Analysis of the perceptions about the organizational environment in Colombia’s Public sector

• Published in: Gobernar : the journal of Latin American public policy and governance Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 5 - 32
• Main Authors: Telch, Fabian, Sanabria, Pablo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Binghamton UNIVERSIDAD EAFIT 01-06-2018; Binghamton University; Universidad EAFIT
• Subjects: Appreciation; burnout; colombia; Demography; Government employees; Job satisfaction; Motivation; multivariate analysis; Organizational environment; Perceptions; Public officials; public official’s perceptions; Public sector; Seniority; Statistics; Technicians; Work environment; Colombia
• ISSN: 2474-2678; 2474-2678
• DOI: 10.22191/gobernar/vol2/iss1/2

Public servants are conditioned by perceptions about their jobs environments that can lead them to have less appreciation for their organizations. There are few studies that focus on a theoretical and practical understanding of the organizational environment as a factor that may lead public workers to low motivation and job satisfaction levels. We aim to explore organizational environment of Colombia’s public-sector entities as a key organizational aspect, considering the demographic characteristics of Colombian public servants. Through multivariate statistics we explore whether some demographic and organizational traits of public officials play a role on their appreciations of their organizational environments. To do so, we use data from a survey of the National Department of Statistics of Colombia, covering more than 6,000 public officials at the regional level. This article aims to inform practice since it provides empirical evidence about Colombia’s public organizations employees, suggesting that graduate middle professionals with more than six years of service, and technicians with more than twelve years of service tend to purport negative perceptions about the organizational environments of Colombian public organizations. Thus, seniority in Colombia appears to have a key role on such perceptions.