It takes two to tango: concepts and evidence of further integration of public service motivation theory and self-determination theory

Abstract

An important element in further developing public service motivation (PSM) theory is integrating it with other theories of motivation. One such candidate for further integration is self-determination theory (SDT). This paper examines this relationship, and respective antecedents using two different studies. The first study uses a dataset of local government civil servants (N = 453). The findings demonstrate that PSM is an identity, which is mostly regulated on an identified basis. The second study uses a dataset of state civil servants (N = 3506). The findings more or less corroborate the findings of study 1 but also indicate that satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness – based upon SDT – are important in the development of PSM. Overall, one can conclude that PSM corresponds to an autonomous type of identity, but is still a construct in its own right. The results indicate that PSM might behave according to the rules of SDT, which creates openings for new perspectives on public management.