Teori Organisasi-NPM

Public Administration Vol. 86, No. 1, 2008 (111–131)© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2007.00703.x

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT VALUES AND PERSON-ORGANIZATION FIT: A SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH AND EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION AMONG PUBLIC SECTOR PERSONNEL

ERAN VIGODA-GADOT 1 AND SAGIE MEIRI 1

This paper takes a socio-psychological approach to NPM and its value-based theory in public administration. We develop a model for the study of NPM values based on the idea of Person- Organization Fit (POF) and examine it empirically. Findings, based on a survey of 205 Israeli local governance personnel, revealed that the POF of several core NPM values (that is, responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and achievement orientations) was positively related with job satis-faction, organizational commitment, and service climate, as reported by these public personnel. The fi ndings suggest that, beyond modern strategies and effective policies for the public sector, lies an essential quest for NPM value-fi t with public personnel. Consequently, the study advocates a better theoretical and practical understanding of the socio-psychological interfaces, such as POF, in pub-lic administration. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed, both in the context of public administration research and in the generic fi eld of organizational behaviour theory and practice. The detailed results of the factor analyses are available directly from the authors.

INTRODUCTION

The New Public Management (NPM) doctrine in public administration has attracted a great deal of interest, which continues, NPM reforms have been adopted in many Western and non-Western societies (see Lam 1997; Cunningham 2000; Caiden and Caiden 2002; Torres and Pina 2004; Noblet et al. 2005 ) with the goal of moving antiquated bureaucracies into a new era characterized by a market orientation and a higher level of effectiveness, fl exibility and responsiveness to citizens. The discussion about NPM has revolved around political, administrative and strategic concerns ( Garson and Overman 1983; Hood 1991; Weikert 2001; Chandler et al. 2002 ). To date, most of the studies in this fi eld have dealt with the potential policy change that this doctrine carries and with the managerial impli-cations of bringing public agencies ’ strategies closer to the vision of citizens as clients and the idea of the public marketplace ( Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000; Moon and deLeon 2001 ).

The literature on public sector reforms, and especially on NPM, is preoccupied with models and experiences on either the macro (for example, Lam 1997; Christensen and Lægreid 1999 ) or the micro levels (for example, Moon and deLeon 2001; Noblet et al. 2005 ). Other areas, such as those dealing with the macro-micro interfaces of this signifi cant change, have generally been overlooked. Studies about NPM have focused on recom-mended practices, comparative views among nations and bureaucracies, case studies of successful and less successful experiences, and suggestions about the ‘ next steps ’ needed. At the same time, cultural and personal considerations, especially questions about values, values-fi t, and the compatibility of individuals with their changing organizational envi-ronment, climate and culture have been left almost untouched.

The goal of this paper is to investigate this overlooked area and to add a socio- psychological perspective to our toolbox of knowledge about NPM and reforms in public

1 Eran Vigoda-Gadot is Head of the Division of Public Administration and Policy and of the Center for Public Management and Policy (CPMP), University of Haifa. Sagie Meiri is a doctoral candidate at Technion, Israel institute of Technology.

112 ERAN VIGODA-GADOT AND SAGIE MEIRI

Public Administration Vol. 86, No. 1, 2008 (111–131)© 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

administration. Based on established knowledge from the organizational behaviour and social psychology arena, we point to the usefulness of the concept of ‘ fi t ’ in NPM research and practice. The paper suggests that a better fi t between individuals ’ values and organizational policies can serve as a cornerstone for more effective NPM or other reforms in the public sphere. Person-organization fi t (POF) represents the match or link-age between individuals and the wider organizational environment. A strong fi t refl ects common views as to the organization ’ s goals, strategies, values, and adoption of new ideas and ventures, as well as a stronger identifi cation with the tasks, principles and standards of work in the organizational environment. Thus far, most of the writings in the context of POF refer to congruence in terms of classic work values, such as employees ’ autonomy, rewards and benefi ts, competitiveness, team work, loyalty and fairness, pro-motion procedures, or helping behaviour ( Caldwell and O ’ Reilly 1990; Chatman 1989, 1991; O ’ Reilly et al. 1991; Bretz and Judge 1994 ). Our study, however, explores the congru-ence between individuals and organizations in other values, those that are attributed to modern reforms in public administration. Among these values, we identifi ed four essential concepts that dominate the discussion in the public administration literature: responsive-ness, transparency, innovativeness, and goal achievement orientations. The paper will fi rst develop a rationale for the proposed relationship between the POF of NPM values and several aspects of job performance such as job satisfaction, organizational commit-ment and service climate in a large Israeli municipality. The Israeli context will also be explored to demonstrate the usefulness of our approach to the study of value-based NPM reforms. Next, these relationships will be tested empirically to support a series of hypo-theses. Finally, our paper will highlight the meaning of the fi ndings and their relevancy to public administration and management research, theory and practice.

THEORY, MODEL AND HYPOTHESES

New public management (NPM) In the last few decades, we have witnessed an ongoing debate among public administration scholars and practitioners about the best way to revitalize and renew old-style bureaucracies ( Terry 2005 ). Since the early 1980s, much work has been conducted in public administration theory and practice that claimed to go beyond the conservative approach in the fi eld. Modern public administration has been urged to innovate, adopt a market orientation, and improve transparency and services in a style better suited to the twenty-fi rst century and the growing demands by citizens, professionals, politicians, and other stakeholders for higher effi ciency and effectiveness (see Hood 1991; Aucoin 1995; Boston et al. 1996; Khademian 1998; Lynn 1996, 1998 ). Drawing on the experience of the private, commercial sector, schol-ars have suggested taking a more ‘ demanding ’ attitude towards the dynamics, activity and productivity of public organizations. Similarly, a signifi cant conceptual change has trans-formed the ‘ old ’ style of public administration into the ‘ new ’ approach of public manage-ment. This ‘ liberalization ’ of public administration is recognized today as the ‘ New Public Management ’ (NPM) doctrine (see Hood 1991 ). Today, a consensual perception is that NPM represents an approach in public administration that integrates interdisciplinary knowl-edge and experiences acquired in business management and other disciplines to improve the performance of public agencies. Despite contradictory views about the meaning and implications of this doctrine, there is no doubt that, since the 1980s, it has become extremely infl uential in public administration theory and practice ( Bevir et al. 2003 ) since it calls for a radical change in values and atmosphere of public agencies.

NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT VALUES 113


In the early 1980s, Garson and Overman (1983 , p. 278) defi ned NPM as ‘ an interdisci-plinary study of the generic aspects of administration … a blend of the planning, organiz-ing, and controlling functions of management with the management of human, fi nancial, physical, information and political resources ’ . Hood (1991) identifi ed seven doctrinal components of NPM: (1) ‘ hands on ’ professional management in the public sector; (2) explicit standards and measures of performance that were later defi ned as PIs (Performance Indicators); (3) a greater emphasis on output control, and thus on the accountability and transparency of public agencies; (4) a shift to the disaggregation of units; (5) a greater emphasis on increased competition and thus on innovativeness and achievement; (6) a stress on private sector styles of management practice, especially on higher levels of responsiveness to citizens as clients; and (7) a stress on greater discipline and more economical use of resources. This defi nition implies that NPM relies heavily on the theory of the marketplace and on a businesslike culture in public organizations. Hays and Kearney (1997) found that most of the studies on NPM mentioned fi ve core principles of NPM and thus concluded that they represent the key components of the philosophy: (1) downsizing – reducing the size and scope of government; (2) managerialism – using business protocols in government and improving responsiveness, competitiveness, and the achievement of individuals and units; (3) decentralization – moving decision-making closer to the service recipients; (4) debureaucratization – restructuring government to emphasize results rather than processes; and (5) privatization – directing the allocation of governmental goods and services to outside fi rms ( Weikert 2001 ).

All of these principles are mutually related, relying heavily on the theory of the private sector and on business philosophy, but aimed at minimizing the size and scope of gov-ernmental activities ( Terry 2005 ). Integrated with ideas rooted in political economy (that is, globalization, policy emulation, fi nancial public management), they have now been applied to public sector institutions. The NPM approach thus stresses the importance of several key values such as responsiveness to citizens as clients, a higher level of account-ability and transparency, innovation and renewal of old bureaucratic structures and pro-cesses, and an increased emphasis on performance. Achievement of these goals is often evaluated by ‘ measuring up to ’ the public sector and by creating clear performance indi-cators that enable more effective control and improvement of policies and managerial actions ( Hartley 2005 ). Another important goal of the NPM approach is rooted in Schein ’ s (1985) idea of cultural change in organizations, based on redrawing the basic assump-tions, values, norms and artifacts of all stakeholders and their interactions with the public sphere. NPM has thus become an infl uential ideology of change and ‘ reinvention ’ of the values, ideas and perceptions regarding the role that professional governmental bodies play in making citizens ’ lives better. Therefore, scholars and practitioners constantly call for the transformation of values among public sector personnel in order to change the nature of relationships with citizens.

Despite the strong positive impact of NPM reforms on the public sector worldwide, some criticism has also been levelled against this doctrine (see Hood 1991; Lynn 1999 ). For example, studies have mentioned the potential destructive effect of NPM on the shrinking role of the state inproviding services, the over reliance on business principles in nurturing non-business services, and the general belief that managerial decisions are independent of political considerations ( Hood 1991 ). Criticism was made also of the negative effect of NPM on citizens ’ political participation and involvement ( Vigoda 2002 ), as well as of the diffi culty of measuring various public services using market-oriented criteria ( Lynn 1999; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2000 ). Thus, even though NPM seems to be



making a paradigm shift in conventional public administration thinking, some scholars still believe that its impact is limited (see, for example, Lynn 1999 ) and that the inherent differences between the private and the public sector prevent the simple implementation of business doctrine in governmental agencies. Lynn (1999 ; p.15) summarizes the main criticism against NPM in the following way: ‘ (1) the initial shape of the Westminster re-forms that inspired the term will eventually be disfi gured in the course of political suc-cession, and partisans and scholars alike will see new opportunity in proclaiming the metamorphosis or death of the New Public Management; (2) as comparative work across countries and sectors accumulates, fundamental differences among reforms will begin to eclipse superfi cial similarities; (3) the term “ new ” will be viewed as an inconvenient ad-jective for emerging forms or objects of inquiry; and (4) political debate will require a fresh theme to attract attention to and support for the next wave of ideas for administra-tive reform ’ . Nevertheless, despite the criticism it draws, the impact of NPM in today ’ s developed nations is impressive. For example, in the Israeli arena where our study was conducted, NPM has been enthusiastically embraced in governmental agencies. Many of the recent reforms in Israel ’ s bureaucratic system, governmental agencies, and organizations working closely with the government or fi nanced by governmental budgets, have drawn heavily on the NPM ideology ( Talias 2002 ). Since the mid-1980s, public services in Israel have become much more citizen-oriented, encouraged evaluation processes and outcomes based on clear performance indicators, and advocated privatization and the improved management of public organizations. Several governmental committees and working teams have recommended reforms in a variety of public agencies, such as healthcare, education, the infrastructure, the welfare system, transportation, and even the police and security services. While some of these reforms have been extensively implemented, others are still in the process of being accepted. Despite the NPM-style reforms that have taken root in Israel and elsewhere, there remains a need for research in this context based on the disengagement of micro and macro theories. In other words, there is still a need to exam-ine the socio-psychological dimension of NPM in public administration, an arena, as has been said, that most studies and local NPM-oriented reforms have so far overlooked.

Person-Organization Fit (POF) Although scholars agree that NPM has contributed to a radical change in the business orientation of public agencies, little research has been devoted to the examination of employees ’ values in this context. Moreover, the fi t between such values and the organi-zational-level values is unclear. The NPM philosophy highlights certain values that should be encouraged in the reformed public sector such as increased responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and orientation to higher performance and achievements (see Lam 1997; Vigoda 2000; Newberry and Pallot 2004; Hartley 2005 ). These values can be studied at the individual and the organizational level but, most importantly, they should be examined at the nexus between the two. The person-organization congruence is meaningful because it helps bridge different expectations and create an environment where the employees and the organizational policy-makers seek the same goals. Cunningham (2000 , p. 703) has suggested, in addition, that the NPM approach represents a reform based on culture-management, the empowerment of managers, the loosening rather than the strengthening of control mechanisms, change management, and the identifying and matching of core values between public servants and the bureaucracy.

The person-organization congruence is also generically discussed in organizational behaviour theory as an infl uential element in the quest for successful strategies and



policies for the fi rm, agency or bureaucracy. For example, Caldwell and O ’ Reilly (1990) and O ’ Reilly and Chatman (1991) have suggested the concept of Person-Organization Fit (POF) as a good denominator of such congruence. More recently, Kristof (1996) and Kristof-Brown et al. (2005) have presented a more comprehensive defi nition of POF that incorporates supplementary as well as complementary perspectives on fi t. They demon-strated that POF is only one facet of the more general person-environment fi t and that such a fi t is important for a better understanding of the culture, atmosphere, and perfor-mance of the organization.

POF represents the level of compatibility of an employee with his/her workplace. It also refl ects a level of fulfi lled aspirations and expectations of the work environment in its broad sense. Bretz and Judge (1994) defi ned POF as the degree to which individuals (their skills, needs, values and personality) match the organizational requirements. The better the POF, the stronger the congruence between the individual ’ s characteristics with the organizational environment and demands. Variables such as advancement opportu-nity, fairness, team work, and interaction with others represent one ’ s level of fi t and compatibility with the workplace. A lack of fi t may reduce employees ’ performance and thus harm the outcomes of the overall organizational machinery. Therefore, those who better fi t the organization are presumed to have more commitment to the organization, more job satisfaction, and consequently demonstrate a more positive attitude to provid-ing services to the public ( Caldwell and O ’ Reilly 1990; Chatman 1989, 1991 ; O ’ Reilly and Chatman 1991; Kristof-Brown et al. 2005 ).

