Private-sector employees versus Government employees

In the USA, it has been fashionable to hit out against government for a very long time.

Sadly, in spite of its intellectual brilliance, McKinsey is captive to that old fashion - at least according to the evidence of a report that it published a few months ago, titled "Improving worker performance in the US government": http://tinyurl.com/344jsjr

According to the article in the McKinsey Quarterly,
"The US federal government lags well behind the private sector in a number of important organizational-performance measures, particularly in fostering employee engagement, talent management, and accountability, a McKinsey survey finds. But the federal government enjoys relative strengths in the elements that deal with the heart of an organization. Government managers—more so than their private-sector counterparts, the survey found—understand and embrace the direction and vision of their organizations and are motivated to make a difference"

On the other hand, according to the same survey, fewer private-sector managers than federal government managers understand and embrace the direction of their organizations (55% versus 60%) and are motivated to make a difference through their work (63% versus 70%).

I should have thought that McKinsey of all organisations would know that excellence in speed, safety and fuel efficiency are not really that useful from the perspective of getting to your destination, if you are going in the wrong direction. Sphere: Related Content