Demographic determinants of public service motivation: a meta-analysis of PSM-age and -gender relationships

ABSTRACT

Although age and gender are among the most analysed determinants of public service motivation (PSM), their effects on PSM development remain unclear due to contradictory findings among studies. To address this issue, we carried out a meta-analysis of PSM-age and -gender correlations, synthesizing findings from 30 independent samples, with pooled sample sizes as large as N = 86,958. Moreover, we considered the role of cultural context as a moderator of these relationships. Overall, we found that age and gender are indeed antecedents of PSM, but importantly, that these effects differ across cultural contexts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Exploring the structure and meaning of public service motivation in the Turkish public sector: a test of the mediating effects of job characteristics

Using a data set consisting of 315 middle-managers at the district level in the Turkish public sector, we develop a structural equation model (SEM) for assessing the impact of empowerment and stewardship on public service motivation (PSM) through job characteristics. The results demonstrate that stewardship and empowerment are distinct ‘levers’ that managers can use in novel ways to influence PSM; and cultural context may factor into the manipulation of these levers. We find that job-based mediators may not compliment leadership styles and self-generating rewards, but, rather work separately in their appeal to PSM.     

Examining public service motivation in the voluntary sector: implications for public management

Building on research about the nature of public service motivation (PSM) and its application outside the public sector, the authors provide a qualitative-based examination of PSM’s relevance to voluntary sector employees. In doing so, they explore how far their motivations extend beyond those encompassed within current conceptualizations of PSM and whether PSM research can be enriched through the adoption of qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that PSM accounts for some, but not all, of the motives of voluntary sector employees and indicate that public sector managers involved in outsourcing public services need to be sensitive to their distinctive features.     

Emotional labor and family quality: the role of work-family positive spillover

There is increasing research interest in both types of emotional labor at work (i.e. surface acting and deep acting), but the effects of emotional labor at work on employees’ emotional labor at home and their family members’ family quality have not yet been explored. Drawing on work-family enrichment theory, this study investigated the mechanism underlying the relationship between employees’ emotional labor at work and their spouses’ perceived family quality by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ emotional labor at home and the moderating role of work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS). The results from a time-lagged three-wave survey of 193 Chinese employee-spouse dyads indicated that surface acting at home mediated the relationship between surface acting at work and spousal ratings of family quality. Although deep acting at work was positively related to deep acting at home, deep acting at home was not significantly related to family quality. WFPS strengthened the relationship between surface acting at work and surface acting at home. This study extends emotional labor theories to the family domain and provides insights into the mediating mechanisms and boundary condition through which emotional labor at work relates to spouses’ perceptions of family quality. The implications for theory and management practice are discussed.     

Towards A Better Understanding of Public Service Motivation and Mission Valence in Public Agencies

Abstract

Research has not fully considered how public service motivation (PSM) and mission valence may work together to influence job satisfaction, extra-role behaviours, and turnover intentions. As a result, a causal model was developed and tested on local, state, and federal government employees in the United States. The results indicate that PSM had a direct effect on mission valence and extra-role behaviours. They also revealed that mission valence fully mediated the relationship between PSM and job satisfaction and partially mediated the relationship between PSM and extra-role behaviours. On the other hand, mission valence did not mediate the relationship between PSM and turnover intentions. These findings are thoroughly discussed in this article.     

Antecedents and outcomes of acceptance of performance appraisal system in Korean non-profit organizations

This study identifies the antecedents of non-profit public service motivation (NPSM) and employee outcomes using Korean non-profit acceptance of performance appraisal system (APAS) survey data. We test an NPSM model and examine the concept through public service motivation (PSM) in the non-profit sector. We then apply findings on work motivation, PSM, and performance appraisal systems to quantitative research and test several hypotheses concerning how (1) the non-profit sector’s APAS affects and uniquely shapes non-profit workers’ motivation, (2) NPSM relates to organizational trust, and (3) organizational characteristics affect Korean non-profit employees. We discuss our findings’ implications for non-profit theory and practice.     

Discretionary HR practices and proactive work behaviour: the mediation role of affective commitment and the moderation roles of PSM and abusive supervision

Proactive work behaviour may drive public employees to proactively improve public service quality. This research seeks an insight into the role of discretionary human resource (HR) practices in fostering proactive work behaviour among public employees through the mediation mechanism of affective commitment. The data for the research variables were harvested from public employees and their direct managers from local governments at the district level in Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam. The research results shed light on the positive association between discretionary HR practices and public employees’ proactive work behaviour, which was mediated by affective commitment. The research results also supported the role of public service motivation (PSM) as an intensifier and abusive supervision as a negative moderator for the effect of discretionary HR practices on affective commitment and proactive work behaviour. Our research model integrates discretionary HRM and proactive work behaviour research streams into public management literature.     

