Abstract
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development now guides public administrations in conveying all their functions. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), directly or indirectly, need effective public services and officials for successful implementation. Although working in public entities has been related to ‘a sense of duty and morality’, literature reports that motivation and sense of self-worth among public officials have been declining for many years, which in turn can endanger their performance, diminish their willingness to attend to civic affairs, and become committed to their organisation. Public officials’ motivation has been widely addressed through the lens of public service motivation and public sector motivation. Fewer studies, however, have focused on the factors of choice at a pre-level entry. This paper intends to address this gap by pondering on what influences student’s intention to work in the public sector. Understanding what drives potential future public officials’ motivation is crucial for public service sector effectiveness. Following a case study approach with a sample of 2251 undergraduate and post-graduate students of a Portuguese university, findings show an attribution of similar strengths and shortcomings to public and nonprofit sectors, a more positive perception of the private sector and job stability as the strongest motivation.
Highlights
Since the late 1970s and 1980s, several changes affected the public sector all over the world, with Portugal being no exception [1,2,3]
The features less associated with this sector are, respectively, the ability to foster “Innovative services” (42.2%), “Participatory decision-making” (40.2%) and “ changeable structures and cultures” (22%). The latter suggest that the public sector is perceived as a more stable and constant field, falling behind in the competitiveness and innovation that is clearly salient in the representations of the private sector, which is highly associated, precisely, with the promotion of a “Competitive market” (92.7%) and “Innovative services” (92.3%), followed by “Intellectually stimulating work environment” (84.6%)
It appears that, overall, the perceptions held towards the private sector are more positive than for the other two, featuring both relative stability and innovation as well as the capacity to enable “Social recognition and status” (81.7%)
Summary
Since the late 1970s and 1980s, several changes affected the public sector all over the world, with Portugal being no exception [1,2,3] Such changes have been analysed mainly from the New Public Management (NPM) viewpoint, a movement drawing its intellectual inspiration from public choice, agency theories and managerialism. Based on the assumption that the Public Administration was over-bureaucratised and inefficient, the NPM movement argued for the primacy and advantages of private sector management practices and for the benefits of their use in public sector organisations. This was applied in the human resources management domain with public models becoming more similar to the private [6]. ‘Run government like a business’, ‘make government work better and cost less’, and ‘please the customer’ became widespread metaphors in political and academic arenas [7]
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