The importance of fi t in social life and its implications for the study of performance was further advanced by Molm (1997) who suggested that those who better fi t the orga-nization will tend to develop positive perceptions towards their social and work environ-ment. When such POF exists, employees will perceive the organization more positively and as responsive to their needs and aspirations. They will probably attribute their suc-cess to factors such as their own qualifi cations and level of performance at work. However, individuals who do not fi t the organization or work unit are expected to perceive the or-ganization more negatively. When POF is low, it is more likely that employees will feel disappointed and frustrated and will become alienated from the organization and their surroundings. Such feelings may broaden the emotional, psychological and functional gap between a person and their workplace. Consequently, organizational commitment may decline, as well as job satisfaction and service orientation. To measure POF, Bretz and Judge (1994 , pp. 37 – 8) suggested a scale that includes four different perspectives of fi t. The fi rst assessed the degree to which individual knowledge, skills and abilities matched the organizational expectations from the new employee (that is, type of tasks, diffi culty of goals). The second determined the degree of congruence between individual needs and the organization ’ s reinforcement system and structure (that is, compensation plan, order of hierarchy, fl ow of information). The third matched the patterns of organi-zational values with the patterns of individual values (that is, fairness, helping behav-iour). The fourth perspective concerned the match between the individual ’ s personality and the perceived image of the organization (that is, fl exibility, conformity).

The relationship between POF and performance at work is fi rmly established in man-agement theory. Vroom (1964) developed the expectancy theory, which argued that ex-pectations signifi cantly affect employees ’ motivation, perceptions and performance in the workplace. According to this theory, the structural and cultural aspects of the organiza-tions must be in line with the expectations of the individual, and vice versa. Blau (1964) suggested the idea of social exchange as an important mechanism that balances the



employees ’ needs and aspirations and the goals and expectations of higher ranking man-agers. Balanced social exchange mechanisms may imply a better fi t between individuals, managers and their work environment, which enhances met expectations. When an in-dividual ’ s personal characteristics and attitudes are close to those of the workplace, a better fi t can be expected between the individual and their organization. Organizations that employ individuals who have a better fi t with them have signifi cant advantages over other organizations. The former demonstrate high levels of production and improved quality of performance, and they encounter only minor problems of absenteeism and turnover. The more recent theory of leader-member exchange (LMX) may also be in line with this thinking, since the process of reciprocity and met expectations contributes to a better fi t and a stronger congruence between the values of the employees and the orga-nization ( Graen 1976 ). Empirical evidence now exists to support these claims. Wanous et al. (1992) , who conducted an extensive meta-analysis of 31 studies and 17,241 people, found a correlation of − .29 between met expectations and intentions to leave the organiza-tion, In addition, a correlation of .19 was reported between met expectations and job survival, and of .11 between met expectations and job performance. In addition, Bretz and Judge (1994) examined POF as a construct of work adjustment. They confi rmed the positive effect of POF on tenure, satisfaction, and other constructs of career success.

It is also noteworthy that Kristof (1996) and Kristof-Brown et al. (2005) distinguished various aspects of person-environment fi t such as person-job, person-organization, person-vocation, person-group, and person-supervisor fi t. Their theoretical and empirical meta-analysis of 172 studies demonstrated that our conventional attempt to look for congruence between individuals and their environment is much more complex than it seems. Whereas interrelationships do exist among the various types of person-environment fi t, the individual factors exhibit much independence and should be examined separately. Thus, one should note that our study focuses on person-organization fi t (as suggested by Kristof-Brown and her colleagues) and not on any other aspect of person-environment fi t.

POF of NPM values: a socio-psychological approach Based on the idea of POF, a socio-psychological approach may be applied to the study of NPM. NPM strategies aim at a fundamental change in public administration and much of this change calls for transformation of values among public personnel toward their organizational environment. Based on the NPM doctrine, public servants are expected to look differently at their roles, duties and tasks when trying harder to respond to citizens ’ needs and demands. This is in fact a call for a normative change in the organizational culture of the public sector, which must be accompanied by a similar change in the personnel ’ s views, perceptions and willingness to adapt to this culture. Thus, the change of values, both on the macro-organizational level and on the micro-personal level, should be synchronized to create harmonious operation of the modern bureaucracy. Recently, Hernes (2005) identifi ed four models of interactions between the organizational manage-ment and the staff. These models vary from paralysis (whereby unresolved confl ict leads to a stand-off situation between management and staff) to an organic adaptation (whereby the gap between management and staff is minimized and handled constructively). This idea pointed to the importance of the coupling of organizational functions and individu-als in the context of NPM. Hence, if combined with the theory of POF, such thinking may imply that new policies will be successful only when the individual feels comfortable with the process of values transformation and the new organizational culture and comes to identify with the emerging goals and values of the broader organization.



Despite the criticism frequently levelled against the NPM doctrine, there is no doubt that this reform calls for an intra-organizational value change in the public sector. Public personnel, senior public offi cials, and human resource managers are expected to comply more closely with the standards and norms that are acceptable in private sector organiza-tions. The literature of NPM highlights a variety of values that need to be enhanced under this process of change. For example, NPM calls for greater fl exibility in organizational structures, a better fl ow of information, improvement in the connectedness with the pub-lic, higher standards of service quality, the development of specifi c performance measure-ment strategies, a culture of ‘ measuring up ’ of systems and processes, and increased accountability ( Pollitt 1993; Moon and deLeon 2001 ). Perhaps the most prominent and frequently mentioned values noted in the literature of NPM are responsiveness to citi-zens ’ needs (see Vigoda 2000, 2002 ), transparency (see Piotrowsky and Rosenbloom 2002; Ezzamel et al. 2004 ), innovativeness and reinvention (see Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Moon 1999 ) and a goal achievement orientation that is based on clear performance indica-tors refl ecting the increased effi ciency and effectiveness of the bureaucratic machinery (see Lynn 1998; Terry 1998 ). These values refl ect the need to improve both the internal and external processes of effective management, strengthening the relationship with the public, and developing strategic thinking aimed at clearer and measurable goals, in the same way private fi rms operate and function in a market environment.

In light of this view, fi gure 1 presents the fl ow of the research model and hypotheses. The model suggests that the congruence or fi t of four essential domains in NPM (that is, responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and achievement orientations) positively

Publicservice climate

Job satisfaction

Achievement (IND)

Achievement (ORG)

Innovativeness (IND)

Innovativeness (ORG)

Transparency (IND)

Transparency (ORG)

Organizationalcommitment

Responsiveness (IND)

Responsiveness (ORG)

Key: IND: Individual level; ORG: Organizational level.

FIGURE 1 Person-Organization Fit (POF) of New Public Management (NPM) values and their relation-ship with job performance



affect job outcomes such as organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and service climate. Additional paths of the model suggest that organizational commitment leads to greater job satisfaction and to an improved service climate and that job satisfaction is positively related to service climate.

