance in popular autobiographies of social entrepreneurship. Organization, 17(4), 437–459. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508410364198
20.
du GayP. (1996). Consumption and identity at work. Sage Publications.
21.
EikenberryA. M.KluverJ. D. (2004). The marketization of the nonprofit sector: Civil society at risk?Public Administration Review, 64(2), 132–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2004.00355.x
22.
EnglertB.ThalerJ.HelmigB. (2020). Fit themes in volunteering: How do volunteers perceive person–environment fit?Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 49(2), 336–356. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764019872005
23.
EsteveM.UrbigD.Van WitteloostuijnA.BoyneG. (2016). Prosocial behavior and public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 76(1), 177–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12480
24.
FlemingP. (2014). Resisting work: The corporatization of life and its discontents. Temple University Press.
25.
FlorianM.CostasJ.KärremanD. (2019). Struggling with meaningfulness when context shifts: Volunteer work in a German refugee shelter. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 589–616. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12410
26.
FoucaultM. (2008). The birth of biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978–1979; translated by Graham Burchell. Palgrave MacMillian.
27.
GrönbjergK. A.SalamonL. M. (2016). Devolution, marketization, and the changing shape of government-nonprofit relations. In OttJ. S.DickeL. A. (Eds.), The nature of the nonprofit sector (3rd ed., pp. 129–146). Westview Press.
28.
HaddadA.MssassiS.MakkaouiM. (2020). The public service qualitative dimensions from the citizen-customers perspective: A literature review and conceptual model. International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 49(2), 230–246.
29.
HeinrichC. J. (2011). Public management. In BevirM. (Ed.), The SAGE handbook of governance (pp. 252–269). Sage.
30.
HendrikxW. (2021). Managerialism and its consequences for professional identity: A comparative analysis of GPs and secondary school teachers. Administration & Society, 53(8), 1178–1202. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0095399721993744
31.
HoltS. B. (2018). For those who care: The effect of public service motivation on sector selection. Public Administration Review, 78(3), 457–471. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12906
32.
HvenmarkJ. (2016). Ideology, practice, and process? A review of the concept of managerialism in civil society studies. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 27(6), 2833–2859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9605-z
33.
HwangH.PowellW. W. (2009). The rationalization of charity: The influences of professionalism in the nonprofit sector. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(2), 268–298. https://doi.org/10.2189%2Fasqu.2009.54.2.268
34.
JensenU. T.BroL. L. (2018). How transformational leadership supports intrinsic motivation and public service motivation: The mediating role of basic need satisfaction. The American Review of Public Administration, 48(6), 535–549. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074017699470
35.
JinM. H.McDonaldB. (2017). Understanding employee engagement in the public sector: The role of immediate supervisor, perceived organizational support, and learning opportunities. The American Review of Public Administration, 47(8), 881–897. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074016643817
36.
JohnsonJ. M.NgE. S. (2016). Money talks or millennials walk: The effect of compensation on nonprofit millennial workers sector-switching intentions. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 36(3), 283–305. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0734371X15587980
37.
KaboolianL. (1998). The new public management: Challenging the boundaries of the management vs. Administration debate. Public Administration Review, 58(3), 189–193. https://doi.org/10.2307/976558
38.
KarremanD.AlvessonM. (2004). Cages in tandem: Management, control, social identity, and identification in a knowledge-intensive firm. Organization, 11(1), 149–175. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350508404039662
39.
KingD. (2017). Becoming business-like: Governing the nonprofit professional. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46(2), 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764016663321
40.
LapworthL.JamesP.WylieN. (2018). Examining public service motivation in the voluntary sector: Implications for public management. Public Management Review, 20(11), 1663–1682. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1417466
41.
LeeY.WilkinsV. M. (2011). More similarities or more differences? Comparing public and nonprofit managers’ job motivations. Public Administration Review, 71(1), 45–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02305.x
42.
LightP. C. (2002). The content of their character: The state of the nonprofit workforce. Nonprofit Quarterly, 9(3), 6–16.
43.
Lips-WiersmaM.MorrisL. (2009). Discriminating between ‘meaningful work’ and the ‘management of meaning’. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(3), 491–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0118-9
44.
MaierF.MeyerM.SteinbereithnerM. (2016). Nonprofit organizations becoming business-like: A systematic review. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(1), 64–86. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0899764014561796
45.
MeyerR. E.HammerschmidG. (2006). Changing institutional logics and executive identities: A managerial challenge to public administration in Austria. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(7), 1000–1014. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0002764205285182
46.
MilesM. B.HubermanA. M.SaldañaJ. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage.
47.
MorseJ. (1995). The significance of saturation. Qualitative Health Research, 5(2), 147–149.
48.
