New Perspectives on Public Service Motivation: Symposium Introduction

ABSTRACT

A possible “dark side” of goal setting, namely perfectionism and its relationship with employee performance, was investigated. A study of police officers (n = 235) revealed that perfectionists' predisposition to (1) set goals that they perceive to be extremely high, and (2) base evaluations of self-worth on the attainment of those goals were positively related to maximum performance, namely promotional exam scores. The mediating variable was perceived effort. In the second study involving police officers (n = 242), however, perfectionism displayed a complex relationship with typical performance. The two dimensions of perfectionism, perceived high goals and contingent self-worth, were negative predictors of this criterion through their relationship with emotional exhaustion. Nevertheless, the goal difficulty dimension was a positive predictor of typical performance.     

Public Service Motivation Research: Lessons for Practice

Public service motivation research has proliferated in parallel with concerns about how to improve the performance of public service personnel. However, scholarship does not always inform management and leadership. This article purposefully reviews public service motivation research since 2008 to determine the extent to which researchers have identified lessons for practice. The results of the investigation support several lessons—among them using public service motivation as a selection tool, facilitating public service motivation through cooperation in the workplace, conveying the significance of the job, and building leadership based on public service values. These results are important because they offer evidence that the field is coalescing around tactics that managers and leaders can use to address enduring concerns about employee motivation in the public sector. They also prompt us to articulate ideas that can guide a tighter integration of research and practice moving forward.     

A Strategy for Building Public Service Motivation Research Internationally

As public service motivation research grows qualitatively and quantitatively, some scholars question its appropriateness for international applications. This essay sets out a strategy of convergence for international research and measurement approaches. Studies that assess commonalities in public service motivation content internationally are analyzed in order to develop a broader conceptual and more operational definition as well as consequently a more universal public service motivation construct. Public service motives, according to this review, are based on self‐sacrifice and fall into three categories: instrumental, value‐based, and identification. The dimensions of the public service motivation construct are refined along the lines of attraction to public participation, commitment to public values, compassion, and self‐sacrifice. Researchers are urged to include all of its dimensions within their empirical studies to advance contemporary public service motivation studies.     

Person-Environment Fit and Public Service Motivation

This article incorporates insights from Person-Environment Fit theories to the discussion about the effect of Public Service Motivation (PSM) on vocational outcome variables. Analysis of a large Dutch dataset shows that workers with a PSM fit are more satisfied and less inclined to leave their job and the organization they work for than workers without such a fit. This is in accordance with the main hypothesis. Other results underline the importance of the PSM concept as they show that public sector workers have a higher level of PSM than private sector workers. Moreover, private sector workers with high levels of PSM are inclined to look for a job in the public sector, which is in accordance with a main propositions of the PSM framework. The article finishes with a discussion on theoretical and methodological issues raised by the analysis and puts forward some suggestions for further research.     

Gender Dimensions of Public Service Motivation

Feminist scholars of public administration have critiqued the dominance of masculine imagery in public administration theory and practice. However, public service motivation is one area of public administration discourse that contains both feminine and masculine imagery. Focusing on Perry's multidimensional public service motivation scale, the authors borrow from a range of social science literatures to contend that compassion is a feminine dimension of public service motivation, whereas attraction to policy making and commitment to public service are masculine dimensions. Data from a survey of public managers in state health and human service agencies reveal that women score higher on Perry's compassion subscale but also on attraction to policy making. No statistically significant gender differences were found on commitment to public service.     

Prosocial Behavior and Public Service Motivation

Although research on public service motivation (PSM) is vast, there is little evidence regarding the effects of PSM on observable behavior. This article contributes to the understanding of the behavioral implications of PSM by investigating whether PSM is associated with prosocial behavior. Moreover, it addresses whether and how the behavior of other group members influences this relationship. The article uses the experimental setting of the public goods game, run with a sample of 263 students, in combination with survey‐based PSM measures. A positive link is found between PSM and prosocial behavior. This relationship is moderated by the behavior of other group members: high‐PSM people act even more prosocially when the other members of the group show prosocial behavior as well, but they do not do so if the behavior of other group members is not prosocial.     

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.     

Bridging the Public Service Motivation and Calling Literatures

Public administration research suggests there may be disparity in the extent to which public servants experience their work as a calling. The purpose of this article is to better illustrate and integrate calling research, which grows out of the positive organizational scholarship movement, into how we understand public service motives. The calling scholarship offers a productive way to view differences in public servants' orientations toward their work. Integrating calling into the public administration scholarship—particularly the public service motivation scholarship—provides insights to researchers and managers about how to help employees discover a deeper sense of meaningfulness in their work. In presenting the arguments and corresponding conceptual framework, the authors seek to supplement rather than replace the public service motivation construct. The authors articulate a research agenda that they believe will strengthen and enrich research on public servants' experience with their work.     

Public Service Motivation Research: Achievements,Challenges, and Future Directions

This article takes stock of public service motivation research to identify achievements, challenges, and an agenda for research to build on progress made since 1990. After enumerating achievements and challenges, the authors take stock of progress on extant proposals to strengthen research. In addition, several new proposals are offered, among them conducting more research on the disaggregated construct, developing grounded theory of public service motivation to understand contextual variations across cultures and political institutions, and improving current measures to better capture loyalty to governance regime as an institutional dimension of the public service motivation construct.     

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.     

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.     

Social Desirability Bias in Measuring Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT

Public service motivation (PSM) is usually measured using self-report data, which suggests that PSM measures can be influenced by social desirability bias. This study investigates whether respondents tend to report an inflated view of their attitudes and orientations during surveys on PSM. Experimental survey research (list experiment) is conducted to analyze the magnitude of social desirability bias in PSM measurements and to examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and social desirability bias in Korea. The results show evidence of social desirability responding bias, although the pattern of bias varies across socio-demographic subgroups. Respondents in their forties or fifties, conservatives, Protestants, and those without a religious affiliation show more bias than other subgroups. This finding implies that correlational analysis in PSM research may be prone to the moderating effect of social desirability bias. Research that does not recognize and compensate for this bias may produce unwarranted theoretical or practical conclusions.     

A Cross-Level Holistic Model Of Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT

Using a sample of 63 supervisors and their direct reports (189 immediate subordinates), this study investigated a cross-level model of public service motivation’s (PSM) antecedents in the Chinese public sector. Correlation analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) results simultaneously revealed that both subordinates’ proactive personality and supervisors’ servant leadership were related positively to subordinates’ PSM. Additionally, HLM analyses demonstrated that supervisors’ servant leadership and their immediate subordinates’ proactive personality interacted to correlate positively with subordinates’ PSM. Implications of the findings, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.