National polls in many countries report a low level of trust in government. In addition to a lack of confidence in government’s ability to achieve desired policy outcomes, the frequency of government scandals reported by the media combined with the results of government employee surveys suggest that decisions are too often driven by self-interest rather than the interests of the public or community that they serve. Greater research is needed to identify the processes by which ethical behavior of government agents can be encouraged and strengthened.
In recent years there is growing evidence that employees with higher public service motivation (PSM) are more likely to internalize public service values and interests and are also less concerned about the potential consequences they may experience as a result of reporting unethical behavior that seems to conflict with those public service values (Brewer & Selden, 1998; Maesschalck et al. 2008). As a result, such employees are not only less likely to commit ethical violations but also more likely to report the ethical violations they observe in their organizations (Caillier, forthcoming; Wright et al 2016). Even so, more evidence is needed to determine both the strength of the relationship between PSM and ethical behavior as well as how this relationship can be nurtured in government employees.
The significance of this study is that it extends current research by testing the potential of prosocial priming to (1) increase PSM and (2) encourage ethical behavior by testing these relationships in a randomly controlled trial. In a laboratory study of students currently underway, we randomly assign students to prosocial priming conditions (see Arieli et al 2014) to test the extent to which we can increase their public service motivation and reduce the likelihood the engage in unethical behavior.
Arieli, S., Grant, A. M., & Sagiv, L. (2014). Convincing yourself to care about others: An intervention for enhancing benevolence values. Journal of personality, 82(1), 15-24.
Brewer, G. A., & Selden, S. C. (1998). Whistle blowers in the federal civil service: New evidence of the public service ethic. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 8(3), 413-440.
Caillier, J.G. (forthcoming). Public Service Motivation and Decisions to Report Wrongdoing in US Federal Agencies Is This Relationship Mediated by the Seriousness of the Wrongdoing. The American Review of Public Administration,
Maesschalk, J., van der Wal, Z., & Huberts, L. W. J. C. (2008). Public service motivation and ethical conduct. In J. L. Perry & A. Hondeghem (eds.), Motivation in public management: The call of public service, pp. 157-176. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, B.E., Hassan, S. & Park, J. (2016). Does a public service ethic encourage ethical behavior? Public Service Motivation, Ethical leadership and the Willingness to Report Ethical Problems. Public Administration, 94(3), 647–663
