Explaining The Incentive Preferences of Employees: Is There a Difference between Public and Private Sector

There is a lot of controversy with regard to essential and accidental differences of public and private sector organizations, because the current studies have not yet achieved consensus on the similarities and differences between these two sectors. In this regard, the current studies are based on three main approaches: 1) political approach, 2) generic approach, 3) professional approach. Accordingly, this study is to explore incentive preferences of employees (including financial/non-financial incentives, intrinsic motivation, supportive and social atmosphere) in public and private sectors. Data were collected using a standard questionnaire. More than 1,300 questionnaires were distributed and in the end, 1021 questionnaires (519 questionnaires from private sector and 512 from public sector) were used in the final analysis. The results found no significant difference in the viewpoints of public and private sector employees about giving priority to financial incentives, self-development (intrinsic motivation) and supportive and social atmosphere. About the effect of demographic variables on dependent variables, the women and older people gave higher priority to self-development and supportive and social atmospheres.