Public Service Motivation Theory Research Articles

Exploring the Influence of Artificial Intelligence Usage on Ethical Decision Making Among Public Sector Employees: Insights into Moral Identity and Service Motivation

This study constructs a moderating mediation model to link public sector employees’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage with employees’ moral norms and ethical decision-making behaviors. Based on the theory of public service motivation, this study hypothesizes that the impact of AI usage on employees’ ethical decision-making behaviors acts through the mediating effects of employees’ service motivation, employees’ moral norms, and employees’ ethical perceptions and that the relationship between AI usage and employees’ service motivation, employees’ ethical norms, and employees’ ethical perceptions is moderated by the culture of the public organization. The selected data from 417 public sector employees in China supported most of the research hypotheses. The findings show that employee service motivation, employee moral norms, and employee moral cognition mediate the relationship between AI usage and employee ethical decision-making behavior. Public organization culture moderated the relationship between AI usage and employee service motivation, as well as AI usage and employee ethics. This study reveals the complex mediating and moderating relationships between AI usage and employees’ ethical decision-making behaviors in the public sector. It provides important theoretical and practical insights for further understanding and promoting public sector employees’ ethical behaviors in the era of AI.

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

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.

Incentives and effort in the public and private sector

AbstractWhile public service motivation theory suggests that public sector employees have higher levels of intrinsic motivation, average pay levels in the public sector are not lower, so public sector employees also value financial incentives. We investigate the relationship of financial incentives with effort (measured with unpaid overtime) for public versus private sector employees using a UK sample. Bonuses are used much less in the public sector, but their relationship with effort is not different between sectors. Public sector employees exert more effort when base pay is higher and do so to a somewhat higher extent than private sector employees. However, public sector employees increase effort more when effort is an important promotion criterion and when perceived job security is higher. Thus, implicit incentives resulting from being in a secure job and developing in that job are more effective for public sector employees than for private sector employees.

Public service motivation research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: A systematic review of progress and implications for public administration theory and practice

The research on public service motivation (PSM) has seen a growing internationalization, necessitating efforts to organize and systematize its findings to assess research progress and enhance the value of PSM theory in various contexts, including public administration. This paper aims to review the progress of PSM research in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region over the past decade. The primary methodology employed is a systematic literature review, where a total of 20 papers published between 2013 and 2020 were located and analyzed. The assessment of these papers includes an examination of their country of origin, publication source, underlying theory, research design, and lines of study. A critical evaluation of the findings is conducted, focusing on their theoretical and practical contributions to PSM scholarship. The key conclusion drawn from this review is that while PSM research in the MENA region is advancing, it reveals certain methodological limitations and underexplored themes that need to be addressed. Consequently, this paper significantly contributes to public administration research and PSM-specific studies by providing the long-awaited organization, systematization, and integration of regional research. The outcomes of this review enable the identification of relevant contextual factors that can enrich the conceptualization and operationalization of PSM on a regional basis. Additionally, this paper offers a comprehensive overview of existing PSM knowledge in the MENA region, thereby guiding future research in this domain. By acknowledging both the methodological strengths and weaknesses, as well as the thematic aspects of the reviewed studies, specific suggestions are put forth to enhance the quality and depth of future PSM research in the MENA region. This paper thus serves as a valuable resource for researchers seeking to further develop the understanding of PSM within the context of the MENA region.

Morally motivated public service: An empirical examination of the moral theory of public service motivation

We empirically examine the moral theory of Public Service Motivation (PSM) with data from a large online Dutch household panel. Inspired by Moral Foundation Theory, we develop and test several hypotheses on the role of moral foundations in shaping PSM, as well as the behavioral implications regarding participation in social organizations. The individualizing foundations of Care and Fairness (jointly referred to as INDV) are found to positively relate to all four dimensions of PSM—Compassion (COM), Self-Sacrifice (SS), Attraction to Public Service (APS), and Commitment to Public Values (CPV). Moreover, PSM mediates the positive relationship between INDV and participation in humanitarian and environmental organizations. Sanctity is positively correlated with SS and APS, mediating the often-observed relationship between PSM and religious activities. Loyalty is significantly and positively associated with SS, with the correlations with other PSM dimensions being gender-specific. Authority is significantly and negatively related to COM, SS, and APS. Overall, we provide empirical evidence on the influential role of moral foundations in engendering PSM and its behavioral consequences.

