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Abstract
The study of sector distinctions has a long history in the field of organization theory (Rainey, 2009). However, few studies exist comparing and exploring distinctions between the public and nonprofit sectors (Chen, 2011; Feeney & Rainey, 2010). This study contributes to the area of research which explores distinctions between the public and nonprofit sectors by building upon previous research by Feeney and Rainey (2010). Feeney and Rainey (2010) find evidence that public managers perceive higher levels of red tape and inflexibility of personnel rules within their organizations relative to nonprofit managers. Building upon the study conducted by Feeney and Rainey (2010), this dissertation explores the question What difference do the differences make? in relation to perceived incentives to work hard, job satisfaction, and absenteeism for public and nonprofit managers. This study utilizes the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-III) data that are comprised of responses from public and nonprofit managers in Georgia and Illinois. The author employs probit regression, linear probability models, and ordinary least squares regression to explore the relationship between administrative constraint variablesred tape and inflexibility of personnel ruleswith the three outcomes of interestincentives to work hard, job satisfaction, and absenteeism. Overall, the study provides evidence of some sector differences between public and nonprofit respondents in which sector serves as a mediator between administrative constraints and two outcome variablesperceived incentives to work hard and job satisfaction. However, no support is provided for sector distinction between public and nonprofit respondents in models observing absenteeism. Additionally, examining the results holistically, the study does not find support of sector serving as a moderator between administrative constraint variables and the outcomes of interest; although, evidence of sector as a moderator is supported for the association between inflexibility of personnel rules and job satisfaction.