Our arguments for the fi rst hypothesis in the model are based on the theory of POF and on empirical evidence about its relationship with job outcomes and job performance in the generic organizational context. We suggest that higher POF with the newly adopted NPM values will be positively related with job outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and service climate. Previous studies that examined the relationship between POF and job outcomes found a positive linkage. For example, Westerman and Vanka (2005) examined the infl uence of POF on the effectiveness of learning, training and development among 194 students in business education programmes in the United States and in India. They found that several elements of POF were a signifi cant predictor of both student sat-isfaction and performance in the United States, but no POF was predictive of student out-comes in India. Similarly, Erdogane et al. (2004) examined the relationship between POF, work-value congruence, career success and aspects of work satisfaction among 520 teach-ers from 30 high schools in Turkey. Their study supported the direct and moderating effects of POF on job and career satisfaction. These studies also cohere with an earlier observation by O ’ Reilly et al. (1991) who conducted a longitudinal study of MBA students and employ-ees from government agencies and found that POF predicted job satisfaction and organi-zational commitment. Consequently, we postulated the fi rst hypothesis in this study:

H1: Employees with a higher POF of NPM values show a higher level of job satisfac-tion, organizational commitment and service climate compared with other employees.

H1a: Employees with a higher POF of responsiveness show a higher level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and demonstrate a stronger orientation to a climate of service compared with other employees.

H1b: Employees with a higher POF of transparency show a higher level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and demonstrate a stronger orientation to a climate of service compared with other employees.

H1c: Employees with a higher POF of innovativeness show a higher level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and demonstrate a stronger orientation to a climate of service compared with other employees.

H1d: Employees with a higher POF of achievement show a higher level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment and demonstrate a stronger orientation to a climate of service compared with other employees.

To demonstrate the usefulness and contribution of POF in explaining job outcomes in public service, we further predict that POF will have a direct relationship with the out-come variables. First, we expect that a higher POF will be positively related with job sat-isfaction and organizational commitment. This relationship is based on the idea that a stronger fi t between individuals and their workplace increases the level of loyalty and identifi cation with the work and the organization due to higher levels of met expectations ( Blau 1964; Wanous et al. 1992; Bretz and Judge 1994 ) and clearer goals (see Locke and Latham 1990; O ’ Leary-Kelly et al. 1994 ). When individuals and organizations share similar values as to the way policies and strategies are formed, there is less likelihood for confl icts and disagreements about norms; vertical communication improves and the attachment



of the employee to their workplace improves. Based on the same rationale, POF may also play a unique role in explaining job outcomes. Thus, we expect that POF will also add to the explained variance of job satisfaction beyond the contribution of other predictors such as organizational commitment or any demographic variable. This idea is based on the consistent and strong relationship between job satisfaction and organizational com-mitment that is already established in the literature. Given that recent HRM literature is inconclusive about the order of causality between job satisfaction and organizational commitments (see, for example, Mathieu and Zajac 1990; Curry et al. 1996 ), we decided to follow the more conventional line suggested by Bateman and Strasser (1984) and Mowday et al. 1982 ) who argued that organizational commitment leads to job satisfaction. The rationale for this relationship is based on the idea that employees may develop attitudes, such as job satisfaction, that are consistent with the existing level of commitment to the employing organization and that ‘ organizational commitment may start quite early, perhaps even as a function of pre-entry experience ’ ( Bateman and Strasser 1984 ; p. 107).

Moreover, we further expect that POF will add to our understanding of the service cli-mate beyond the explained variance attributed to both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This line of thinking is based on the rationale developed by Caldwell and O ’ Reilly (1990) , O ’ Reilly and Chatman (1991) , and Molm (1997) who argued that a better values fi t between individuals and their organization or job leads to a greater willingness to put effort into one ’ s work tasks and thus improves overall production or service out-comes. Consequently, we formulated three additional hypotheses:

H2: Higher POF is positively related with organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and public service climate.

H3: Higher POF of NPM values contribute to the explanation of public personnel ’ s job satisfaction beyond organizational commitment and other demographic variables.

H4: Higher POF of NPM values contribute to the explanation of public service climate beyond organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and other demographic variables.

METHOD

Setting The study was conducted among employees of a large, local municipality in the northern part of Israel. This local municipality is extremely representative of a larger change in many public sector agencies in Israel in terms of greater NPM orientations. These changes were initiated in the late 1970s in the following areas: (1) a serious revolution in the fi eld of decentralization with the transfer of various managerial authorities from the central to the local government and the awarding of greater freedom to act in terms of budgetary management; (2) a growing competence and market orientation, frequently accompanied by a privatization process; (3) encouragement of transparency and accountability in gov-ernment agencies and an information revolution reform bringing services much closer to citizens; (4) a greater involvement of the public auditing system in fi elds it had not dealt with in the past; (5) an embracing of performance measurements across sectors and ser-vices; (6) an effort to reduce red-tape in serving the people; and (7) special attention to the recruitment of quality public servants in all fi elds, applying modern HRM tools and methods borrowed from the private sector.

In keeping with the NPM reform on the national level, the organization presented here went through a similar process of reform, mainly during the late 1990s and early 2000s.



The process refl ected a structural rethinking and change, downsizing, and a renewal of the relationship with the public. In many respects, essential aspects of NPM reform were nurtured in this organization. For example: (1) a new division for public complaints and contact with citizens was established; (2) managers went through intensive training to improve their service orientation and awareness of performance measurements; (3) new strategies for involving the public in urban planning programs were implemented; (4) decision-making was decentralized and divisions were given more say in the workings of their departments; (5) a new study program on ethics and morality in public service was offered to mid-range and senior managers; and (6) transparency was increased by informing the public about developments in the organization and future plans. Generally speaking, the changes were implemented across the departments with no emphasis on one over the other. Thus, the organization seemed to represent a suitable fi eld for gather-ing original data on NPM reform and change and on the nexus between the employees ’ changing values and the new organizational values. The survey was undertaken four to fi ve years after this reform was implemented, so there was time for the NPM-related re-forms to become embedded in the organization and in individual employees ’ values.

Sample and procedure A survey was conducted among employees of the local municipality. The municipality employs more than 4000 individuals. We sampled nine different departments represent-ing heterogeneous professions, occupations, services and ranks, as well as a broad demo-graphic spectrum. Data were collected during July 2005 with questionnaires distributed to 300 employees. In the resulting statistical analysis 205 questionnaires were usable, a return rate of 68.3 per cent. In order to increase participation, a direct distribution and collection method was employed. The researchers visited the departments on a specifi c date agreed upon in advance. In addition, the organization ’ s management had notifi ed the heads of department about the research and assured their willingness to take part. Participation in the study was voluntary, and employees were assured of the full confi -dentiality of all information provided. A breakdown by departments showed that 24.4 per cent came from the engineering department, 21 per cent from the education depart-ment, 13.2 per cent from the local tax department, 12.1 per cent from the city control unit, 9.3 per cent from the educational psychology service, 8.3 per cent from the welfare department, 4.9 per cent from the city information centre, 3.9 per cent from the city main-tenance department, and 2.4 per cent from the public relations and citizens ’ complaints department. Of the sample, 70.9 per cent were female, 78.6 per cent married, and 88 per cent had a monthly income equal to or less than the average net salary in Israel (around $1500). In addition, 92 per cent of the participants were Jews, and the other 8 per cent were Christian or Moslem Arabs or Druze. With regard to organizational position, 83.4 per cent were tenured employees, and 35.4 per cent held low-level or middle-level man-agerial positions. An academic degree was held by 30.3 per cent of the respondents. The average age was 43 years (s.d.=10.3), and the average tenure with the organization was 13.8 years (s.d.=10.1). It is notable that the demographic characteristics of the sample were quite similar to those of the total population in the organization as reported by the city municipality ’ s human resource department.