A context-based service matching approach towards functional reliability for industrial systems

ABSTRACT

As service-oriented computing is commonly used in industrial systems to deal with the continually changing business environment, matching processes with existing services becomes one of the most important phases in constructing, integrating and optimizing information systems. The precision of semantic service matching becomes a critical factor in ensuring the correctness of functionalities in system processes. However, the dependability of semantic service matching cannot be warranted in complex contexts. To improve semantic service matching for industrial systems, a context-based semantic service matching approach named ‘Process-Based service MatchMaker’(PBMM) is proposed in this paper. It selects the suitable services for the process from candidate services through taking the dependencies of related services process into consideration.     

Modelling of combinable relationship-based composition service network and the theoretical proof of its scale-free characteristics

Existing works on service composition are primarily based on the requirements of service composition, such as describing language supporting service composition, service composition framework, mechanism and method for service composition, and service composition validation. Few works have been carried out from the perspective of combinable relationship among composite services and composition service network. This article emphasises on combinable relationship-based composition service network, i.e. CoRCS-Net. The principles for establishing and modelling CoRCS-Net were studied, and nine combinable relationships among services in CoRCS-Net were investigated and 14 elementary evolving operators for CoRCS-Net dynamic evolution were designed. According to the definition of scale-free network (SFN) and the investigations on its related research achievements, it is supposed that ‘CoRCS-Net is a scale-free network’ in this study. In order to prove the theoretical hypothesis, the concepts of combinable strength and variation of combinable strength were introduced, and combinable strength is used to describe the invoking times of a service being invoked for service composition. First we calculate the real time variation of combinable strength of an arbitrary service in CoRCS-Net, and then obtain the corresponding real time combinable strength and investigate its distribution for all services in CoRCS-Net. It is discovered that ‘like many nature and social phenomenon, CoRCS-Net is “scale-free”, and it is constructed by few “active services” and a great deal of “silent services”. In the process of service composition, the invoking times for majority services are very small, while only few services are invoked frequently, and the probability (or invoking times) for the services in a CoRCS-Net to be invoked for service composition decays as a power-law’.     

Joining the Dutch Civil Service

Abstract

This article focuses on the work motivation of employees who joined the Dutch civil service between 2000 and 2006. It relates changes in five distinct motives to the changing economic context and the recruitment campaign run by the Dutch civil service. Results show that both extrinsic and public service motivations of employees were greater when unemployment was higher. Surprisingly, the intensity of the recruitment campaign correlated with both intrinsic and extrinsic motives, and the campaign appears to have attracted workers with a higher level of public service motivation and with a greater attraction to the public sector.     

Citizens’ Entrepreneurial Role in Public Service Provision

Abstract

In public service provision, citizens are conventionally reactive, portrayed as ‘users’, ‘customers’, ‘co-producers’, or ‘participators.’ Occasionally, following dissatisfaction, citizens themselves proactively create alternative services, namely, entrepreneurial exit (EE). Laymen then become providers of previously governmental professional services. Drawing upon six EE manifestations, findings suggest that if the newly-introduced service gains social acceptance, existing provision may change in one of the three modes: (a) First-order incremental change, legitimization of EE as an alternative service provision; (b) Second-order participative change, increased public participation in service provision fostered by EE; and (c) Third-order reformative change, existing service provision is reformed to satisfy citizens’ demands.     

Emotional labor among police officers: a diary study relating strain,emotional labor,and service performance

Using emotional labor and conservation of resources (COR) theory, this diary study aims to gain insight into the role of daily strain in emotional labor and service performance on a day-to-day basis. Strain was taken into account both as an antecedent (at the start of the work shift), and as a consequence (at the end of the work shift) of emotional labor (surface acting, deep acting) and emotional dissonance. The participants were 53 Dutch police officers who completed a three-day diary questionnaire (i.e. 159 measurement occasions). The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as hypothesized, daily strain at the start of the work shift was positively related to daily surface acting and unrelated to daily deep acting. Furthermore, daily surface acting mediated the relationship between strain at the start of the work shift and (a) service performance and (b) strain at the end of the work shift. Additionally, as predicted, daily surface acting was particularly related to emotional dissonance when strain at the start of the work shift was high.     

Clarifying the effect of organization learning on service innovation: the mediating role of intellectual capital

Abstract

The study of intellectual capital has gained interest in today’s highly competitive landscape. Using intellectual capital as a mediator, this paper developed an integrated model to examine whether organization learning affects and increases the capacity for new service development (NSD). The results from the study of 598 hotel managers support this model across multi-dimensions of intellectual capital and show that intellectual capital plays a mediating role between organizational learning and NSD. This paper also finds exploitative organization learning enhances the positive effect of organization capital because it fosters a positive link between relational capital and human capital. The study also discusses how this intriguing pattern of mediation could be explained by using theory and research with a regulatory focus.     

