Linking transformational leadership and value congruence among Chinese police force: The mediating role of goal clarity and the moderating role of public service motivation

Although claimed as an important value assimilating factor within public administration, transformational leadership's effect over value congruence receives limited empirical investigation. Furthermore, the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of this effect are underspecified. Drawing from an interactionist perspective whereby value congruence is the joint product of situational influence and individual characteristic, this study investigates the relationship between transformational leadership and value congruence focusing on the mediating role of goal clarity and the moderating role of public service motivation (PSM). The analysis of data collected from a sample of 420 Chinese police officers indicates that goal clarity partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and value congruence. In addition, PSM moderates the relationship between goal clarity and value congruence such that the relationship is stronger when PSM is high. Finally, theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

A Meta‐Analysis of the Relationship between Public Service Motivation and Job Satisfaction

In recent years, much research has been conducted on the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and various outcomes, including job satisfaction. This article presents a meta‐analysis aggregating the effects of PSM on job satisfaction. Meta‐regression analysis is used to assess the impact of numerous study characteristics and to identify potential issues of publication bias. The findings, based on 28 separate studies, show no evidence of publication bias and support the positive relationship between PSM and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results support the importance of providing individuals with the opportunity to serve the public within this relationship. Given the organizational benefits that can be derived from improved job satisfaction and the focus of PSM research on its implications for job satisfaction, these findings are of interest to both academics and practitioners in the field of public administration.     

Public Service Motivation,Organizational Social Capital,and Knowledge Sharing in the Korean Public Sector

This article investigates whether public service motivation (PSM) and organizational social capital predict knowledge sharing in the public sector. The hypothesized relationships in the proposed model are verified with the online survey data of 506 public employees in Korea. The test results show that the two dimensions of PSM (attraction to public service and commitment to public values) and the trust component of organizational social capital are both positively related to knowledge sharing in the Korean public sector, and that the associability component of organizational social capital is indirectly associated with knowledge sharing through its influence on PSM. The article discusses the ways that PSM and organizational social capital may contribute to overcome the social dilemma of knowledge sharing in public organizations. It also suggests that there is need for further research on the individual dimensions of the PSM construct.     

Suited to Serve: The Antecedents and Perceptions of Public Service Motivation in National Service

While research suggests that public service motivation may be a dynamic trait in individuals, particularly early in their careers, other recent research has found that PSM may be relatively stable upon entry into the workforce (Vogel and Kroll 2016). To identify more precisely the decision point among individuals considering a public service career, the present study uses the antecedents of public service motivation framework (Perry 1997) to predict participation in AmeriCorps, a voluntary national service program in the United States. Findings reveal that antecedent conditions of PSM, including the prevalence of seeing family members and mentors help others as well as participation in student government, predict whether an individual will join an AmeriCorps programs. Many of these self-reported motivations support the argument that people attracted to public service hold strong other-regarding values. These findings suggest that human resources managers would be wise to consider these antecedent conditions to public service motivation when identifying pools of talent for recruiting and selecting prospective employees.     

Public Service Motivation and Interpersonal Citizenship Behavior in Public Organizations: Testing a Preliminary Model

ABSTRACT

A good deal of research has demonstrated how public service motivation (PSM) facilitates desirable organizational attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work effort. Other research has demonstrated that PSM predicts higher levels of social capital and altruistic behavior in society. Between these two strands of PSM research, there is a gap in knowledge about whether PSM matters to citizenship behavior internal to the organization. This article tests the direct and indirect relationship between individual levels of PSM and interpersonal citizenship behavior using a structural equation model. We also account for the effect of organizational environment by incorporating a measure of co-worker support. We find that PSM has a direct and positive effect on interpersonal citizenship behavior in public organizations, even when accounting for the significant role of co-worker support.     

Activating the Forces of Public Service Motivation: Evidence from a Low‐Intensity Randomized Survey Experiment

Employees with higher public service motivation (PSM) are likely to perform better in public service jobs. However, research on how practitioners may capitalize on this knowledge is sparse. This article expands the understanding of how to activate employee PSM, which is understood as a human resource that is present in the work environment. Using a randomized survey experiment with 528 law students, this article shows how low‐intensity treatments may activate PSM and how the effect of PSM activation efforts compares with efforts to activate another, less self‐determined type of motivation (relating to the need for feelings of self‐importance). The findings are robust and suggest that low‐intensity efforts to activate PSM have a positive effect on an individual's behavioral inclinations. However, efforts toward the activation of motivation relating to feelings of self‐importance appear to engender an effect of similar size.     

Dynamics of Public Service Motivation: Attraction‒Selection and Socialization in the Production and Regulation of Social Services

The literature on public service motivation (PSM) has typically focused on the relationship between motivation and public/private sector of employment, while the character of the work being performed has been neglected. Using panel surveys with pre‐ and postentry measures of PSM among certified Danish social workers, this article provides a unique design for investigating PSM‐based attraction?selection and socialization effects with respect to the choice between work related to service production or service regulation (controlled for public/private sector of employment). The article shows that the PSM profiles of social work students predict their preference for one of the two types of work tasks but do not predict first employment in the preferred job. Conversely, postentry shifts in social workers’ PSM profiles result from a complex interplay between influences from both work task and sector.     

