How do underlying aspects of public service motivation affect employee outcomes in public higher education institutions?

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Public service motivation (PSM) has been the topic of many public administration and management studies since 1990. In Vietnam, 2016 marked the beginning of PSM research with a great deal of consideration of the impact of PSM on civil servants' job satisfaction, performance, and organizational commitment. However, no controlled studies have investigated PSM's impact on public employee outcomes, especially in the context of Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs). This study aims to examine how underlying aspects of public service motivation (Self-Sacrifice, Commitment to the Public Interest, Attraction to Public Policy Making, and Compassion) affect both positive and negative employee outcome factors, including Work Effort; Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Turnover Intention, and Work-related Stress. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) point out that four PSM sub-constructs have varying effects on employee outcomes, as evidenced by the data from a random sample of three hundred and thirteen lecturers and administrators from Vietnamese public universities. In particular, three sub-constructs of PSM, namely self-sacrifice, dedication to the public interest, and attractiveness to public policymaking favorably influence employees' efforts in their duties; whereas compassion has a negligible influence on work efforts. Four aspects of PSM positively affect work effort and organizational citizenship behavior but adversely influence work-related stress and intention to leave the organization. This research demonstrates that a greater degree of PSM in all sub-constructs is favorably connected with public employees' organizational citizenship behavior. However, PSM negatively correlates with job stress although this is only supported by the sub-construct of selflessness. The findings of this research have proposed several significant recommendations for the approaches taken to human resource management within public universities in Vietnam.