Sense of community, sense of community responsibility, organizational commitment and identification, and public service motivation: a simultaneous test of affective states on employee well-being and engagement in a public service work context

ABSTRACT

The present study has two aims. First, we examine sense of community, sense of community responsibility, organizational commitment and identification, and PSM in predicting measures of employee engagement and well-being. Second, we examine if PSM acts as a direct or indirect predictor of the employee measures. The findings highlight that community experiences are powerful predictors and that the role of PSM is more indirect than direct. The study provides a step forward in understanding the utility of psychological predictors when simultaneously compared, and offers hope for future studies where we continue to conduct comparative analyses beyond the boundary of public management.

KEYWORDS:

• Sense of community
• sense of community responsibility
• affective organizational commitment
• organizational identification
• public service motivation

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Andrea Reiner who significantly contributed to methodological implementation and data collection as part of an undergraduate research experience at Bucknell University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neil M. Boyd

Neil M. Boyd is a Professor of Management in the Freeman College of Management at Bucknell University. His published work examines topics in human resource management, organization development, and managing for sustainability. His work has appeared in leading publication outlets in the fields of management, public management, and community psychology. He published a number of recent studies on community experiences at work and how employees and organizations can benefit when a workplace is infused with a culture of community. He is also well known for his extensive research at the intersection of organization studies and community psychology. And, his work on public service motivation (PSM) is leading to new discoveries on its utility in public management settings. He is a past Division Chair for the Public and Non-Profit Division of the Academy of Management, is the current Chair of the Organization Studies Interest Group in the Society for Community Action and Research (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association), and is on the editorial boards of seven academic journals.

Branda Nowell

Branda Nowell , Professor, is an organizational-community psychologist specializing in inter-organizational relationships, social networks, psychological sense of community and governance systems for multi-agent collaboration and coordination within complex problem domains. She teaches courses in network governance, organizational behaviour, change management, organizational theory and programme evaluation. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she integrates community and organizational psychology with public management to better understand community-based networks of public and non-profit agencies working in a common problem domain. She currently co-directs a research team (firechasers.ncsu.edu) focused on advancing the science of adaptive capacity towards more disaster resilient communities. Since 2008, this team has worked in collaboration with the US Forest Service on research aimed to improve inter-agency coordination and communication during large-scale wildfire events. Dr Nowell’s research has received awards from both the APA Society for Community Action and Research as well as the Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit Division. Her published work appears in the American Journal of Community Psychology, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Evaluation and Program Planning, and Conflict Resolution Quarterly.