While previous public management research has focused on how leadership, managerial behavior, job characteristics, and human resource management policies influence employee attitudes and behavior, we know little about the role of the external environment (both perceived and actual). By comparison, research on the external environment of public organizations has mostly focused on performance, organizational structure, and goal ambiguity. This article connects these two streams of research, develops a theoretical model to examine whether perceived environmental support (PES) influences employee engagement and considers the moderating roles of public opinion, media, and political salience. The findings suggest that PES does matter for the level of employee engagement and that this influence is moderated by political salience. This in turn has implications for how public organizations motivate their employees, manage their external reputations, and navigate their external environments. The paper ends with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the findings and limitations of the study.

尽管先前的公共管理研究集中于领导力，管理行为，工作特征和人力资源管理政策如何影响员工的态度和行为，但我们对外部环境（无论是感知的还是实际的）的作用知之甚少。相比之下，对公共组织外部环境的研究主要集中在绩效，组织结构和目标模糊性上。本文将这两方面的研究联系起来，建立一个理论模型来检验感知到的环境支持（PES）是否会影响员工敬业度，并考虑公众舆论，媒体和政治显着性的调节作用。研究结果表明，PES对于员工敬业度的水平确实很重要，而这种影响可以通过政治上的显着程度来缓解。反过来，这对公共组织如何激励员工，管理其外部声誉并驾驭其外部环境具有影响。本文最后讨论了研究结果和研究局限性的理论和实践意义。