Senior public managers' organizational commitment: Do private sector experience and tenure make a difference?

We bring together the literature on public-private differences and upper echelon theory on the importance of understanding managers’ background to examine whether private sector experience is associated with higher... [ view full abstract ]

We bring together the literature on public-private differences and upper echelon theory on the importance of understanding managers’ background to examine whether private sector experience is associated with higher organizational commitment among senior public managers. We also explore the role that position and organizational tenure play in shaping that commitment, since tenure length has often been associated with greater employee and managerial commitment. Using data from a large multi-national survey of senior managers from the central governments of sixteen European countries we find that private sector experience is associated with weaker organizational commitment among senior public managers. We also find that positional and organizational tenure are both positively related to commitment. Further analysis suggests that the negative effect of private sector experience on senior managers’ organizational commitment is a product of individuals’ shorter tenure in the same organization. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.