Public Service Motivation et al. – a systematic review of constructs in studies on sector choice

In a time of diminished public trust, upcoming retirement waves and decreased public financial resources, public sector organisations increasingly face the challenges to attract the best of the young generation into public... [ view full abstract ]

In a time of diminished public trust, upcoming retirement waves and decreased public financial resources, public sector organisations increasingly face the challenges to attract the best of the young generation into public service and to avoid ‘losing’ young graduates to the private sector (Ritz & Waldner 2011; Vandenabeele 2008). In order to be equipped for this ‘war for talents’, public sector organisations have to align their human resource management with the needs of future employees.

Understanding the motivation of first time job applicants (pre-entry level) to choose the public sector over other opportunities is therefore imperative, but challenging. Public Service Motivation (PSM) has played a crucial role in both attraction-selection as well as adaptation-socialization processes (Wright & Grant 2010), however evidence on the attraction-selection relationship is thin (Kjeldsen & Jacobsen 2013; Perry et al. 2010) and the results sometimes mixed (Neumann & Ritz 2015). Critics have therefore argued that PSM alone cannot explain sector choices and have put forth that other variables like work values, traits, socio-demographic status, salary etc. affect employment choices, too (see e.g. Christensen & Wright 2011; Lewis & Ng 2013; Ng & Gossett 2013; Vandenabeele 2008; Van der Wal & Oosterbaan 2013). However, the variety of findings in these studies does not allow a conclusive picture of the factors and concepts in this context.

Addressing this research gap, our systematic review presents an overview and synthesis of variables which influence has been tested on sector choice so far. The results show several clear-cut findings confirming but also contradicting prior theoretical assumptions. While for instance PSM (but not all of its dimensions), sexual orientation and parents working for the public sector affect sector choice, the work values ‘job security’ and ‘work-life balance’ as well as salary do not. The systematic review provides a novel list of variables to be included in future studies on sector choice. Furthermore, it raises questions about the relevance of ‘publicness’ in public sector employment (Kjeldsen & Jacobsen 2013; Vandenabeele 2008; Vandenabeele et al. 2014; Van Loon et al. 2013).