MoserA.KorstjensI. (2018). Series: Practical guidelines to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection, and analysis. European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375091
49.
MoynihanD. P. (2008b). The dynamics of performance measurement: Constructing information and reform. Georgetown University Press.
MoynihanD. P. (2008a). The normative model in decline? Public service motivation in the age of governance. In PerryJ. L.HondeghemA. (Eds.), Public service motivation: State of science and Art (pp. 247–267). Oxford University Press.
52.
NäswallK. (2004). Job insecurity from a stress perspective: antecedents, consequences, and moderators [doctoral dissertation]. Psykologiska institutionen.
53.
OelbergerC. R. (2019). The dark side of deeply meaningful work: Work-relationship turmoil and the moderating role of occupational value homophily. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 558–588. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12411
54.
OspinaS. M.EsteveM.LeeS. (2018). Assessing qualitative studies in public administration research. Public Administration Review, 78(4), 593–605. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12837
PerryJ. L.HondeghemA.WiseL. R. (2010). Revisiting the motivational bases of public service: Twenty years of research and an agenda for the future. Public Administration Review, 70(5), 681–690. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02196.x
57.
PetersB. G.PierreJ. (2016). Comparative governance: Rediscovering the functional dimension of governing. Cambridge University Press.
58.
PetersenA.WilligA. (2013). Evaluations as a process of disenfranchisement. In KeohaneK.PetersenA. (Eds.), The social pathologies of contemporary civilization (pp. 175–192). Ashgate.
59.
RichardsonL. (2000). Writing: A method inquiry. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923–948). Sage.
60.
RitzA.BrewerG. A.NeumannO. (2016). Public service motivation: A systematic literature review and outlook. Public Administration Review, 76(3), 414–426. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12505
61.
RobichauR. W.FernandezK. (2017). Intersectoral experiences: Nonprofit managers and sector influences in child welfare agencies. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership and Governance, 41(1), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2016.1193586
62.
RoseR. P. (2012). Preferences for careers in public work: Examining the government-nonprofit divide among undergraduates through public service motivation. The American Review of Public Administration, 43(1), 416–437. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074012444900
63.
RossoB. D.DekasK. H.WrzesniewskiA. (2010). On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organization Behavior, 30, 91–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2010.09.001
64.
SandbergB.ElliottE.PetchelS. (2020). Investigating the marketization of the nonprofit sector: A comparative case study of two nonprofit organizations. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 31(3), 494–510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00159-8
65.
SchabramK.MaitlisS. (2017). Negotiating the challenges of a calling: Emotion and enacted sensemaking in animal shelter work. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2), 584–609. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0665
66.
SchottC.van KleefD. D.SteenT. (2015). What does it mean and imply to be public service motivated?The American Review of Public Administration, 45(6), 689–707. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074014533589
67.
ShamsF. (2019). Managing academic identity tensions in a Canadian public university: The role of identity work in coping with managerialism. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(6), 619–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1643960
68.
StakeR. E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 443–466). Sage.
69.
StaterK. J.StaterM. (2019). Is it “just work”? The impact of work rewards on job satisfaction and turnover intent in the nonprofit, for-profit, and public sectors. The American Review of Public Administration, 49(4), 495–511. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0275074018815261
70.
StegerM. F.DikB. J.DuffyR. D. (2012). Measuring meaningful work: The work and meaning inventory (WAMI). Journal of Career Assessment, 20(3), 322–337. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1069072711436160
71.
SuárezD. F.HwangH. (2013). Resource constraints or cultural conformity? Nonprofit relationships with businesses. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 24(3), 581–605. https://dio.org/10.1007/s11266-012-9267-z
72.
TerryL. D. (1998). Administrative leadership, neo-managerialism, and the public management movement. Public Administration Review, 58(3), 194–200. https://doi.org/10.2307/976559
73.
ThompsonJ. A.ChristensenR. K. (2018). Bridging the public service motivation and calling literatures. Public Administration Review, 78(3), 444–456. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12913
74.
TracyS. J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 837–851. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1077800410383121
75.
VuoriT.SanE.KiraM. (2012). Meaningfulness-making at work. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 7(2), 231–248. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465641211253110
76.
WordJ.CarpenterH. (2013). The new public service? Applying the public service motivation model to nonprofit employees. Public Personnel Management, 42(3), 315–336. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0091026013495773
77.
WrzesniewskiA.DuttonJ. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179–201. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2001.4378011
78.
WrzesniewskiA.McCauleyC.RozinP.SchwartzB. (1997). Jobs, careers, and callings: People's relations to their work. Journal of Research in Personality, 31(1), 21–33. https://doi.org/10.1006/jrpe.1997.2162
79.
YinR. K. (2011). Qualitative research from start to finish. Guilford.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
