Public Service Motivation: Overcoming Major Obstacles to Continued Research Progress

Public service motivation is one of the fastest growing topics in the public management field. Yet scholarly attention has been unbalanced: empirical research has surged ahead of conceptual refinement and theoretical... [ view full abstract ]

Public service motivation is one of the fastest growing topics in the public management field. Yet scholarly attention has been unbalanced: empirical research has surged ahead of conceptual refinement and theoretical development. Three nagging problems have hindered research progress. First is the ‘house-ghost’ problem. Many people believe motivation exists but no one has actually seen it. This is because motivation is an abstract concept that cannot be observed directly. Evidence is thus largely circumstantial and dependent on self-reports, inviting skeptics to question whether the concept is viable because of socially desirable response bias. Second is the ‘goody two-shoes’ problem. Despite occasional reservations, public service motivation has been portrayed in the public administration literature as a wholly positive attribute. But it can have a dark side. Strongly committed employees may burn out easily or violate the public interest when they perceive it in perverse ways. The third problem is the ‘straw man fallacy’. This problem stems from the tension between public service motivation’s roots in public institutions and its aspiration to be a more universal attribute. Critics have, for example, misconstrued the concept by assuming it is meant for government employees only. Then they knock down this proverbial straw man by presenting evidence that not all government employees are public-service motivated and many other individuals actually are! This is of course a logical fallacy but it exposes a real vulnerability: the public service motivation concept is conceptually anchored in government but it has a more sprawling reality. Together, these three obstacles have caused persistent doubts about the concept’s viability among skeptics and they have hindered research progress. Their implications are discussed and some potential solutions are examined.