A Match Made in Heaven or a Square Peg in a Round Hole? How Public Service Educators Can Help Students Assess Person-Environment Fit

Abstract

One way in which educators can prepare students for employment is by helping them to assess person-environment fit, or the congruence between the requirements and rewards of a job and the student’s work values, motives, skills, and abilities (Holland, 1997; Lofquist and Dawis, 1991). To that end, this study compared the work values and public service motivation of business and public service majors at a Midwestern university. Consistent with past research examining differences between public servants and their private sector counterparts (e.g., Perry and Wise, 1990; Crewson, 1997), we found that public service majors had significantly higher public service motivation than business majors. We also found that public service majors rated intrinsic values as higher in importance than did business majors. However, the public service majors as a group rated good benefits, good wages, and opportunity for advancement—all extrinsic values—as more important than either helping others or a chance to benefit society, the community, or the environment. We discuss the relevance of these results to educators of future public servants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine A. Karl

Katherine A. Karl is an associate professor of management at the Lewis College of Business at Marshall University. Her research interests include employment termination, job values, performance feedback, the use of videotaped feedback in management education and development, and attitudes regarding fun at work. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Human Resource Development Quarterly, the Journal of Management, Public Personnel Management, Journal of Business and Psychology, and the Academy of Management Executive.

Barbara Peat

Barbara Peat is associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University South Bend. Her research interests are in the area of service contracting, program evaluation of publicly funded projects, and assessment of programs in higher education. She has published in Administration in Social Work, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.