PUBLIC SECTOR

Public sector is that part of the economy which is owned or controlled by the public, usually through government agencies. Most schooling is part of the public sector as are hospitals, provision of social services, and some transit services.

The more substantial portion of the economy consists of the private sector, those economic activities controlled or owned by private individuals, either directly or through stock ownership.

Organizing for effectiveness in the public sector
Public-sector agencies differ from private enterprises in having social rather than financial objectives, but there is pressure on both to be more efficient. Since the government often lacks a corporation's freedom to discontinue hard-to-provide services or to dismiss underperforming staff, it must find creative ways to improve its performance. Organizational redesign can help public-sector leaders create internal momentum for change even if agencies are insulated from market forces. 
Managers can make public-sector organizations more productive by clearly defining responsibilities and ensuring accountability for results. Since the government has no easily measured bottom line, it must create new ways to measure and review results. - mckinseyquarterly.com/

Knowledge Sharing in Public Sector Organizations: The Effect of Organizational Characteristics on Interdepartmental Knowledge Sharing 
Annick Willem, Marc Buelens, Ghent University and Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, doi:10.1093/jopart/mul021 
Public sector organizations are mainly knowledge-intensive organizations, and to exploit their knowledge, effective knowledge sharing among the different departments is required. We focus on specific characteristics of public sector organizations that increase or limit interdepartmental knowledge sharing. Three types of organization-specific coordination mechanisms directly influence knowledge sharing between departments. Organizations are also characterized by members' social identification and trust, which in the absence of power games are assumed to create a knowledge-sharing context. Data are collected by a questionnaire survey in the public sector. The sample consists of 358 cooperative episodes between departments in more than 90 different public sector organizations. Structural equation modeling reveals the importance of lateral coordination and trust. The combination of power games and informal coordination seems to be remarkably beneficial for knowledge sharing. Furthermore, compared with other public sector organizations, government institutions have organizational characteristics that are less beneficial for knowledge sharing. - jpart.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/mul021v1

The Public-Private Sector Pay Differential in Greece - Evangelia Papapetrou 
University of Athens and Economic Research Department, Bank of Greece 
Public Finance Review, Vol. 34, No. 4, 450-473 (2006)
This article examines the earnings differential between the public and private sectors pay in Greece employing quantile regression analysis and using micro data. The results suggest that average earnings are higher in the public sector than in the private sector for both genders but earnings in the public sector show a smaller dispersion with respect to the private sector. The findings indicate that employees in the public sector at the lower end of the earnings distribution earn a higher wage gap compared with their counterparts in the private sector but this gap decreases at higher quantiles. In addition, quantile regression estimation reveals that the earnings differences in the low quantiles are mainly attributed to the unobserved characteristics and partly to the differences in endowment. By contrast, in the highest quantiles the differences in earnings between sectors for both genders are mainly attributed to the observed differences in the endowment characteristics. - pfr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/4/450

Public-Sector Wage Comparability: The Role of Earnings Dispersion - Dale Belman, Michigan State University, John S. Heywood, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 
Public Finance Review, Vol. 32, No. 6, 567-587 (2004).
Economists use average wage differentials to examine whether public- and private-sector workers have comparable earnings. Such average differentials, originally developed for other purposes, fail to measure the true distance from comparability. In short, if average earnings in the public and private sectors are identical, earnings need not be comparable. The authors develop alternative statistical measures of comparability that demonstrate that differences in average earnings contribute only modestly to deviations from comparability and that state and local governments in the United States deviate more from comparability than does the federal government. - pfr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/6/567

"The Determinants and Consequences of Public Sector and Private Sector Training."
James J. Heckman, Stephen V. Cameron, and Peter Z. Schochet (11/92) 
Abstract: In a series of empirical research papers based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), we have investigated the determinants and consequences of various forms of post-secondary education and training. The goal of this research is to broaden the analysis of post-secondary education to consider a variety of non-academic training options that are widely used but rarely studied. These options are especially important for the study of minority schooling and workforce attachment patterns. All of our analyses are done for male youth.
A variety of forms of non-traditional education are considered: public job training, military training, business and proprietary schooling, community college education, on the job training (formal instruction from employers) and apprenticeship programs. Rather than analyzing these choices in isolation, we consider the choices that individuals make from the full spectrum they confront. Our analysis of choices considers these options as well as the options of working without formal training, serving in the military without training, not working at all, and more traditional educational choices. We also consider participation in "second chance" activities such as Adult Basic Education and General Equivalence Degree programs.
Our analyses of the NLSY data challenge the conventional wisdom. Exam-certified high school graduates do no better in the labor market than high school dropouts with the same number of years of classroom training. There is little evidence of any direct economic benefit to exam certification. However, GED recipients are more likely to qualify for post-secondary training benefits than do dropouts. The modest economic benefit that arises from exam certification is solely a consequence of additional training activity. GED recipients do less well in these training programs than ordinary high school graduates. Our study finds little evidence of any social return to GED test-taking. The private return to GED certification arises from its role in satisfying bureaucratically-determined requirements for post-secondary training and schooling programs. - bls.gov/ore/abstract/nl/nl920040.htm

