Change in the public sector - for better or for worse
Research conducted in a public sector organisation highlights the negative impact of organisational change on the morale and motivation of its employees. This is the finding reported today, Thursday 7 January, at The British Psychological Society’s Annual Occupational Psychology Conference, held at the Stakis Hotel, Blackpool, by Diane van Ruitenbeck and Dr Peter Makin from Manchester School of Management (UMIST). The study shows that change initiatives such as privatisation, downsizing and radical reorganisation may have seriously damaged the employment relationship between public sector employees and their employers. The result is a loss of trust between managers and staff, and low levels of motivation, job satisfaction and morale. The ‘more for less’ culture which now characterises much of the public sector appears to be viewed by its employees as increasingly exploitative (eg public sector employers are now asking much more of their employees but offering few, if any, incentives or rewards to them in return). As a result the researchers suggest that many able and previously committed managers are now, for the first time in their careers, seriously considering leaving the public sector rather than continuing to work in what they perceive to be an increasingly hostile and de-motivating environment. The message to public sector employers from this research is clear; they must find new and more effective ways of managing change in the future, if further damage to the morale of their employees and ultimately to the services which they deliver is to be avoided.
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