Public Service Motivation and Organizational Performance in Mexico: Testing the Mediating Effects of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

Abstract

Despite the importance of the public sector, little effort has been made by researchers to empirically verify the influence of individual-level factors on the performance of public sector organizations. This study examines the effects of public service motivation (PSM) and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) on perceived organizational performance in the Mexican public sector. In an attempt to open up the “black box” of the relationship between PSM and organizational performance, this study also examines the mediating effects of OCBs on the relationship between PSM and performance. Using survey data on civil servants, findings show that PSM has no direct effect on perceived performance whereas OCBs have. The findings also show that PSM has an indirect effect on organizational performance through its positive influence on OCBs.