A Closer Look at the Difference Between Public and Nonprofit Employees’ Volunteering

ABSTRACT

Research generally reports that both public and nonprofit employees have higher levels of altruistic motivation, and attributes the difference in volunteering between these workers and for-profit employees to altruism. However, altruism may be limited in explaining the discrepancy in volunteering between public and nonprofit employees, as both groups are considered more altruistic than for-profit workers. Using the National Administrative Studies Project-III data, this study examines various individual characteristics and work contexts that may contribute to the differences in the rate of participation and intensity of volunteering by public and nonprofit employees. The results of the mediation test suggest that the value of job-related self-determination to an individual, membership in political organizations, and interaction with external actors between public and nonprofit employees result in gaps in volunteering. These findings go beyond the oversimplified altruism-nonprofit link and add evidence to the literature of “sector matters.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and Professor Steve Kelman for their insightful comments and suggestions. The authors are also thankful to Mr. Greg Dorchak, IPMJ's Managing Editor, for his help in the publication process.

Notes

The synergetic effect can be best captured by the self-determination index (SDI). SDI roots in the assumption that people are simultaneously influenced by the five motivational styles. To create a SDI, a different weight is allocated to each motivational style. For example, intrinsic motivation carries the value of + 3, identified motivation +1.5, introjected motivation −1, external motivation −2, and amotivation −3. A person's work SDI = (3*intrinsic) + (1.5*identified) − (1*introjected) − (2*external) − (3*amotivated). Researchers of educational psychology and generic behavioral science have used SDI to study various issues, such as environmental behaviors, academic motivation, eating regulation, and work attitudes (Fortier, Vallerand, and Guay 1995; Green-Demers, Pelletier, and Ménard 1997; Pelletier et al. 2004; Tremblay et al. 2009).

Although several later studies challenge this view by indicating that nonprofit managers do not earn significantly less than their business and government-sector counterparts (Ben-Ner, Ren, and Paulson 2009; Ballou and Weisbrod 2003), more studies suggest the existence of a nonprofit wage disadvantage (Leete 2000; Fong 2009; Narcy 2011). Scholars supporting wage differentials often argue that wage increase or high pay crowds out intrinsic motivation (Frey and Jegen 2001) and nonprofit organizations may end up hiring the “wrong people” (Heyes 2005). In addition, nonprofits are less likely to use promotion along with high pay as an incentive to motivate people because of their relatively small size and flattened hierarchy (DeVaro and Brookshire 2007). This reduces nonprofit workers’ expectation on pay.

Although the implication of this study includes all employees in public and nonprofit organizations, we would like to point out that the sample includes managers only. Exclusion of non-managerial worker may limit the generalizability of the findings.

For detailed information about NASP-III, see Feeney (2008).

If we exclude the truncated value (−0.000001), the results of skewness/kurtosis tests for normality show that p < .43 for skewness and p < 0.21 for kurtosis, implying the presence of normal distribution.

Intrinsic motivation is measured by one item: the ability to serve the public interest (M = 3.17). Identified motivation is the summation of the following three items divided by three: advancement in a hierarchy; career development and job training; and a desire for more responsibility (M = 3.07). Introjected motivation is the summation of the following items divided by two: a desire for less bureaucratic red tape; and a desire for a low conflict environment (M = 2.40). External motivation is the summation of the following four items divided by four: job security; pension plans; benefits; and salary (M = 3.24). Amotivation is the summation of the following three items divided by three: few alternative job offers; relatively low cost living in the region; and employment opportunity for spouse or partner (M = 1.77). The method of generating a self-determination index (SDI) is addressed in an earlier endnote. The variation of SDI is huge in the present study, ranging between −13 and +12 in the whole sample. A value of zero refers to a perfect offset effect, meaning that a person's self-determination stemming from autonomous motivation (intrinsic motivation and identified motivation) is offset by controlled motivation (introjected motivation, external motivation, and amotivation). A positive value implies that one's autonomous motivation is stronger than his/her controlled motivation, and a negative value implies that the controlled motivation is stronger than the autonomous motivation. On average, the mean value of SDI in a random sample could be close to zero. For example, in the present study, the mean value is 0.71 in the nonprofit sample and −0.43 in the public sample. The difference between them is statistically significant, according to the regression result in Table 3.

Public employees’ lower levels of self-determination, according to previous studies using the same dataset (Chen 2012; Chen and Bozeman 2013), stem from their weaker desire for responsibility, stronger desire for instrumental rewards, and stronger amotivation when they choose their current job.

In order to check if volunteering behaviors differ across different types of organizations within the same sector, we compared the rates of volunteering between the organizations that provide human services mostly and the others. The results indicate little difference: 66% of the employees in charitable organizations (501(C)(3)s) volunteered while 69% of all nonprofit employees did so. Public employees in service-oriented agencies (education, community affairs, children's affairs, and human service) volunteered just as much as the rest of the public-sector employees (54 percent).

Liu and Robertson (2011, 35) argue that spirituality is “the privatization of religion, informal, personal, universal, nondenominational, inclusive, tolerant, individualistic, less visible and quantifiable, subjective, emotionally oriented and inwardly directed, less authoritarian, little external accountability, and appropriate to be expressed in the workplace.” To some extent, spirituality plays an important role in post-modern society because of religious individualism and secularization.

Additional information

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Chung-An Chen is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests include various public and nonprofit management issues such as cross-sector comparison, motivation, red tape, contracting, and volunteering.

Young-joo Lee ([email protected]) is an Assistant Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Dallas, and Coordinator of UTD's Nonprofit Management Certificate Program. Her research within the field of human resources management in public and nonprofit organizations focuses on employee motivation, job satisfaction, workplace diversity, and volunteering.