Samenvatting

More often it has been supposed that pride has important positive effects on the functioning of civil servants (performance) and the provision of services to citizens. To stimulate civil servants to be proud of their profession and regain their professional pride it is necessary to know what causes civil servants to be proud of their work. Little quantitative research has been done into the determinants of professional pride in the public sector and the research that has been carried out is characterized by a diversity of definitions and operationalizations of pride. This research analyses to what extent civil servants are proud and which factors determine the amount of professional pride. The data have been gathered in 2010 by the Dutch Department of Home Affairs in the Personnel and Mobility Monitor. The monitor shows that three out of ten Dutch civil servants are not proud of their own profession. This is not caused by personal characteristics like gender, age and education that cannot be influenced, but intrinsic characteristics of the relation between civil servant and work that have the largest effect on the amount of professional pride amongst civil servants. Those civil servants that feel attached to the organization, are satisfied with the organization, are satisfied with their work and are motivated, are much prouder than those civil servants which lack these characteristics.