Marketing in the Public Sector: Towards a Typology of Public Services 
Angus Laing, Open University Business School, UKa.w.laing@open.ac.uk 
Marketing Theory, Vol. 3, No. 4, 427-445 (2003) © 2003 SAGE Publications
The concept of marketing has conventionally been viewed by public service professionals as inappropriate to organizations concerned with the delivery of public good services. However, the adoption of private sector based approaches to theorganization of public services in many post-modern western economies has forced a fundamental reconsideration of the potential contribution of marketing to thedelivery of public services. Against such a backdrop this paper critically reviews the underlying characteristics of public sector services and through articulating aclassification of such services based on the nature of the organization-service user interaction, explores the application of particular conceptualizations of marketing to discrete categories of public services. - mtq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/4/427

Comparing Job Satisfaction among Public- and Private-Sector Employees 
Victor S. DeSantis, Bridgewater State College, Samantha L. Durst, University of North Texas 
The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 26, No.3 (1996) © 1996 SAGE Publications
Over the past several decades a number of empirical studies have demonstrated that job-satisfaction levels vary widely in the American labor force. The effect of age, tenure, salary, job type, job level, and work environment on an employee's job satisfaction has been extensively discussed. Studies have underscored the importance of identifying the determinants of employee job satisfaction by linking it to higher production and performance levels and to retention rates. 
Renewed interest in increasing performance levels in government should interest public administrators in identifying factors that foster worker satisfaction. However little empirical attention has been given to evaluating job-satisfaction levels among public-sector employees. And given that the reward system in the public sector systematically differs from that of the private sector (in terms of pay, benefits, and psychic value), it seems likely that studies of satisfaction levels among private-sector employees may not be applicable to public-sector employees. 
This paper utilizes analyses of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) to compare job-satisfaction levels among public-and private-sector employees. The NLSY is a representative sample of 12,686 men and women. Using this survey allows us to examine the actual work experiences, personal characteristics, and job-satisfaction levels of a selected set of public and private workers. If the factors that contribute to job satisfaction differ for public-and private-sector employees, as our results suggest they do, then such an analysis is long overdue. - arp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/3/327

Changing the Paradigm - Trust and its Role in Public Sector Organizations 
Ronald C. Nyhan, Florida Atlantic University 
The American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 30, No.1, (2000) © 2000 SAGE Publications
This article explores the feasibility of a trust-based organizational paradigm as a new model for public sector management. A conceptual model is developed from a literature review of more than 100 journal articles and books. The author proposes that participation in decision making, feedback from and to employees, and empowerment of employees lead to increased interpersonal trust (between supervisor and employee) in a public organization. The article further hypothesizes that these trust-building practices between supervisors and workers can lead to increased productivity and strengthened organizational commitment. The conceptual model is empirically tested using as a case study both structural equation modeling and data from a municipal government. The analysis demonstrates that the trust-based model is a viable paradigm for increasing interpersonal trust, organizational commitment, and productivity in the public sector. - arp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/1/87

Public Sector Downsizing: An Introduction - Rama, Martin
Abstract: Authorities throughout the developing world are turning to downsizing in an effort to reduce budget deficits and address the inefficiencies engendered by state-led development strategies. Because large-scale involuntary dismissals are often politically difficult, a voluntary approach to reductions in public sector employment is increasingly popular among developing-country governments, multilateral organizations, and donor countries. This article (and, more generally, the research project on Public Sector Retrenchment) attempts to sketch a protocol for public sector downsizing that takes into account the costs and benefits for the workers and the economy. After reviewing the international experience with downsizing, the article addresses five questions: how to identify the redundant workers, how to predict their losses from separation, how to design compensation and assistance packages, how to assess the financial and economic returns to downsizing, and how to deal with downsizing in one-company towns. Based on the answers to these questions, a decision tree is proposed. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press. - ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbecrv/v13y1999i1p1-22.html

The Efficient Mechanism for Downsizing the Public Sector
Jeon, Doh-Shin, Laffont, Jean-Jacques
Abstract: This article analyzes the efficient mechanism for downsizing the public sector, focusing on adverse selection in productive efficiency. Each worker is assumed to have two type-dependent reservation utilities: the status quo utility in the public sector before downsizing and the utility that the worker expects to obtain by entering the private sector. The efficient mechanism consists of a menu of probability (of remaining in the public sector) and transfer pairs that induces self-selection. A worker's full cost is defined by the sum of production cost in the public sector and reservation utility in the private sector. It is optimal to start by laying off the agents with higher full cost. When the public sector before downsizing is discriminating as the differential of private information about productive efficiency suggests, there are countervailing incentives. This makes the size of downsizing smaller under asymmetric information than under complete information. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press. - ideas.repec.org/a/oup/wbecrv/v13y1999i1p67-88.html

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