Administrative reform and prosocial motivation: The role of relational job characteristics

Recent scholarly inquiry has been directed at the extent to which the prosocial motivations of public sector workers are shaped by organizational experiences. In this study, we assess how administrative reform is related to... [ view full abstract ]

Recent scholarly inquiry has been directed at the extent to which the prosocial motivations of public sector workers are shaped by organizational experiences. In this study, we assess how administrative reform is related to the prosocial motivation of public professionals. Drawing on relational job design theory, we argue that reform may change the degree to which professionals are in contact with beneficiaries, as well as the degree to which professionals are able to positively impact other people through their work. These relational job characteristics thereby function as a mechanism through which reform may affect prosocial motivation. We study a reform in The Netherlands that is aimed at decentralizing youth care in order to bring professionals closer to their clients. The study is based on a longitudinal design. Quantitative data was collected through a survey prior to the reform implementation and 1 year after the reform. A regression analysis indicates that an increase (decrease) in job contact and job impact is positively related to an increase (decrease) in prosocial motivation. The findings thus support our proposition that reform may affect prosocial motivation by changing the relational job characteristics of public professionals.