Staying Motivated: The Study Protocol for a Life-Course Analysis of the Career Paths of Canadian Public Servants

All Canadians benefit from a high quality of public service delivery, which is directly related to the motivation of public servants. A top priority for governments is to attract and retain a public sector workforce that is motivated and enthusiastic to serve the public good. The Public Service Motivation (PSM) theory offers a framework for the analysis of motivations of public servants. Knowledge is lacking on how motivations of public servants change over time and are shaped by the life-course dynamics of identities, roles, inequalities, and experiences. Our goal is to chronicle the motivations of individuals over a life course, specifically from the onset of their career in the public service to their current career stage. We will contribute to PSM theory by combining it with the Life Course Theory (LCT). This will allow for the analysis of change in PSM over time and in relation to other life events. We aim to further our understanding of determinants of motivation of public servants by unveiling the dynamic, gendered, and diverse nature of PSM, and its interconnections with professional and personal lives. Our approach is qualitative. We will interview 100 alumni of graduate public administration programs in four Canadian institutions with reference to their graduate program admissions letter as a point of departure. During reflexive interviews, participants will co-analyse their admissions letters, where our role will be to guide them along the PSM framework. We will hear from study participants how their motivations changed since those expressed in their admissions letter, to what extent motivations over time were influenced by the events in their professional and personal lives, their identities, and roles in the workplace and in society, and their personal characteristics. Interview transcripts will be analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and interpreted jointly with the study participants.

Does Confucian culture affect public service motivation of grassroots public servants? Evidence from China.

Public service motivation contains distinctive cultural characteristics. Different cultural backgrounds shape public service motives with different connotations and levels. However, the traditional cultural values rooted in historical development and socialization process have not received enough attention in the research on public service motivation. In order to investigate the influence of Confucian culture based on Chinese scenes on public service motivation, in the current study we collected 1308 representative questionnaires from 12 cities in central and eastern China, and adopted the dual fixed effect model and moderating effect model to verify six hypotheses. The empirical results showed that Confucian culture has different effects on public service motivation from four dimensions, namely, attraction to politics and policy making (APP), commitment to public interest (CPI), compassion (COM), and self-sacrifice (SS). The paternalistic leadership plays a part in moderating the influence of Confucian culture on public service motivation. This study not only expands the cross-cultural applicability of the theory of public service motivation in non-western countries, but also supplements the evidence of research on public service motivation in East Asian countries. In practice, it is necessary for the organizations to consider the importance of specific cultural values for organizational culture and personal value orientation.

Identifying job seekers’ perceptions of public officials in Korea using Q methodology

ABSTRACT Public service positions have long been one of the most sought-after jobs among the youth in the Republic of Korea. Individuals may possess mixed motives to take the national civil service exam, which cannot be explained by a single theory or framework. Public choice or public service motivation theory, for example, may not alone describe young Koreans’ desire to work for the government. Furthermore, it may be necessary to specifically consider the Korean culture to examine the complex nature of one’s motivation to become a public official. The study aims to categorize how the youth perceive bureaucrats and find reasons behind the craze for taking the national civil service exam, thus suggesting theoretical and practical implication. Using Q methodology, this study identified four distinct perceptions of Korean public officials: genuine public servers, rise-in-status pursuers, self-interest maximizers, and public policymakers. These conceptions contribute to understanding how young Koreans feature mixed motivations to choose the government as their employer and designing better policies to tackle the issue of youth removing themselves from the labor market to prepare for the national civil service exam.

Teacher motivation in Chile: Motivational profiles and teaching quality in an incentive-based education system

This study drew on Chilean teacher survey responses from TALIS 2018 data on teacher motivation in order to examine the extent to which these data reveal different motivational profiles among Chilean teachers. Also, it explores the influence of those profiles on quality teachers’ instruction. As a conceptual scaffold, this article uses Agency Theory and Public Service Motivation theory to conceptualize and explore the data. Using latent classes analysis, multivariate regressions with survey methods, results showed three different motivational profiles: utility-laden, modal, and socially-laden. From these profiles, modal teachers seem to produce better teaching quality compared with the others profiles. These results suggest that the teachers’ profiles are more diverse when it comes to work motivation and teaching quality than what it is described in the literature. These findings give interesting insights for policymakers and school leaders to better understand the teaching workforce and think in diverse governance and teacher management tools. It also opens a set of interesting questions about how to motivate the teacher workforce in Chile.

Public service motivation in the Chinese context: Theory construction and workplace consequences

<p id="p00005">Crystalizing the consensual notions of public service motivation (PSM) in the Chinese context serves as a requisite condition for China to forge a committed public workforce and improve its public human resource management strategies. Existing research on PSM, albeit copious, overlooks its massive conceptual divergence between Chinese and Western contexts. Moreover, current PSM studies have paid scant attention to the micro-intervention mechanisms of PSM and its negative behavioral impacts. This research hence aims to develop an integrated PSM theory in the Chinese context through investigating its core components, activation mechanism and workplace consequences. Specifically, this study conceptualizes PSM as a mixed-motives construct. By virtue of a grounded theory approach, we will then identify the core components of PSM among front-line employees and subsequently develop a measurement scale fitting the Chinese context. Through the lens of micro-interventions, additionally, this study will examine the effects of beneficiary contacts, self-advocacy, and idea reflections on activating public servants’ PSM. Finally, this study will investigate the mechanisms underlying both desirable and undesirable effects of PSM on public employees. In a nutshell, the furtherance and completion of this study will not only echo an enduring scholarly call for the establishment of localized PSM theories cast against the Chinese background, but also generate ample evidence-based policy implications about the approaches through which the work motivation and job performance of Chinese public employees can be viably augmented.

