Abstract
The western concept and scale of public service motivation (PSM) have recently been generalized to China. We analyze the western‐centric PSM scale in the Chinese cultural, historical, and sociopolitical contexts. We find that PSM scale developed in the United States has limited applicability and generalizability in China. Instead, we adopt the career orientation inventory as an alternative to measure Chinese PSM with a sample of 403 government employees in relation to their job and career satisfactions and job involvement. We found that lifestyle, security and stability, technical/functional competence and service dedication to a cause were dominating motives for Chinese civil servants studied. The results not only partially explained the recent puzzling ‘civil servant fever’ phenomenon taking place in China, but also demonstrated that not all western developed scales could be directly adopted to the Chinese contexts. We offer important implications and future directions for research on PSM in the Chinese context.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
