Public Service Motivation, Personality, and the Hiring Decisions of Public Managers: An Experimental Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Bromberg ◽  
Étienne Charbonneau
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Big 5 ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Management Association ◽  
Hr Managers ◽  
Big 5 Personality

One of the main practical recommendations from the copious public service motivation literature is that human resources (HR) professionals should use public service motivation (PSM) to assist in selecting candidates for public service jobs. To test if PSM is indeed attractive to HR professionals in selecting applicants to work in the public sector, 238 HR managers recruited from the International Public Management Association for Human Resources rated three cover letters and then rated themselves about PSM and the Big 5 personality traits. The cover letters were randomized on most likely combinations of PSM and Big 5, revealed in earlier research. Our results are that real HR professionals did not rate cover letters more highly when they displayed aspects of PSM.

In charge of safeguarding the public interest: the role of goal clarity in shaping public service motivation and the acceptance of unethical behaviours

2019 ◽  
pp. 002085231987825
Author(s):  
Guillem Ripoll
Keyword(s):  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Goal Clarity ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Public Context

Ethics are important for personal, organizational and societal development. Although the literature has isolated some remedies and causes of unethical attitudes and behaviours, there is a still a need for further research. When focusing on the public context, it has been suggested that the motivation to serve the public interest has a negative relationship with different unethical outcomes. Thus, one interesting avenue of research is to explain how public service motivation can be enhanced by the outcome of certain managerial practices, which may also lead to ethical benefits indirectly. Using data collected from social workers in Catalonia (Spain), this article confirms that goal clarity directly increases the levels of public service motivation and indirectly reduces the acceptance of unethical behaviours by eliciting public service motivation. Research and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Points for practitioners This study highlights the importance of public service-oriented institutional contexts in indirectly shaping unethical outcomes. The findings recommend to public managers and practitioners to provide goal clarity (through certain human-resource management practices such as appraisal or job design) because it increases public service motivation and indirectly reduces the acceptance of unethical behaviour.

Public Managers’ Contribution to Public Service Performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 85-103
Author(s):  
Lotte B. Andersen ◽  
Christian B. Jacobsen ◽  
Ulrich T. Jensen ◽  
Heidi H. Salomonse
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Reputation Management ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
And Performance

This chapter describes how public managers contribute to public service performance. First, the chapter investigates three critical contextual factors for how public leadership can make a difference to organizational performance: managerial autonomy, capacity, and ability. Second, three leadership strategies are introduced which have been positively related to organizational performance in the public sector: goal-oriented, relational, and non-leader-centered leadership. Third, a new concept with particular relevance for public management is presented—reputation management—and this points to the relevance of considering the nexus between reputation and performance. It is argued that an organization’s reputation and performance may be more or less aligned. However, more importantly, an organization’s reputation per se also provides an important but less studied contextual factor of relevance for public managers’ ability to improve organizational performance. Finally, the chapter discusses how to develop leadership skills that increase public managers’ ability to contribute to public service performance.

Transformational leadership for public service motivation

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide de Gennaro
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Extreme Case ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Managers ◽  
Intrinsic Motivations ◽  
Behavioral Perspective

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an organizational behavioral perspective that could provide useful analysis tools to understand the behavior of public leaders working in changeable and uncertain contexts (like the Italian one). More specifically, drawing on public administration and organizational behavior literatures, this paper examines whether the lack of continuity and long-term planning is significantly associated to public service motivation for public management. Design/methodology/approach The main contribution of this study is in taking into account the agency of public managers in reaction to wider changes in their political context. It is a theoretical study that considers sudden changes in government from a behavioral perspective, analyzing an extreme case of political and organizational turnover, namely the Italian context. Findings Public managers, when faced with constant change, act as transformational leaders and have the objective of leverage on intrinsic motivations in order to make the change accepted and, more so, to make it perceived as an advantage for the administration. Originality/value This study is among the first to address the issue of public service motivation and intrinsic motivations in carrying out the own job in the public sphere in a constantly changing scenario. Assuming that motivational incentives for public and private employees are different, namely that the former, in particular, are particularly attracted to motivations related to people and common good, this study investigates how public service motivation should be stimulated and supported in a context of change.

