NPM, administrative reforms and public service motivation: improving the dialogue between research agendas

Abstract

This article makes use of the Italian case of administrative reform to investigate the changes in the public service motivation (PSM) of public employees and managers after two decades of new public management (NPM)-inspired reforms. It emerges that NPM reforms may be associated with a reduction of the stock of PSM; however, important qualifications apply. By providing so far entirely unavailable evidence about PSM in both the public and the private/commercial sectors in Italy, the article also contributes the empirical bases for the development of comparative research on the interrelation between trajectories of administrative reform and changes in the drivers of motivation of public servants.Points for practitionersPublic management reforms may have an effect in terms of accretion or depletion of public service motivation (PSM), in its turn likely to be conducive to improved performance of the public sector. Policymakers should include in the design and evaluation of public sector reforms the potential impacts on the drivers of the motivation of public servants. PSM is also a factor that may be profoundly influential on the dynamics of reform processes, to be systematically considered by reformers in different jurisdictions.