103 Review of Public Personnel Administration Volume 29 Number 2 June 2009 103-133 © 2009 SAGE Publications 10.1177/0734371X09331619 http://roppa.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Working Across the Divide Job Involvement in the Public and Nonprofit Sectors Jessica Word Sung Min Park University of Nevada, Las Vegas Job involvement is a principal factor in the lives of most people; employees in the workplace are mentally and emotionally influenced by their degree of involvement in work. Using the data from the National Administrative Studies Project III, this study empirically compares the level of job involvement between managers in the public and nonprofit sectors and explores different aspects including demographic, managerial, and institutional factors that contribute to the apparent differences. The results of the study indicate that the mean level of nonprofit managers’ job involvement is signifi- cantly greater than for public managers. Each sector had specific variables that sig- nificantly and uniquely contributed to job involvement. Overall, the results suggest a need to more fully investigate the various mechanisms and functions of situational and organizational contexts, organizational norms, and culture that were associated with job involvement regardless of sector. Implications and limitations of this research are also discussed. Keywords: nonprofit and public human resource management; job involvement; job design; motivation; red tape R ecent research has shown an increased interest in the role of nonprofit organiza- tions and their management. Increased interest has occurred not only within the field of nonprofit management but also in the area of public administration and management research. The interest of public management and administration scholars in this field stems from increasingly close ties between the public and nonprofit sectors through contracting out of public services (Gazley & Brudney, 2007) and the growth of nonprofit management specializations and degrees in many public admini- stration programs across the country (Mirabella & Wish, 2000). These developments Authors’ Note: The authors shared first authorship of this article. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article and Hal G. Rainey for their thorough and helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. The authors also express sincere gratitude to Barry Bozeman for releasing data resources. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 68th annual conference of the Academy of Management, Anaheim, California, August 8 to 13, 2008. at UNIV OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS LIB on January 8, 2015 rop.sagepub.com Downloaded from