Service Demand and Employee Benefits Provision in Local Governments

Researchers who study organization-environment adaptation argue that organizations adapt to demanding situations in their environment to maintain sustainability. Along these lines, when local governments face increased service responsibilities and needs, they generally attempt to adjust their managerial practices in order to enhance organizational outcomes. Drawing insights from two theoretical perspectives—organizational adaptation and resource-based view—the current study identifies service demand as an environmental factor that influences organizations’ managerial practices and employee benefits provision as an organizational adaptation. Using survey data from officials (n = 225) who work for township governments in Illinois in the U.S. and U.S. census data, the analysis found that benefit provision was related to service demand increases, suggesting that organizations facing high levels of service demand may seek ways to retain current staff or attract new staff, such as providing additional employee benefits programs, in order to meet the increasing service demand.