Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Throughout the world, substantial literature exists which addresses the role of gender in the job satisfaction of public personnel. Male-dominated power structures in public institutions often result in female employees answering to male supervisors. The growing number of female public employees, however, has led to an increasing number of female employees with female supervisors. Grissom, Nicholson-Crotty, and Keiser (2012) found that job satisfaction and turnover are affected by supervisor gender in public school teachers and principals. They also showed some glimpse of the effect of gender congruence on employee satisfaction. Yet, there has been little in-depth investigation of the effects of gender congruence among public organization personnel, and differences in its effects between public and private personnel. In South Korea, which has the widest gap in employment rate and wages between men and women (OECD, 2016), this study uses the Korean Women Manager Panel (KWMP) to determine which factors influence employees’ job satisfaction and the effects of gender congruence on employee satisfaction. The KWMP comprehensively surveyed the experiences of managers in areas such as human resource management, career development, networking, various support systems and organizational atmosphere over six surveys administered from 2007 to 2016. This paper uses panel data analysis on the KWMP panel data. The results provide important implications for researchers, policymakers, public organization personnel supervisors as well as private organizations.