Explaining job satisfaction of public professionals: Policy alienation and politicking in organizations

This paper contributes in two ways to our understanding of the pressures public professionals face in service delivery. First, it theoretically analyses the influence of policy pressures (measured using the policy alienation framework) and politicking pressures on job satisfaction, thereby combining the literature streams of policy implementation and organizational politics. Second, we use a large-scale survey of 1,317 Dutch healthcare professionals to examine the effects of these pressures on job satisfaction. A large-scale quantitative approach can provide new insights to the debate on pressured professionals. The results show that both politicking pressures and the policy alienation dimension powerlessness (perceived lack of influence and autonomy during policy implementation) affect the job satisfaction of public professionals. Further, they interact, the negative effect of powerlessness on job satisfaction is strongest among professionals working in a highly politicized environment. In other words, influence during policy implementation is especially relevant when professionals experience highly politicized environments.