An article presents the empirical study on the peculiarities of selfactualization of civil servants with different types of work motivation.
The two groups of respondents (civil servants and non-governmental workers) were compared. “Professional”, “instrumental” and “patriotic” types of work motivation were more pronounced among non-governmental employees. Civil servants-respondents were less interested in work content, they were more likely to take an uninteresting job; their motives for self-improvement were less pronounced, and therefore, they were not so interested in difficult tasks, regarded by the respondents of the other group as a professional challenge and a way for self-expression. Professional recognition was not so important for civil servants as social recognition; they were less likely to think about fair remuneration for their labor. They did not so much need “the idea” as a driving force for work, as well as recognition by others of their indispensability in organizations where they worked. At the same time, a higher percentage of civil servants (in comparison with the other group) did not seek to improve their skills and were characterized by reduced professional activity, responsibility, desire to share their skills and achievements with others.
It was more difficult for civil servants (compared to non-governmental workers) to live in the present, not to postpone life “for later”; they felt more insecure, were “up in the clouds”; such self-actualizing values as goodness, beauty, integrity, truth, uniqueness, psychological hardiness, justice, achievement, order, self-sufficiency, etc., although demonstrated quite closely by both groups, were still less pronounced among civil servants. The need for knowledge was also much less expressed by civil servants, as well as autonomy, independence, a sense of freedom. Civil servants were inclined to focus on other worker’s opinions and external social standards; it was more difficult for them to establish strong and friendly relationswith others; they were more anxious and insecure comparing to nongovernmental workers.
Civil servants with instrumental work motivation had neither a general benevolent attitude towards people, nor the values of self-actualization in general.
In contrast, civil servants with professional work motivation not only shared such values, but also valued life “here and now”, strived for knowledge and creativity in professional work. Patriotic and lumpenized types of work motivation were expressed by civil servants indirectly. At the same time, employees with the patriotic type had very similar tendencies to self-actualization as employees with the professional type: they tended to live today, appreciated a current moment, strived for harmonious relationships with others, felt natural sympathy, trust in people, sought for new knowledge. The main features of this type, according to the respondents, were increased anxiety, self-doubt, neuroticism. All identified correlations between self-actualization indicators and lumpenized work motivation were negative for civil servants. Economic work motivation was the rarest for civil servants, respectively, the corresponding selfactualization tendencies included only a friendly and impartial attitude towards other people.
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