Public-Service Motivation: Building Empirical Evidence of Incidence and Effect

TLDR

The study investigates the incidence, stability, and organizational impact of public‑service reward motivations, and how a public‑service ethic informs representative bureaucracy theory. The authors analyze three secondary data sources to address four questions about public‑service motivation theory. Analyses reveal stable, generalizable differences in reward motivations between public‑ and private‑sector employees; federal public‑service motivation correlates positively with organizational commitment, whereas public‑policy attitudes do not differ by public‑service orientation.

Abstract

Three secondary data sources are used to answer four questions that relate to the theory of public-service motivation. The questions focus on the incidence of public-service reward motivations, consistency of these motivations over time, their impact on organizational performance, and the ramifications of a public-service ethic for the theory of representative bureaucracy. Using descriptive and multivariate statistics, the analyses conclude that there are generalizable and stable differences in the reward motivations of public- and private-sector employees. There is also evidence that public-service motivation in the federal sector is positively related to organizational commitment. In contrast, there is no evidence that public-policy attitudes vary between those who are and those who are not public service oriented.