A public service position in China haslong been considered as one of the most desired jobs, as it brings oneprestige, privilege, and power. However, in recent years, partly due to theadministrative reform, a huge number of... [ view full abstract ]
A public service position in China haslong been considered as one of the most desired jobs, as it brings oneprestige, privilege, and power. However, in recent years, partly due to theadministrative reform, a huge number of public employees have started toexpress dissatisfaction with their working environment, including heavyworkload, little autonomy, cynical citizens, and various forms of hierarchicalcontrol. The suicide rate of public employees has been increasing, andmeanwhile, quitting a public service job has become a hot topic in social media.
There seem to be two conflicting pieces of messages: one says that government positions are very attractive (the pass rate of the yearly public service exams has been as low as 2% in China), whereas the other one says that public service work is stressful and not appealing at all. What do Chinese public employees really feel? How much do they want to leave the public service team? If cases they do not quit a public service job, is it because they are emotionally attached to public service, or because they cannot quit even if they want? In the latter case, do they still have strong work morale?
To address the knowledge gap, we propose the concept of “public service career entrenchment” grounded in the study by Carson, Carson, and Bedeian (1995). This concept is comprised of three components: career investment in public service (e.g., “The training received would be useless if I quit a public service job”), emotional attachment to public service (e.g., “It’s hard for me to leave a public service position as public service has become an inseparable part of my life), and limitation of career alternatives (e.g. “After staying in the public sector for years, I don’t know what else I can do”). We design a 9-item, 3-dimensional survey instrument that captures the essence of public service career entrenchment.
By using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to test data collected from front-line public employees in Xi’an, China, we find that the three forms of entrenchment are conceptually distinctive. In addition, regression results show that they are correlated with work attitudes differently. The first type of entrenchment, emotional entrenchment, is positively related to job satisfaction and involvement, but negatively related to turnover intention. Limitation of career alternatives, by contrast, is negatively related to job satisfaction and involvement, but positively related to turnover intention. The relationships between career investment and work attitudes are not statistically significant. A warning sign is a high level of perceived limitation of career alternatives. We offer practical suggestions to public managers in China based on our findings.