Public Service Motivation: A Test of the Job Attraction–Selection–Attrition Model

ABSTRACT

Public service motivation (PSM) research suggests that PSM influences employee sector choice, yet relatively little research examines how time moderates this relationship. In this research we examine public service motivation among private and public sector lawyers. Using survey data that measure sector of employment at multiple time periods, we investigate the stability of the relationship between individual reward orientations and sector employment choice over time. Our findings suggest that while PSM may not clearly predict the employment sector of a respondent's first job, it does increase the likelihood that a respondent's subsequent job is in the public sector.     

Workplace and Non‐workplace Pro‐environmental Behaviors: Empirical Evidence from Florida City Governments

Public employees are expected to be good stewards of public resources and engage in pro‐environmental behaviors (PEBs). Using different categorizations of PEBs, this article examines whether public employees perform these PEBs in workplace and non‐workplace settings. The article further investigates how PEBs are influenced by salient characteristics of public organizations—that is, public service motivation (PSM) and civic participation categorized as civic engagement and cognitive engagement. Data were collected through a survey of public employees in two city governments in Florida. A structural equation model was employed to test the proposed model. Findings indicate that PSM has a positive influence on workplace PEBs and similar PEBs in the non‐workplace settings. Civic engagement has a positive influence on both workplace and non‐workplace PEBs. Barriers significantly moderate the effects of PSM and cognitive engagement on workplace and non‐workplace PEBs.     

For Those Who Care: The Effect of Public Service Motivation on Sector Selection

Public service motivation (PSM) theory suggests that the alignment of values may explain sorting into public service work. Evidence suggests that people with high PSM cluster in government and nonprofit organizations. However, reliance on cross‐sectional data leaves open the question of whether observed patterns are the result of public and nonprofit organizations attracting and selecting high‐PSM people or cultivating PSM through socialization within the sector. Using longitudinal data, this article analyzes the relationship between motivational bases, such as PSM, and sorting into the public, for‐profit, and nonprofit sectors. The results indicate that PSM‐related values, measured before labor market entry, predict the sector a person will select for employment. Moreover, the effect on sector selection does not operate through some commonly cited alternative predictor of sector employment, such as college completion. Rather, PSM predicts sorting into college majors in a manner consistent with sector sorting in the labor market.     

Motivational Bases and Emotional Labor: Assessing the Impact of Public Service Motivation

Emotional labor has become an important topic in the study of organizational behavior, but no research has examined how it is affected in individuals’ motivational bases. Public administration scholars have started to study this concept, but empirical studies are still in their infancy. Focusing on a particular type of motivational base—public service motivation (PSM), this article assesses how PSM and its three dimensions (attraction to policy making, commitment to public interest, and compassion) affect two common emotional labor activities (surface acting and deep acting). Using data from a survey of certified public management students, the results show that PSM is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting. Among the PSM dimensions, attraction to policy making is positively associated with surface acting; compassion is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting; and commitment to public interest is not associated with surface acting or deep acting.     

Public Service Motivation (PSM) and Support for Citizen Participation: A Test of Perry and Vandenabeele’s Reformulation of PSM Theory

This article examines how public service motivation (PSM) relates to public managers’ attitudes toward citizen participation. Perry and Vandenabeele suggest that PSM effects are moderated and/or mediated by self‐regulation and by the salience of an activity to self‐identity. Using data from Phase IV of the National Administrative Studies Project, latent model results suggest a direct, positive relationship between PSM and citizen participation evaluation. The relationship is not mediated by value congruence but rather is moderated by the perceived importance of the organization’s citizen participation efforts. The moderating effect has three interpretations: (1) PSM has a stronger relationship to evaluation as citizen participation becomes more important in the agency; (2) at low and medium PSM levels, the greater the importance of citizen participation, the lower its evaluation; or (3) at high PSM levels, the greater the importance of citizen participation, the higher its evaluation. This suggests that PSM is more germane for activities such as citizen participation, invoking relevant values as perceived organizational commitment increases.     

A Job Demands–Resources Approach to Public Service Motivation

This article uses job demands–resources theory to build a model of public service motivation (PSM). Public service motivation determines how employees in the public sector deal with their daily job demands and resources. Highly motivated public servants are able to deal with their job demands and prevent exhaustion. Additionally, because of their sense of calling, they are motivated to mobilize their job resources to stay engaged and perform well. However, if job demands are consistently high and job resources are consistently low, highly motivated public servants will lose their psychological resources, resulting in lower PSM. Reduced PSM, as a consequence, may strengthen the loss cycle of job demands and exhaustion and weaken the gain cycle of job resources and engagement. Public service managers and employees may use this model to optimize their work environment on a day‐to‐day basis.     

Motivating Employees of the Public Sector: Does Public Service Motivation Matter?