scholarly journals Why people enter and stay in public service careers: the role of parental socialization and an interest in politics

2020 ◽  
pp. 002085231988691
Author(s):  
Caroline Fischer ◽  
Carina Schott
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Job Applicants ◽  
Parental Socialization ◽  
The Public ◽  
Human Resources Managers ◽  
The Government

This article examines the effect of parental socialization and interest in politics on entering and staying in public service careers. We incorporate two related explanations, yet commonly used in different fields of literature, to explain public sector choice. First, following social learning theory, we hypothesize that parents serve as role models and thereby affect their children’s sector choice. Additionally, we test the hypothesis that parental socialization leads to a longer stay in public sector jobs while assuming that it serves as a buffer against turnover. Second, following public service motivation process theory, we expect that ‘interest in politics’ is influenced by parental socialization and that this concept, in turn, leads to a public sector career. A representative set of longitudinal data from the Swiss household panel (1999–2014) was used to analyse these hypotheses ( n = 2,933, N = 37,328). The results indicate that parental socialization serves as a stronger predictor of public sector choice than an interest in politics. Furthermore, people with parents working in the public sector tend to stay longer in their public sector jobs. Points for practitioners For practitioners, the results of this study are relevant as they highlight the limited usefulness of addressing job applicants’ interest in politics in the recruitment process. Human resources managers who want to ensure a public-service-motivated workforce are therefore advised to focus on human resources activities that stimulate public service motivation after job entry. We also advise close interaction between universities and public organizations so that students develop a realistic picture of the government as a future employer and do not experience a ‘reality shock’ after job entry.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing talent in public sector municipalities

2021 ◽  
pp. 002085232110651
Author(s):  
Daniel Tyskbo
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Talent Management ◽  
Research Area ◽  
The Public ◽  
Actual Meaning ◽  
Hr Managers

While talent management is considered a top priority among practitioners and constitutes a major research area, the actual meaning of talent still remains largely undefined. In response to a lack of clarity and empirical basis regarding the notion of talent, various calls have been made for exploring how organizations conceptualize talent, particularly in the public sector context. This article answers these calls by adopting a qualitative in-depth case study to explore how senior Human Resources (HR) managers in public sector municipalities conceptualize talent in practice. The findings illustrate how HR managers use a variety of conceptualizations of talent. We analyze and theorize this variation and the ways of conceptualizing talent using two conceptualization categories: non-contextual conceptualizations, which are general and related to official practices (i.e. talent as future leaders and talent as a general commitment and drive forward), and contextual conceptualizations, which are specific and related to informal assumptions (i.e. talent as Trojans and specialists, talent as individual agility, and talent as public service awareness). Points for practitioners Human Resources (HR) managers use a variety of conceptualizations of talent in practice. Two conceptualization categories – that is, “non-contextual” (general and related to official practices) and “contextual” (specific and related to informal assumptions) – help us understand this variation and the ways of conceptualizing talent. HR managers are only partly shaped by the particularities of the public sector context, and some of the talent philosophies held by HR managers do not align with the existing and official talent management practices.