Measures Person-Organization Fit (POF) of NPM values : following the scale suggested by Bretz and Judge (1994) , and extending it for our purposes, we used 23 pairs of items expressing



four major NPM values: responsiveness (4 items); transparency (5 items); innovativeness (9 items); and achievement (5 items). The scale included two sets of questions. The fi rst set asked respondents to indicate how descriptive each statement was of their current organizational environment. The second set asked them to indicate how well each state-ment described them personally. The two sets, naturally enough, were quite similar in content. In line with Bretz and Judge (1994) , the amount of fi t was operationalized as the sum of the differences between the responses to the corresponding items on the two sets of questions. The scale for each item ranged from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (defi nitely true). Sample pairs of items for responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness, and achievement (respectively) included: (1a) ‘ This organization responds quickly to public needs and de-mands ’ versus (1b) ‘ I respond quickly to public needs and demands ’ ; (2a) ‘ This organiza-tion is receptive to public criticism and citizens ’ suggestions for improvement ’ versus (2b) ‘ I feel that I am receptive to public criticism and citizens ’ suggestions for improvement ’ ; (3a) ‘ This organization encourages creative ideas and innovative new ways to serve the public ’ versus (3b) ‘ I feel that I have creative ideas and innovative new ways to serve the public ’ ; (4a) ‘ This organization rewards employees based on their performance and achievements ’ versus (4b) ‘ I believe that employees should be rewarded according to their performance and achievements ’ . Reliabilities were .84 for personal-level responsiveness and .90 for organizational-level responsiveness; .81 for both personal-level transparency and organizational-level transparency; .88 for personal-level innovativeness and .93 for organizational-level innovativeness; .77 for personal-level achievement and .79 for orga-nizational-level achievement. Reliabilities were .85, .79, .87, and .84 for responsiveness fi t, transparency fi t, innovativeness fi t, and achievement fi t respectively. The overall reliabil-ity of the POF scale was .92.

Job satisfaction: we used the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) as suggested by Weiss et al. (1967) . Respondents were asked to indicate how satisfi ed they were with eight aspects of their job: current salary; work load; opportunities for promotion; working conditions; feelings of self-fulfi llment; ability to use one ’ s skills; work security; freedom at work. The scale ranged from 1 (very dissatisfi ed) to 5 (very satisfi ed). Reliability of the scale was .86.

Organizational commitment: this variable refl ects the level of identity with and involve-ment in the organization as well as the desire to retain membership in the organization ( Porter et al. 1974 ). It was measured based on the eight-item affective commitment scale suggested by Meyer and Allen (1991). Sample items for this measure include: (1) ‘ I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization ’ ; (2) ‘ I feel as if this organization ’ s problems are my own ’ ; and (3) ‘ This organization has a great deal of per-sonal meaning for me ’ . The scale for this measure ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), and the reliability achieved here was .75.

Service climate: service climate refl ects the institutional orientation of practices that sup-port good services to clients or citizens and rewards those employees who excel in pro-viding good services. A seven-item measure based on the study by Schneider et al. (1998) was used here. Sample items include: (1) ‘ How would you rate the knowledge and ability of the employees in this organization to provide very high quality service? ’ (2) ‘ How would you rate the effort to evaluate the quality of work and the service in the organiza-tion? ’ and (3) ‘ How would you rate the quality of service that this organization offers? ’



The participants were asked to respond to each question on a scale ranged from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high), and the reliability achieved here was .82.

Data analysis One-way ANOVA and multiple hierarchical regression analysis were the main proce-dures used to test the hypotheses. In addition, an exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the intra-structure of the POF measure based on the four NPM values included in the study.

FINDINGS

First, the POF scale was tested to explore sub-factors based on the four NPM values. We used an exploratory factor analysis (principal components with varimax rotation) that was run separately for: (1) the 23 items of organizational values; (2) the 23 items of personal values; (3) the 23 items of POF values, represented by the absolute value of the difference between each of the organizational values and the corresponding personal value. All of these three analyses resulted in four clearly classifi able, independent sub-factors (responsiveness, transparency, innovativeness and achievement). The one excep-tion was in the case of organizational values where results indicated three sub-factors. In this case, responsiveness and transparency were joined into a single factor.

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics, reliabilities and inter-correlations (Pearson ’ s r) of the research variables. As can be seen, the four subscales of responsiveness fi t, trans-parency fi t, innovativeness fi t, and achievement fi t were inter-correlated at the level of r=.43–.64 (p ≤ .001), which is typical of related but independent constructs. In addition, several other zero-order correlations emerged. Responsiveness fi t was positively related with job satisfaction and with public service climate (r=.17; p ≤ .05 and r=.43; p ≤ .001, re-spectively); transparency fi t was positively related with job satisfaction, organizational

TABLE 1 Descriptive statistics, reliabilities (in parentheses), and inter-correlations (Pearson ’ s r) among the research variables

Variables Mean (S.D.)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Demographics: 1. Tenure 13.71 (10) 2. Managerial position (1=no)

– − .36 *** –

Job performance: 3. Organizational commitment

3.58 (.74) N.S. N.S. (.75)

4. Job satisfaction 3.11 (.71) N.S. − .27 *** .30 *** (.86) 5. Public service climate 3.28 (.62) − .17 * N.S. .30 *** .38 *** (.82) POF of NPM values: 6. Responsiveness fi t .88 (.80) .25 ** N.S. N.S. .17 * .43 *** (.85)# 7. Transparency fi t .98 (.81) .24 ** − .15 * .14 * .15 * .46 *** .64 *** (.79)# 8. Innovativeness fi t .76 (.67) .21 ** N.S. N.S. .24 *** .44 *** .56 *** .60 *** (.87)# 9. Achievement fi t 2.01 (1.07) .17 ** − .17 * N.S. .26 *** .46 *** .48 *** .48 *** .49 *** (.84)#

Notes : N=205; N.S.=Not Signifi cant; * p ≤ .05 ; ** p ≤ .01 ; *** p ≤ .001 . Reliabilities were .84 for Personal-level respon-siveness and .90 for Organizational-level responsiveness; reliability was .81 for both Personal-level transparency and Organizational-level transparency; reliabilities were .88 for Personal-level innovativeness and .93 for Organizational-level innovativeness; reliabilities were .77 for Personal-level achievement and .79 for Organ-izational-level achievement.



