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This article aims to find out whether there are behavioral differences between public and private sector managers. Two groups of public managers (managers of social insurance agencies and public school principals) and a group of private managers (two samples) are investigated. Behavioral dimensions are investigated including leadership style (task, relationship, and change orientation), decision-making style (the functions of sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling), and motivation profile (achievement, affiliation, and power motivation). An analysis of data from 459 managers in four organizations in Sweden reveal significant differences in behavior between public and private managers. However, no significant differences in leadership behavior are discovered among public managers. Possible explanations for such differences and similarities are explored.
Bower (1977) wrote that although we know enough about management in the public sector to know that it is different from corporate management, we do not know nearly as much as we should. Twenty-five years later, Van Wart (2003) pointed out the lack of empirical research on public leadership. A number of studies have been undertaken aimed at describing and understanding the differences, if any, between public and private management.
Buchanan (1975) compared public and private managers' attitudes toward job involvement. Significant differences were found between business and government managers, but the results were not as expected. Middle managers in business ascribed significantly more salience to formal structure than the government group and reported significantly greater job involvement. This study did not concern the question of managerial behavior, but rather managers' attitudes. Rainey (1979) held that the specification of empirical differences between categories is fundamental to the development of sound theory.
Some scholars complain about the general scarcity of empirical studies of public management. Rainey (1982) found differences between public and private managers regarding reward preferences, but did not investigate differences in behavior. Consequently, Rainey (1989) presented a table of distinctive characteristics of public management and public organizations, including work-related attitudes and behaviors. One of the areas for research mentioned by Rainey (1989) was a comparison of public and private managers in terms of behavior. He discussed the developments in research on the distinctive characteristics of public managers and the organizations in which they work. Public and private organizations and their employees often do virtually the same tasks. There is...