Researchers Turn Work Stereotype Upside Down
It’s a stereotype turned on its head. If Israeli researchers are right, the public sector may be more dog-eat-dog than the corporate world.
Haifa University researchers have concluded that employees from the public sector are more likely to use “forceful influence tactics” to get their own way, while in the private sector people are more likely to use their “emotional intelligence.”
The study also found that in the private sector, emotional intelligence on the part of management helps staff to form and keep positive attitudes toward their company, and stave off burnout, intentions to leave and the tendency to neglect work. The impact of emotional intelligence in the public sector, on the other hand, was not as strong.
“We believe that the high level of organizational politics in the public sector and the stress associated with it decrease the positive effects of emotional intelligence for this sector,” said Galit Meisler, the study’s director, in a statement about the findings.
The research paper received the Outstanding Doctorate Award from the Israeli Political Science Association. It surveyed 809 employees and managers within four organizations: two in the public sector and two in the private sector. And while the research was conducted in Israel, its authors contend that it is representative of public and private sector organizations worldwide.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