commitment, and public service climate (r=.14; p ≤ .05, r=.15; p<.05, and r=.46; p ≤ .001, respectively); innovativeness fi t was positively related with job satisfaction and public service climate (r=.24; p ≤ .001 and r=.44; p ≤ .001, respectively); and achievement fi t was positively related with job satisfaction and public service climate (r=.26; p ≤ .001 and r=.46; p ≤ .001, respectively). These fi ndings provide some support for H1 (a – d) and for H2, H3 and H4, especially for the variables of job satisfaction and public sector service, and to a much lesser extent, for organizational commitment. In addition, it should be noted that employees ’ tenure was negatively related with service climate (r=−.36; p ≤ .001) but posi-tively related with the four major constructs of POF. Highly tenured employees better fi tted the organization based on values of responsiveness (r=.25; p ≤ .01), transparency (r=.24; p ≤ .01), innovativeness (r=.21; p ≤ .01), and achievement orientations (r=.17; p ≤ .01). Moreover, the tenure of those employees with a higher climate service orientation was about fi ve years, implying that most of them were recruited during the reform process in the organization.

To examine H1 (a – d) further, we employed a one-way ANOVA test. The fi ndings of this analysis are presented in table 2 . According to this table, employees with high, me-dium, and low POF of NPM values differ in their job outcomes in areas such as job sat-isfaction, organizational commitment, and public service orientation. In line with the zero-order correlations, the strongest contrasts were found in the areas of service climate orientation and job satisfaction and, to a much lesser extent, organizational commitment. In addition, responsiveness fi t and innovativeness fi t were those values in which the most signifi cant contrasts were found.

As presented in table 3 , H2, H3, and H4 were tested using a multiple regression analysis and a three-step hierarchical regression analysis. First, organizational commitment was regressed on the independent variables. This analysis resulted in no signifi cant fi ndings, so we concluded that H2 was not supported for the variable of organizational commit-ment. Next, we turned to a hierarchical regression analysis. Tenure and managerial posi-tion were fi rst entered into each of the equations as control variables. Then, to further support H2, as well as to test H3 and H4, organizational commitment was entered into the fi rst equation, and both organizational commitment and job satisfaction were entered into the second equation. Finally, in the third step, the four POF of NPM values were added to test their relative contribution to the explained variance in job satisfaction and public service climate.

According to table 3 , organizational commitment was positively related with job satis-faction ( � =.29; p ≤ .001) and contributed 9 per cent to the explained variance of job satisfac-tion. In the third step of this equation, innovativeness fi t and achievement fi t were positively related with job satisfaction ( � =.20; p ≤ .05 and � =.25; p ≤ .01, respectively), and they both contributed an additional 14 per cent of the explained variance of job satisfac-tion, setting it at a total level of 29 per cent. Thus, we concluded that H2 was partially supported for the variables of job satisfaction, innovativeness fi t and achievement fi t. In addition, H3 was supported for the variables of innovativeness fi t and achievement fi t, but not for responsiveness fi t or transparency fi t.

Table 3 also demonstrates that both organizational commitment and job satisfaction are positively related with service climate in the public sector ( � =.21; p ≤ .01 and � =.34; p ≤ .001, respectively). These variables contributed 20 per cent to the explained variance in service climate. Then, in the fi nal step of the second equation, transparency fi t and achievement fi t were positively related to public service climate ( � =.17; p ≤ .05 and � =.28; p ≤ .001, respectively). These variables also contributed an additional 17 per cent to the



TAB

LE

2 O

ne-w

ay A

NO

VA fo

r P

OF

of N

PM

val

ues

acro

ss jo

b pe

rfor

man

ce in

dica

tors

Job

Per

form

ance

N

PM

val

ues

(1

) H

igh

PO

F M

ean

(S

.D.)

(2)

Med

ium

PO

F M

ean

(S

.D.)

(3)

Low

PO

F M

ean

(S

.D.)

F (p

) S

ign

ifi c

ant

con

tras

ts

Res

pons

iven

ess

Job

sati

sfac

tion

3.22

(.7

5)3.

06 (

.70)

2.89

(.7

0)2.

53 (

≤ .08

2)1 –

3 O

rgan

izat

iona

l com

mit

men

t3.

61 (

.75)

3.70

(.7

5)3.

31 (

.70)

2.53

( ≤ .

082)

1 – 3;

2 – 3

Pu

blic

ser

vice

clim

ate

3.44

(.6

4)3.

16 (

.48)

2.78

(.5

0)14

.97

( ≤ .0

00)

1 – 2;

1 – 3

; 2 – 3

Tr

ansp

aren

cy

Job

sati

sfac

tion

3.19

(.7

6)3.

07 (

.69)

3.01

(.7

2)N

.S.

– O

rgan

izat

iona

l com

mit

men

t3.

65 (

.78)

3.64

(.6

9)3.

30 (

.70)

2.35

( ≤ .

098)

1 – 3;

2 – 3

Pu

blic

ser

vice

clim

ate

3.47

(.6

1)3.

16 (

.56)

2.75

(.4

4)18

.57

( ≤ .0

00)

1 – 2;

1 – 3

; 2 – 3

In

nova

tive

ness

Jo

b sa

tisf

acti

on3.

24 (

.68)

2.90

(.8

2)2.

58 (

.75)

7.32

( ≤ .

001)

1 – 2;

2 – 3

O

rgan

izat

iona

l com

mit

men

t3.

64 (

.71)

3.63

(.8

4)2.

91 (

.60)

5.18

( ≤ .

006)

1 – 3;

2 – 3

Pu

blic

ser

vice

clim

ate

3.38

(.5

9)3.

07 (

.65)

2.75

(.4

7)9.

28 (

≤ .00

0)1 –

2; 1

– 3

Ach

ieve

men

t Jo

b sa

tisf

acti

on3.

45 (

.81)

3.24

(.6

4)2.

94 (

.71)

31.1

8 ( ≤

.000

)1 –

3; 2

– 3

Org

aniz

atio

nal c

omm

itm

ent

3.62

(.7

6)3.

72 (

.71)

3.54

(.7

7)N

.S.

– Pu

blic

ser

vice

clim

ate

3.69

(.6

2)3.

51 (

.62)

3.00

(.4

7)8.

17 (

≤ .00

0)1 –

3; 2

– 3

Not

e : N

=20

5; N

.S.=

Not

Sig

nifi c

ant.



TAB

LE

3 H

iera

rchi

cal

regr

essi

on a

naly

sis

for

the

rela

tion

ship

bet

wee

n P

OF

of N

PM

val

ues

and

publ

ic p

erso

nnel

job

sat

isfa

ctio

n an

d pu

blic

ser

vice

cl

imat

e

Var

iab

les

Job

sat

isfa

ctio

n

Pu

bli

c se

rvic

e cl

imat

e

� ( t

) �

( t )

Ste

p

Ste

p

1 2

3 1

2 3

Dem

ogra

phic

s:

1. T

enur

eN

.S.