Performance Management Practices and Motivation in Developing Countries: A Further Validation of the Public Service Motivation Construct in Ghana

This study aims to test if the local government's performance management practices are predicted by their employee's public service motivation levels. Local government's performance management practices are effective when their employees are committed and motivated. Employees whose motivations are unique to public institutions will be committed to both their key performance indicators and the general strategic goals of the local government's core mission. The lack of such motivations may be detrimental to the practice of management at the local level. The study used a cross-sectional survey of 850 local government employees in the Greater Accra of Ghana. The method of analysis of the data was multiple regression techniques. The findings suggest that employees' scores on attraction to policymaking, civic duty, and commitment to the public interest are strongly positively associated with performance management practices. The regression analysis demonstrated that public service motivation subscales combined to predict the variance in the dependent variable. Several performance management studies examine federal government utilization and rational decision-making processes. However, this study is one of the few to examine performance management practices of local governments and public service motivation theory by showing that employees' public service motivation levels can significantly predict the changes in performance management practices.

The Impact of Village Cadres’ Public Service Motivation on the Effectiveness of Rural Living Environment Governance: An Empirical Study of 118 Chinese Villages

Based on Perry’s Public Service Motivation Theory, this paper aims at (1) measuring public service motivation of village cadres and the effectiveness of rural living environment governance; (2) examining the public service motivation of village cadres as a factor potentially influencing the effectiveness of rural living environment governance. Through the survey of village heads, the village party secretaries and villagers in 118 villages in south-central China, an empirical study on the impact of village cadres’ public service motivation and effectiveness of rural living environment governance is conducted. Empirical results indicate that village cadres’ public service motivation (four dimensions) positively influences the effectiveness of rural living environment governance (three aspects). Therefore, we could consider more about perspective of village cadres’ public service motivation for improving the effectiveness of rural living environment governance.

Motivational psychology and the call to professional public service in Canada

AbstractThis article explores the phenomenon of the call to professional public service in Canada. It draws on the testimonials of exemplars in Canada and elsewhere, and research findings from the fields of prosocial behaviour and public service motivation (PSM), and especially from motivational psychology, with its concepts of “flow” and “element,” to shed light on the dynamics of the call and steps professional public services can take to best mobilize individuals responding to it. The conclusion suggests there should be greater acknowledgement of the reality of the call, embeds the call in PSM theory, and sets out an agenda for research.

Uplifting Motivation of Tanzanian Public Service Personnel for Improved Service Delivery: The Reflection of Public Service Motivation Theory

The widespread of public administration scholarship calls for the utilization of intrinsic motivational drivers to achieve high motivation among the public service personnel. However, this call has not been well received by many public bureaucracies especially in developing Africa. This study aimed at contributing to our understanding of the potency of intrinsic motivational drivers in motivating public Personnel in Tanzania from the lens of Public Service Motivation (PSM) theory. A case study design was employed and Ikungi District Council (IDC) was selected as a focal point of the study. Data were collected through interviews and 22 employees participated in the study. The findings indicate that public personnel are highly motivated by intrinsic factors as hypothesized by Public Service Motivation Theory. In their attempt of achieving high motivation among their employees the study recommend that, public institutions should take a critical respect to intrinsic factors of motivation rather than merely concentrating much on extrinsic motivation factors. Furthermore recruitment and selection processes in the public service should contemplate motivation dimensions hypothesized by public service motivation theory. Keywords: Public Service, Public Service Motivation, Intrinsic Motivation, Public Personnel DOI: 10.7176/JAAS/75-04 Publication date: August 31 st 2021

Confronting Pension Reform: Public Employees’ Psychological Contract Breach, Negative Perception, Regret, and the Moderating Role of PSM

Although pension reform has been a global trend in the last couple of decades, public administration research has seldom addressed the issue of how targeted pension reforms affect civil servants. The goal of this study is to conceptualize pension reform as the breach of the psychological contract between the government and civil servants and to understand whether it leads to the experience of regret in civil servants over choosing a government career. In doing so, this study also explores the possible role of public service motivation (PSM) in moderating the experience of regret elicited by psychological contract breach as well as the negative perception of the pension reform. The analysis of the data collected from 944 Taiwanese public employees shows that (i) both psychological contract breach and negative perception trigger regret and (ii) PSM strengthens the impacts of psychological contract breach and the negative perception of the pension reform. The findings have critical implications for both practitioners handling pension reforms and researchers interested in building a theory of PSM.

