A study of the organizational culture effects on job satisfaction in the federal government

This was a study on the organizational culture experienced by American public management professionals. The purpose of this study was to identify the attributes of isolated organizations within the federal government and to determine the level of employee job satisfaction within a sample of these organizations. The study explored whether a relationship between degree of organizational isolation and the level of employee job satisfaction exists. Previous studies have treated government employees as a homogeneous whole and may be in error, because of the many various cultures that exist in the government and their particular effects on public employees. Without a better understanding of all aspects of the culture-satisfaction duality, we will not know if successful management improvement tools used in the private sector will effectively work in the public sector.The hypotheses were: Employee job satisfaction is a function of the organization's degree of isolation Employee job satisfaction is an inverse function of the organization's degree of isolation and Employee job satisfaction as a function of the organization's degree of isolation is constant over time.Data were used from the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board's 1989 and 1992 Merit Principles Surveys and 1989 and 1993 surveys conducted by the Defense Mapping Agency.The study found that a functional relationship did exist between the degree of organizational isolation and the amount of employee job satisfaction, and that organizational isolation accounted for 4.5 to 16.5 percent of the variation in employee job satisfaction. The hypothesis that the relationship was inverse (as organizational isolation increased, employee job satisfaction decreased) was supported, but the hypothesis that the relationship was persistent over time was rejected.The study concluded that public sector's organizational culture is still a valid area for study, because the paradoxical nature of public management makes public sector culture more challenging and complex than in the private sector. Three recommendations were made on how to improve further study of this aspect of organizational culture and on possible improvements which could be made in the management of isolated parts of the federal work force.