The role of public service motivation in performance: Examining the potentials and pitfalls through an institutional approach

Abstract

Does feeling a motivational drive to contribute to society matter for the performance of public employees? This dissertation shows it does: employees that are highly public service motivated perform better in their job, are more likely to help their colleagues and work units with highly public service motivated employees receive higher performance ratings from their supervisors. However, this finding may be context-bound. For instance, what happens when public service motivated employees do not feel they have opportunities to contribute to society? It may be that they get frustrated because they cannot do what they want to do. Therefore the publicness of the context matters for whether public service motivation is a potential or forms a risk for employee, organizational and societal outcomes. Through 50 interviews with employees from schools, police, hospitals, municipalities and prisons, collected survey data from 1031 employees of the same organizations, 1700 healthcare employees and their 190 supervisors, and representative secondary data from approximately 25.000 public servants, the potential and pitfalls of public service motivation were analyzed. Next to regression analyses, structural equation modeling with mediation and moderation were used to not only analyze the relationship between PSM and performance, but also the role of contextual factors such as sector, societal impact potential, and person-environment fit. The results show that a fit between the motivation to contribute to society and whether the context provides opportunities to have a societal impact in the job is crucial. In most situations employees with high public service motivation perform better, but if they do not perceive they have a societal impact potential their public service motivation does not or even negatively influence their performance. Moreover, if there is no fit between the public service motivation and the opportunities to contribute the employee is at higher risk of burnout – when there are too many opportunities in services aimed at changing citizens, and when there are too little opportunities in services aimed at regulating and processing. Finally, the results show that public service motivation mostly influences performance outcomes related to equity, accountability and safety. These findings are important seen in the context of recent reforms in healthcare and the police. In such reforms the structure of the organization is the main focus, not the fit between employee motives and the incentives, structure and opportunities. Changes in the structure and way of working may alter the fit, which influences performance. It is essential to account for the motivation to contribute to society in such reforms. Moreover, due to their public service motivation these employees may sacrifice themselves to maintain a high quality of services for citizens. This may burn them out in the long run, which can negatively affect performance. Finally, several public organizations such as housing corporations have been scrutinized due to their emphasis on extrinsic rewards and disregard for the public interest. To enhance employee concern for society the organization can use HR-practices regarding selecting and socializing employees that emphasize public service motives.