The Cost of Saving Money: Public Service Motivation, Private Security Contracting, and the Salience of Employment Status

Abstract

The growth of government outsourcing has triggered significant legal and social science research. That research has focused primarily on issues of cost, accountability, and management. A thus-far understudied question concerns the relevance and importance of public service motivations (PSM), especially when a government agency is proposing to outsource services that are considered inherently governmental. Using a grounded theory approach, this exploratory study centers on the use of private security guards to augment government-provided public safety, and investigates the public service motivations of part-time and full-time employees of private security firms that regularly partner with—or seek to protect the public independent of—local police. Findings reveal that the presence or absence of motivations consistent with PSM was attributable not to private sector employment but to whether informants were part-time or full-time employees.

Keywords:

• contracting
• motivation
• policing
• public safety
• security issues

Notes on contributors

Cullen C. Merritt, PhD, is an assistant professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. His research focuses on the structure, design, and management of social services organizations with an emphasis on publicness, and appears in Public Administration, Public Personnel Management, Journal of Public Affairs Education, and other scholarly outlets.

Sheila Suess Kennedy, J.D., is a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her research focuses on governance, constitutional law, and the legal foundations of public service, and appears in Public Administration Review, American Review of Public Administration, State and Local Government Review, and other scholarly outlets. She has authored nine books and numerous book chapters.

Matt R. Kienapple is an undergraduate honors student in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. His research focuses on management and organization theory and appears in Journal of Public Affairs Education.