Public service motivation and organizational performance in Swiss federal government

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Ritz
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Interest ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Employee Attitudes ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
The Public

During the last 20 years public sector reforms focused on the increase of organizational performance mainly by implementing managerial tools and methods. The one-sided, output-oriented reforms meet with criticism. In our study we focus on the links between employee attitudes, managerial measures, institutional factors and organizational performance. Therefore, three attitudinal constructs, public service motivation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, are analysed. The study empirically tests the effects of these dimensions on perceived performance in the federal administration of Switzerland. The analysed data of 13,532 federal employees give insight into the importance of employee commitment to the public interest and the need for goal-oriented management techniques. The results are discussed in light of previous studies. Points for practitioners Public administration research raises more and more criticism against New Public Management reforms. This study, however, shows that there is an important link between managerial techniques and the individual perception of organizational performance in administrative practice. There are a range of private management tools immigrating into the public sector. But for the tools to be effective, practitioners need to integrate them with consideration of the specific requirements of the employee's commitment to the public interest.

Public Service Motivation in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Mastracci
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Buffy The Vampire Slayer ◽  
The Public ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Public Servant ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Individual

In this paper, the author examines public service as depicted in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS). First, she shows how slaying meets the economist’s definition of a public good, using the BtVS episode “Flooded” (6.04). Second, she discusses public service motivation (PSM) to determine whether or not Buffy, a public servant, operates from a public service ethic. Relying on established measures and evidence from shooting scripts and episode transcripts, the author concludes Buffy is a public servant motivated by a public service ethic. In this way, BtVS informs scholarship on public service by broadening the concept of PSM beyond the public sector; prompting one to wonder whether it is located in a sector, an occupation, or in the individual. These conclusions allow the author to situate Buffy alongside other idealized public servants in American popular culture.

Public service motivation and organizational performance in Chinese provincial governments

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 770-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunkui Zhu ◽  
Chen Wu
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Service Motivation ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Hunan Province ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government

Purpose This paper aims to examine different hypotheses concerning the effects of public service motivation (PSM) and other attitudinal or institutional dimensions on organizational performance (OP). Specifically, based on the experience of Chinese provincial governments, this study provides new evidence about how PSM may affect OP. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from a survey of different provincial government departments in Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province and Chongqing Municipality in 2011. Using data from 761 respondents, Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to explore the relationships between related factors. Findings PSM, job satisfaction, affective commitment and job involvement have statistically significant effects on OP, and these results are consistent with the findings of previous researches that PSM positively affected OP at a significant level. The results suggest that, if civil servants have a strong PSM, the performance of their organizations will be high. Research limitations/implications Future research should look for additional factors that affect OP, comparing employees’ perceptions of an organization’s performance with objective data to determine whether, and to what degree, subjective measures of performance are valid measures of OP in the public sector. Practical implications In the process of improving government performance, it is significant to give attention to the government employees’ mentality. The government training and promotion system should encourage civil servants to care about the public interest. A more flattened organization should be considered as part of the next steps in government reform, and more opportunities should be provided to involve more government employees in policy making. Originality/value This study helps to clarify the effects of individual factors of PSM on OP in China in a tightly controlled bureaucratic environment, where related data are hardly accessible.

Perceptions towards the quality of public services in Romania. Poor outcomes of public administration reforms?

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-285
Author(s):  
Claudia Petrescu ◽  
Flavis Mihalache
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Management ◽  
Public Services ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Administration Reform

Public services represent an important dimension of quality of society, as they create the contextual conditions for people to further their quality of life. Romanian public administration reform has brought about a constant institutional transformation, which has influenced both the specific features and the quality of the services. This article aims to analyse trends regarding the perceived quality of public services in Romania, in European comparative perspective, using the data of the European Quality of Life Survey (2003–2016). The article aims to understand the low satisfaction with public services in Romania against the background of the public service reform measures taken by government in this period. The article describes the context of Romanian public administration and public service reform, the most important public policy measures adopted and the most important challenges. The lack of vision in the public service reform, the partial introduction of reform elements, the permanent and, sometimes, conflicting changes are issues that may have influenced the way in which the population perceives the quality of public services. The decentralisation process of public services and the insufficient allocation of public funds for delivering such services at local level might have an impact on their quality and quantity perceived by the population. Keywords: public services; public administration reform; citizens’ satisfaction; New Public Management; New Weberianism.

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