Job Satisfaction and Regime Change: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

International Public Management Journal, 19(3): 370-396, 2016

32 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2015 Last revised: 23 Mar 2018

See all articles by Sebastian Jilke

Sebastian Jilke

McCourt School of Public Policy; Georgetown University

Date Written: 2015

Abstract

Little is known about the effects of regime change on government workers' job satisfaction. Conventional theories of work satisfaction have identified various individual or organisational antecedents of public employees' well-being in many different contexts. In this study, we add an additional level of analysis to the study of job satisfaction. The German reunification in 1990 constitutes a natural experiment, where public employees' institutional work environment changed dramatically. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we show that after the reunification East German public employees who stayed in their jobs experienced a 'satisfaction shock' by substantially decreasing their levels of job satisfaction. This finding is in line with what has been labelled as survivor syndrome in the general management literature. We also find that after three years' time, differences in satisfaction levels between East and West Germans reverted to pre-reunion levels. These findings are robust to various model specifications and alternative estimators. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Keywords: German Reunification, Job Satisfaction, Job Security, Organisational Reorganisation, Regime Change, Survivor Syndrome, Natural Experiment, Work Attitudes

JEL Classification: A1, A10, D73, E60, H00, H40, I10, I18, J78, L30, L31, L32, L33, L39, M00, D71

Suggested Citation

Jilke, Sebastian, Job Satisfaction and Regime Change: Evidence from a Natural Experiment (2015). International Public Management Journal, 19(3): 370-396, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2573794

Sebastian Jilke (Contact Author)

McCourt School of Public Policy; Georgetown University ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

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