Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 26th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview III. PA Reform Author(s) Jesse Campbell Incheon National University Incheon Republic of Korea Tobin Im, Seoul National University Title Sector Characteristics and Change-Oriented Behavior by Public Employees: Cross-National Evidence from the Government Competitiveness Global Survey File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Jesse Campbell Abstract A continuous process of incremental improvement sustains the long-term performance of public sector organizations. Proactively identifying aspects of the work context that are functioning sub-optimally and working to address shortcomings are central to this process. Change-oriented behavior captures the extent to which a given employee engages in micro-level process improvement initiatives with the aim of enhancing their job performance and the performance of their organization. However, while such behavior may come close to a universal good in the public sector and there are a number of studies focusing on its antecedents, there is no cross-national evidence about the how variations in public sector policy and institutions facilitate or constrain the change-oriented behavior of public servants. Drawing on the 2017 Government Competitiveness Global Survey, a unique resource with responses from 312 civil servants across 42 countries, we test how different public service arrangements affect change-oriented behavior. The results indicate that performance pay, proceduralism in human resource management, and transparency all encourage change-oriented behavior in the public sector. This study is the first to offer evidence of links between broadly varying national government characteristics and change-oriented behavior. The implications of the research are discussed in detail.