Does the Public Service Motivation Model Hold in the Caribbean?

Researchers in public administration for the past few decades are interested in exploring how public service motivation (PSM) influences turnover intentions. This study puts the theory of PSM to test in a different cultural context and explores the relationship between PSM and leadership on turnover intentions via person-organization fit (P-O fit) in public sector employees from Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. Results of structural equation modeling indicate a significant negative relationship between senior leadership and turnover intentions, but a positive and significant relationship between PSM and turnover intentions. The positive effects of PSM on turnover are different from the Western models of motivation in the public sector. Results also show a partial mediation of PSM and turnover intentions via P-O fit. This research highlights the need for studying leadership, motivation, and turnover by utilizing a cultural and value lens to examine and understand employee behaviors in public organizations outside of North America.

Job attraction and career choice motivation in a socialist-market economy: the case of the young Vietnamese workforce

ABSTRACT This paper aims to explain the career choice motivation of young workers in a non-Western setting, Vietnam. After witnessing the greater role of the relatively small but competent bureaucracy in East Asia, many have assumed that ‘pervasive and powerful’ bureaucracy also occupies a similar prestigious position in the rapidly growing Vietnam. For the past decade, however, declining talent acquisition in the public sector indicates that good quality workers are leaving or not choosing public sector jobs. What job motivators and perception on the government jobs affect the younger generation’s career choice in Vietnam? Based on the classic motivation theories and Public Service Motivation (PSM) framework, we surveyed fresh graduates and final year university students (n = 433) and found that there is a positive relationship between public career choice and motivation to serve the public as PSM theory expected. Yet, our data show that traditional job motivators such as materialistic benefits, job security, and stability were more important for the young Vietnamese. From a comparative perspective, this suggests that Vietnamese bureaucracy, regardless of its power and pervasiveness, needs substantial improvement by meeting public workers’ basic sanitation needs and working environment to recruit quality manpower for continuous economic success.

Impartiality and public sector employees’ online political activity: evidence from three Australian elections

Fearing that public servants’ reputation for impartiality may decline if they are politically active on social media, many governments have recently produced guidelines limiting the political rights of bureaucrats to be active online. Despite the seriousness of these restrictions, we presently know very little about public sector employees’ online political activity. Using survey data from the 2010, 2013 and 2016 Australian Election Study this article advances research, and enlightens contemporary debate, by investigating public sector employees’ online political activity over time. Drawing upon public service motivation theory, this study formulates and examines five hypotheses: (1) whether public sector employees are politically active online less than private sector employees; (2) whether public sector employees with a high attraction to politics—an important dimension of public service motivation—are less politically active online; (3) whether public sector employees are less likely to be active online when actions use official political or campaign material; (4) whether the rank of public sector employees has a negative relationship with online political activity; and (5), whether these behaviors have changed over time. Results from various regression models show that overtime public sector employment went from having a positive association with online political activity, to having a negative association. This negative relationship is particularly strong for activities using official political/campaign material and for employees in higher ranks. Finally, a public sector employee’s attraction to politics is positively associated with online political activity, although, when compared to private sector employees, this relationship has not increased over time.

A Moral Theory of Public Service Motivation.

Morality constructs the relationship between the self and others, providing a sense of appropriateness that facilitates and coordinates social behaviors. We start from Moral Foundation Theory (MFT), and argue that multiple moral domains can shape the meaning of public service and engender Public Service Motivation (PSM). From the lens of cognitive science, we develop a causal map for PSM by understanding the social cognition process underlying PSM, focusing on five innate moralities as the potential antecedents of PSM: Care, Fairness, Authority, Loyalty, and Sanctity. Extending moral domains beyond compassion and justice can provide a disaggregated view of PSM, which may help to identify institutional and cultural variation in the meaning of PSM. We discuss the theoretical implications of synthesizing MFT and PSM literatures, and provide directions for future research that could improve our understanding of PSM.

Public Service Motivation and Employee Change-Supportive Intention: Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior

Implementing change is considered as a difficult task for public organizations. Some individual dispositional factors have been suggested to influence recipient responses to change in public organizations. Past research has shown a link between public service motivation (PSM) and employee positive responses to organizational change. However, the psychological processes underlining this relationship are not specified. Building on the PSM theory and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study examines the role of psychological variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) in mediating the relationship between PSM and change-supportive intention. A sample of 143 employees is collected from a public university in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq that was going through a change initiative. The results revealed that PSM predicts change-supportive intention, and the relationship between PSM and change-supportive intention is mediated by change-related attitude and subjective norm. The implications of the findings for theory and practice are discussed.