N.S

.N

.S.

− .15

( − 2

.10*

) − .

18 (

− 2.7

9**)

− .12

( − 1

.97*

) 2.

Man

ager

ial p

osit

ion

(1=

no)

− .22

( − 2

.55*

) − .

22 (

− 2.7

3**)

− .26

( − 3

.33*

**)

N.S

.N

.S.

N.S

. Jo

b pe

rfor

man

ce:

3. O

rgan

izat

iona

l com

mit

men

t –

.29

(3.8

1***

).2

3 (3

.18*

*) –

.21

(3.2

2**)

.18

(3.0

3**)

4.

Job

sat

isfa

ctio

n –

– –

– .3

4 (4

.95*

**)

.19

(2.9

8**)

P

OF

of N

PM

val

ues:

5.

Res

pons

iven

ess

fi t –

– N

.S.

– –

N.S

. 6.

Tra

nspa

renc

y fi t

– –

N.S

. –

– .1

7 (2

.21*

) 7.

Inn

ovat

iven

ess

fi t –

– .2

0 (2

.42*

) –

– N

.S.

8. A

chie

vem

ent

fi t –

– .2

5 (2

.99*

*) –

– .2

8 (4

.13*

**)

R 2

.06

.15

.29

.02

.22

.39

Ad

just

ed R

2 .0

5.1

3.2

5.0

1.2

0.3

7 F

4.90

*8.

40**

*8.

24**

*2.

2313

.85*

**15

.80*

**

� R

2 –

.09

.14

– .2

0.1

7 F

for

� R

2 14

.49*

**7.

08**

* –

24.9

5***

14.1

2***

Not

e : N

=20

5; N

.S.=

Not

Sig

nifi c

ant.



total explained variance of public service climate, setting it on an impressive 39 per cent level. These fi ndings are in partial support of H2 for the variables of public service cli-mate, transparency fi t, and achievement fi t. They also support H4 for the variables of transparency fi t and achievement fi t, but not for responsiveness fi t or innovativeness fi t. Finally, additional fi ndings indicate that job satisfaction was lower among lower level employees compared with managers ( � = − .26; p<.001) and that service climate was higher among the less tenured (that is, employees who had spent less time with the organization) ( � = − .12; p<.05).

DISCUSSION

Scholars now agree that at least some of the accumulated wisdom of the private sector is transferable to the public sector (Rainey 1991; Hood 1991; Lynn 1996, 1998; Khademian 1998 ). In an attempt to ‘ liberate ’ the public sector from its old conservative image and moribund practices, NPM was advanced as a relevant and promising alternative. Thus far, NPM literature has tried to identify and defi ne new criteria that may help in deter-mining the extent to which public agencies succeed in meeting the growing needs of the public ( Moon and deLeon 2001; Terry 2005 ). Researchers have continually advocated increased responsiveness to citizens ’ needs and demands, higher levels of transparency, innovativeness and achievement measured by specifi c Performance Indicators (PIs), as part of essential NPM reforms. This approach mirrors the one used in private organiza-tions to create a performance-based culture with matching compensatory strategies (see Pollitt 1988; Hartley 2005 ). Advocates of the NPM doctrine have further recommended that these indicators be applied in the public sector because they can serve as milestones by which to better gauge the effi ciency and effectiveness of public agencies ( Moon and deLeon 2001 ).

This paper tried to take the discussion about NPM into a somewhat new arena – the one of values and values-fi t described by the socio-psychological approach to organiza-tional studies ( Caldwell and O ’ Reilly 1990; Chatman 1989, 1991 ; O ’ Reilly and Chatman 1991; Kristof-Brown et al. 2005 ). While previous studies have emphasized the impact of NPM on changes in organizational values in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world, to the best of our knowledge none has yet applied a person-organization fi t model to the study of NPM. For example, Moon and deLeon (2001) examined manage-rial values and attitudes of chief administrators of reinvention reforms, accountability, and innovativeness but analysed them as stand-alone factors that diffuse into municipal government. However, they overlooked the value-fi t between individuals and organiza-tions in this context. Our study tried to examine the effect of POF on NPM values, on work attitudes and on the service climate in a public agency. The model suggested and tested here is an alternative to potential non-fi t models that underestimate the need for better matching individuals and organizations. The fi ndings of the study demonstrate that this fi t is important and that matching the individual with the policy and strategic view of the public organization may be useful in explaining job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and service climate. Of special importance are the areas of innovativeness fi t that positively relate with job satisfaction; transparency fi t that positively relate with public service climate, and achievement fi t that relate with both job satisfaction and public service climate. These fi ndings are much in line with both the theory of POF as suggested by O ’ Reilly and Chatman (1991) and Kristof-Brown et al. (2005) , and with the theory of NPM as described in the literature on public administration (see Hood 1991; Lynn 1996,



1998; Terry 2005 ). However, the fi ndings also indicate that POF has a much weaker rela-tionship with organizational commitment, which may be affected by other variables.

One such variable may be the tenure of the employees. The fi ndings of our study show that tenure and fi t are consistently related to each other. As suggested by Bretz and Judge (1994) , POF may affect tenure in the organization but the opposite direction of relation-ship is also possible, where tenure is one denominator of POF. Given the fact that a ma-jority of the employees in the study are tenured (around 83 per cent), tenure may indeed have an effect on: (1) the organization ’ s attempts to radically change individually held values; and (2) the implications of the study for various types of employees and manag-ers. First, we expect that when a general lack of fi t exists, a gradual process of NPM reform may lead to changes in individual-level values of new employees, as well as among other employees who are more open to change and willing to adopt the new values of the NPM approach. Thus, an effective NPM reform must take into consideration the problems of changing individual values among tenured employees and offer an incremental process of adaptation, perhaps by training, but mainly by the personal example and leadership models of senior management. In addition, the HRM literature advocates a gradual pro-cess of matching individuals with the organization by various means (see Kristof 1996; Kristof-Brown 2005 ) that look for mutual interests and the diffusion of values from top to bottom and bottom to top. Furthermore, the idea of gradually nurturing the NPM doctrine is advocated in studies that have noted the need for changes in the values and attitudes of the public as well. These studies, such as those by Osborne and Gaebler (1992), Lynn (1998) , and Pollitt (1993) , criticized some of the ‘ revolutionary ’ approaches of the NPM movement, stressing the need for a planned and evolving reform that encour-ages employees to go through an incremental process of change aimed at better matching, supplementing, or complementing the new organizational environment. In line with this, our fi ndings demonstrate that less senior employees display a higher service climate, perhaps due to greater motivation or a higher level of energy that they carry with them in their early years in the organization. The tenured employees, on the other hand, may show more evidence of burnout and lower levels of motivation due to bad experiences and frustrating past events. Therefore, a possible implication of this study is that tenure may play an important role in the relationship between POF and job performance, a role that should be tested in future studies.

