What is the role of PSM between Transformational Leadership and Work attitudes of civil servants in China?

Transformational Leadership (TL) and public service motivation (PSM) are important issues in contemporary public administration. In addition, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction (JS) and organization... [ view full abstract ]

Transformational Leadership (TL) and public service motivation (PSM) are important issues in contemporary public administration. In addition, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), job satisfaction (JS) and organization commitment (OC) are good indicators of civil servants’ work attitude. By connecting these issues, the aim of this article is to provide an answer to the interesting question of the relationship between transformational leadership and work attitude, and the role PSM plays in the relationships. Seven hypotheses were tested with a dataset of 425 police officers in Beijing of China.To summarize, the innovation and contribution of this study include: (1) Perry’s public service motivation questionnaire consisting of 24 questions was adopted, which was verified and simplified in the Chinese context. (2) It explored the structure of police officers in the Chinese context. Results show that the public service motivation of Beijing police officers is a three-dimensional structure, which is good for comparative and cross-cultural studies of public service motivation. (3) In the Chinese context for the first time this thesis verified the positive effects of transformational leadership on the public service motivation of public-sector employees, which has important implications for management practices in public sectors; (4) This thesis also explored mediating role of public service motivation between transformational leadership and civil servants’ work attitudes, which enriches the empirical researches of public service motivation in China. However, it should be pointed out that although studies in this thesis follow strict scientific research protocols, due to differences in Eastern and Western cultures and limitations on sample selection, defects may exist, which should be corrected in future studies.