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes if, and to what extent, the public service motivation (PSM) construct has an added value to explain work motivation in the public sector. In order to address the specificity of PSM when studying work motivation, the theoretical model underlying this empirical study compares PSM with two other explanatory factors: material incentives, such as performance-related pay, and team relations and support, such as recognition by superiors. This theoretical model is then tested with data collected in a national survey of 3,754 civil servants at the Swiss municipal level. Results of a structural equations model clearly show the relevance of PSM. They also provide evidence for the importance of socio-relational motivating factors, whereas material incentives play an anecdotal role.     

Integrating Public Service Motivation in the Job-Demands-Resources Model: An Empirical Analysis to Explain Employees’ Performance,Absenteeism, and Presenteeism

Public service motivation (PSM) is a focal construct in public management research, and while sound evidence exists that PSM is positively associated with several desired outcomes, knowledge on the underlying mechanisms which explain these associations and on potential negative consequences of PSM remains limited. Addressing these research gaps, this study investigates how PSM relates to relational job resources, work engagement, and outcomes. We thereby account for both direct and moderating effects of PSM and consider positive (employee performance) and negative outcomes (sickness absenteeism and presenteeism). We empirically test our model in the German public sector and find that the PSM dimensions relate differently to the assessed outcomes, providing varying support for our hypotheses. In particular, commitment to public value and compassion seem to drive the positive effect of PSM on employee performance, whereas self-sacrifice and client orientation are linked to reduced absenteeism, and only compassion is associated with increased presenteeism.     

Individual Conceptions of Public Service Motivation

Many scholars and practitioners of public administration converge on the belief that some individuals are predisposed to perform public service. James L. Perry (1996) recently clarified the public service motivation (PSM) construct and proposed a measurement scale. The present study builds on and extends this important stream of research by examining how individuals view the motives associated with public service. Specifically, we use an intensive research technique called Q-methodology to examine the motives of 69 individuals. We identify four distinct conceptions of PSM: individuals holding these conceptions are referred to as samaritans, communitarians, patriots, and humanitarians. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Influence of High Schools on Developing Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT: Despite the theoretical importance of public service motivation (PSM) for the public sector, little is known about the malleability and causal determinants of PSM. Formal schooling is one possible determinant of PSM. Using longitudinal data, this study analyzes the effects of civics courses and school-based community service in high school on PSM-related values. A propensity score matching strategy that compares observationally similar individuals finds that participation in school-based service activities for credit increases students’ reported prosocial values, such as helping others in the community, one underlying component of PSM-related values. However, taking a civics course does not affect PSM or associated values. The results suggest that PSM-related values are malleable and responsive to early service experiences. The values underlying PSM may evolve over time. That is, the development of prosocial values in adolescence may lead to the future development of other values important to PSM.     

Public Service Motivation and Attraction to Public Versus Private Sector Employment: Academic Field of Study as Moderator?

ABSTRACT

Despite extensive public service motivation (PSM) research, our knowledge of PSM's influence on individuals’ sector employment preferences is limited. Few studies examine this relationship by suitable research designs, and the empirical findings are mixed. Using a sample of 718 Danish students of economics, political science, and law, this article tests (1) the relationship between PSM and attraction to public versus private sector employment and (2) the moderating effect on this relationship of students’ academic field of study. Overall, results underscore the multidimensionality of the PSM construct, as the PSM dimension of “public interest” is positively associated with attraction to public sector employment and negatively associated with attraction to private sector employment, while the PSM dimension of “compassion” is unrelated to both. Importantly, however, moderation analyses reveal notable correlation differences across students’ academic fields. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of prior and future research.     

Attracting future civil servants with public values? An experimental study on employer branding

Abstract

A frequently cited recommendation of public service motivation (PSM) research is to use PSM in the context of HR marketing. However, empirical evidence demonstrating the usefulness of addressing PSM in the recruitment process is limited. Moreover, we know little about the relative importance of PSM for public employers’ attractiveness. We address this gap using an experimental research design to investigate whether public service motivated individuals differ from extrinsically motivated individuals in terms of their attraction to organizations that emphasize either “traditional” public or private values in their employer branding. Our findings indicate that public service motivated individuals are attracted neither to public nor to private values in employer branding. Furthermore, individuals with very high levels of extrinsic motivation are more attracted to private values employer branding than to public values employer branding and to the control group.     

Is Public Service Motivation Related to Overall and Dimensional Work-Unit Performance as Indicated by Supervisors?

ABSTRACT

Due to the use of self-reported data and mixed findings, doubts have been raised about the positive relationships found between public service motivation (PSM) and performance. This study aims to provide a robust test of the PSM–performance relationship by using work-unit supervisor ratings, thereby decreasing the risk of common-source bias. Further, this study provides a robustness test by analyzing the relationship between PSM and overall performance, as well as with various dimensions thereof (output, efficiency, service outcome, responsiveness, and resilience). Survey data on employees in 55 work-units of a healthcare organization were analyzed using multiple regression. The results indicate that PSM is significantly related to overall performance but, when regressed on the separate dimensions, PSM is not significantly related to efficiency and responsiveness. The results have implications for both theory and practice as they show that whether PSM relates to performance depends on how performance is conceptualized.