A comparative pilot study of the culture of Australian public and private sector administrative employees

Abstract

This paper examines and compares the moderating impact of organisational communication on the level of job satisfaction experienced by public sector administrative employees compared with private sector administrative employees. The findings from this pilot study suggest the significance of communication variables in moderating the job satisfaction of employees within all workplaces. In addition, the research findings suggest that there are significant organisational communication differences experienced by public and private sector employees in the workplace. There are implications emerging from this research. Firstly, management must acknowledge the importance of communication factors in moderating the impact of job satisfaction variables because these variables in turn affect employees' productivity. Secondly, this study has provided some evidence that the assumptions about the superiority of private sector communication and organisational processes are probably not warranted. The perception that private sector communication practices are significantly better than public sector practices appears not to have been substantiated in this study.