We further believe that these fi ndings demonstrate how knowledge of the behavioural sciences (namely applied psychology and organizational sociology) can be successfully applied to problems in another discipline such as public administration and public policy. Our fi ndings therefore deserve special attention in the context of future reforms in the public sector ( Terry 2005 ). Theoretically, the fi t between an individual and their workplace, especially in the public sector context, can be used as another signifi cant explanation for changes in organizational outcomes both at the individual level and at other levels such as the overall service climate of a public agency. Practically, our fi ndings are extremely relevant for human resource managers in the public sector who should pay more attention to the meaning of incorporating new values in organizations. Our fi ndings may imply that while positive values such as higher responsiveness, transparency, innovative-ness, or achievement orientation have many advantages, they may turn out to be either useless or counterproductive unless they fi t comfortably with the employees ’ values. An organizational policy cannot be called successful simply by introducing a new vision of how the system should work. Additional steps must be taken to make sure that employ-ees concur with these values, and new human resource strategies should be developed



to make sure that the gap between the values of the higher ranks and the lower ranks is narrowed. Our study further suggests a method and a tool for measuring at least some aspects of this gap, at least as far as the NPM approach is concerned.

In the same vein, the fi ndings of this study are meaningful in the broader context of policy issues in governance. For example, the micro-macro analysis suggested here may imply that NPM-style reforms should consider POF as another target of any organizational change in the public sector. Our fi ndings may suggest that one of the (many) problems in implementing NPM reforms, in Israel but also globally, is the lack of attention to the individual-level values of public personnel. A possible explanation for the failure of NPM reforms may thus be related to the disparity between the expected versus the actual val-ues of individuals. Whereas the organizational strategy may be in accord with the new NPM values and modes of action, individuals may still be operating with old codes of behaviour and conservative perceptions of the public work place. These old style codes of behaviour may be refl ected in the employees ’ actions towards and reactions to citizens ’ demands and needs. Thus, the failure to balance organizational strategic goals and the individual ’ s personal goals can be traced back to the basic imbalance between values, traditions and beliefs in government (see, for example, Bevir et al. 2003 ). Our fi ndings suggest that this mismatch may lead to problems in both the intra-organizational layer (that is, not adhering to organizational standards of behaviour and performance, non-fulfi llment of formal and informal duties at work) as well as the extra-organizational layer of outcomes and service to the public (that is, low levels of service orientation, lack of fairness in dealing with citizens, or low levels of responsiveness). Thus, we expect that the fi ndings of this single study may serve as a starting point to broadening our thinking about micro-macro interfaces in the context of NPM-style reforms. It should be noted, how-ever, that such interfaces are subject to cultural diversity, both on the intra-organizational and extra-organizational/national levels. That is, the POF of NPM values should always be analysed in the specifi c cultural context of the organization and the society involved. For example, in some cultures where collective values are stressed over individual values, the organizational strategy may be more dominant, whereas the opposite rationale may work for highly individualistic cultures ( Hofstede 1991 ). The same rationality may also work for other cultural characteristics such as power distance, muscularity/femininity, or acceptance of change. Finally, it should be emphasized that the POF of NPM values may be only one missing piece in explaining the problematic implementation of NPM-style re-forms worldwide. No doubt other such ‘ missing pieces ’ should be examined in future studies (that is, expectations, burnout and stress-related factors, personality traits, or social networks), and at least some of them should come from the micro-macro interface of knowledge.

Beyond its contribution to the knowledge about reforms and change in public admin-istration, particularly to the accumulated evidence about the advantages and problems of NPM reforms, this study also contributed to our understanding of POF models in the more generic organizational behaviour context. Our strategy suggests that the model of POF as developed by Caldwell, O ’ Reilly, and their colleagues (see Caldwell and O ’ Reilly 1990; Chatman 1989, 1991 ; O ’ Reilly and Chatman 1991 ) is applicable to other arenas such as the non-profi t sector. In addition, we demonstrated that values other than those men-tioned by Caldwell and O ’ Reilly should be included in future studies on POF. Thus, we recommend that as far as the public sector is concerned, the conceptual boundaries of POF should be extended to included changes in values that represent ambitious reforms and policy alternations in these organizations. Practically, we believe that the research tool suggested here may be useful to human resource managers and to policy-makers



who wish to bridge the gap between strategic plans and the personal perceptions of public sector employees who need to adjust to these strategic plans. Managers in the public sector, especially human resource managers, must be familiar with the tools and methods that create better congruence between individuals and the organization, espe-cially in times of reforms and change. The organizational behaviour and socio-psychology literature offers a variety of such instruments. For example, one option may be to develop training strategies that focus on matching the goals of the individuals and the organiza-tion. The MBO (Management by Objective) technique ( Drucker 1974 ) and other strategies that increase human capital suggest potential directions for better adaptation of employ-ees and organizations. Other techniques such as coaching ( Hrop 2005 ), organizational development strategies or the improvement of transformational leadership in the public sector ( Sisaya 2005 ), may also be useful since they narrow the gap between the values of the self and those of the collective system.

Finally, some limitations of this study should also be mentioned. First, our fi ndings are relevant for the Israeli municipal system. Future studies are needed to replicate our study in other public sector agencies that are different in type and structure from ours and in other countries and cultures. Second, our data was based on self-reported measures that are exposed to common method and common source errors. However, the strong levels of reliabilities and variance exhibited by all of the variables quite fi rmly support the validity of the data and the fi ndings. In addition, the fact that POF was found to have almost no relationship with organizational commitment, beyond the signifi cant zero- order correlation with transparency fi t, is somewhat disappointing and calls for future studies. It is possible that the lack of a signifi cant relationship between POF and organizational commitment means that other variables are much stronger than POF in explaining commitment, espe-cially in the public sector where union power and practical considerations of security and tenure are key concerns. Third, we must note that our study does not allow for any causal implications since the research design was not longitudinal. Thus, no clear determination can be made regarding a direct effect of POF on work outcomes, and the results of the study must be interpreted with caution. In the same vein, we suggest that future studies try to validate extensions to the classical measure of POF as suggested by O ’ Reilly and Chatman (1991) and apply it to the needs of the public sector, whose values and norms are somewhat different from those of the private sector. Finally, we are aware that a single study such as ours cannot cover the entire spectrum of values related to NPM. Therefore, we decided to focus on four major values that are frequently discussed in the literature in relation with NPM and with modern reforms of the public sector. As such, our study offers a platform for better understanding both NPM and POF in this context. We believe that this framework can be useful in future studies on NPM, POF, and their interrelationships.

Overall, we believe that this study is useful in extending the discussion about NPM and other modern reforms in public administration beyond the micro level or the macro level. It demonstrates how a mixed-level approach, that is a socio-psychological one, can be useful for explaining several organizational outcomes in this arena. We recommend building on our approach and creating valid and reliable tools for the measurement of POF in the public sector. We hope that additional efforts will be dedicated to the exami-nation of the relationship of POF with the performance of public service agencies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to thank three anonymous reviewers for the helpful suggestions that signifi cantly contributed to the quality and clarity of this paper.



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Date received 27 January 2006. Date accepted 18 June 2006.

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