Tipping the scales - work pressure and type of job as a moderator of the relationship between public service motivation and burn-out risk

The contemporary rise in the number of public service motivation (PSM) studies has indicated that it is generally considered to be something good and full with opportunities (Moynihan et al 2013). However, public service... [ view full abstract ]

The contemporary rise in the number of public service motivation (PSM) studies has indicated that it is generally considered to be something good and full with opportunities (Moynihan et al 2013). However, public service motivation also has a dark side, as it is associated with stress and burn-out risk (Giauque et al 2012a; Van Loon et al 2015) and resigned satisfaction (Giauque et al 2012b). This research would like to further this path by looking at specific conditions in which PSM may enhance burn-out risk.

In addressing this research question, we aim to further integrate PSM theory with the job-demands-resources (JDR) model (Schaufeli and Bakker 2004). In this model job attributes can either be resources or demands (and thus causing decreased or increased well-being). In general circumstances, one would consider PSM to a resources. However, when interacting with demands, things might look differently. In this paper we use work-pressure a s and professionalism as moderators to investigate the role of PSM in generating well-being, and in particular burn-out risk (Maslach 1982). This model will be tested in two studies. Study 1 is a dataset (N=186), collected with elderly care personnel. Here, work pressure is the demand that is specifically looked at. The data will be analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis (Kline 2011) and regression analysis (Wooldridge 2010).