The relationship between newcomers’ emotional labor and service performance: the moderating roles of service training and mentoring functions

Abstract

Retaining newcomers and enhancing their service performance are critical issues for the human resource management and hospitality management fields. However, newcomers have just begun to learn the organizational display rules and often encounter more emotional problems than veteran employees. Thus, how organizations help the newcomers to manage their emotions in order to deliver better service is an important issue. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study explores the relationship between newcomers’ emotional labor and service performance, and examines whether human resource practices such as service training and mentoring functions can moderate this association. We collected data from hospitality newcomers and their supervisors from 34 hotels. A total of 244 valid paired questionnaires were collected during two different time phases. The results of hierarchical regression analysis show that newcomers’ deep acting positively relates to service performance and service training can enhance this relationship. In addition, mentoring functions also differentially moderate the relationships between the two emotional labor strategies and service performance.     

At their wits’ end? Economic stress,motivation and unethical judgement of public servants

ABSTRACT

Through an interdisciplinary approach, this paper addresses the scarcity of research that assesses economic stressors, public service motivation (PSM), work motivations, and unethical judgement in the public square. We argue that motivations have a direct relationship with the acceptance of unethical behaviour, but that economic stress (defined as financial stress and job insecurity) may influence this relationship both direct and indirectly. Using data from the European Social Survey, we develop a path model to test these hypotheses. We find that PSM and work motivation influence unethical judgements, and perceived economic stressors play an indirect role through their relationship with work motivations. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Validating the Construct of Public Service Motivation in For-profit Organizations: A preliminary study

Delineating the theoretical link between individuals’ discretion and motivations in the private sector and their public service behaviours in Chinese society, this study explored public service motivation (PSM) in for-profit organizations. A survey of 348 employees from three engineering consulting organizations in China validated the construct of PSM in for-profit organizations. Besides the positive correlation between conscientiousness and PSM, the current study demonstrated that a positive correlation exists between PSM and community citizenship behaviour (CCB) with love of money (LOM) as a marginal moderator: the positive relationship between PSM and CCB is marginally stronger when LOM is higher, vice versa.     

Customer service-focused HRM systems and firm performance: evidence from the service industry in Taiwan

Abstract

This study adopts a resource-based view, attraction–selection–attrition theory and a focused approach to examine the link between service-focused human resource management (HRM) systems and firm performance. Internally, we examine employee competency as the ‘black box’ between service-focused HRM systems and firm performance. Externally, we examine the effect of the interplay of a service-focused strategy and service-focused HRM systems in predicting firm performance. We collect data from different sources (i.e. executives, human resource members, and line managers). Using a final sample included 2120 respondents from 175 firms in the service industry in Taiwan, the results show that customer service-focused employee competency transmitted 53% of the effect of customer service-focused HRM systems on firm performance. In addition, when a firm implements a less service-focused business strategy, service-focused HRM systems leads to significant improvement in firm performance. Implications for research are discussed.     

组织文化认同内在层次与情绪工作的关联性分析

激发员工情绪工作是企业管理的重点.以服务行业工作人员为研究对象,依据社会认同理论,研究组织文化认同对情绪工作产生影响的机理,基于SPSS的回归分析,实证检验支持了组织文化认同是激发员工情绪工作的重要影响要素,其中组织文化认同的情感层能够有效地控制情绪工作中表层行为,认知层文化认同和行为层文化认同则能激发员工的深层行为,并且行为层认同更能激发员工的深层行为.     

Does Pursuing External Incentives Compromise Public Service Motivation? Comparing the effects of job security and high pay

Abstract

The pursuit of both job security and high pay as main reasons for job selection, according to self-determination theory (SDT), implies that people are controlled by external conditions (i.e. external regulation) and thus unlikely to be driven by altruistic values. Conceptually, however, pursuing high pay and pursuing job security seemingly carry disparate connotations. While the former signifies the love of money, which is thought to be incompatible with public service motivation (PSM), the latter accompanies motivation crowding-in, which may correlate positively with PSM. We tested this proposition by using the data collected from 514 municipal middle managers in Taiwan, and it received strong support. Results further show that pay satisfaction moderates the negative relationship between pursuing high pay and PSM. In the conclusion, we discuss how these findings shed light on contemporary administrative reform.     

Operationalizing Co-Production in Public Services Delivery: The contribution of service blueprinting

Abstract

We have argued for public services to move away from product-dominant logic towards a service approach. By taking a services orientation, the experience, inter-organizational, and systemic nature of public services delivery can be considered along with the role of the service user as a co-producer. In this article, we unpack how co-production can be operationalized through the application of service blueprinting. This article presents an example within higher education where the creation of a blueprint brought together staff and students to focus on the design of student enrolment, resulting in improved student experience and supporting co-production.