Public management research has devoted much attention to the motivations of public sector employees (Ritz, Brewer & Neumann, 2016; Wright & Grant, 2010). Most prominently is the attention to public service motivation (PSM).... [ view full abstract ]
Public management research has devoted much attention to the motivations of public sector employees (Ritz, Brewer & Neumann, 2016; Wright & Grant, 2010). Most prominently is the attention to public service motivation (PSM). More recently, the concept of prosocial motivation has received increasing research attention (Grant, 2008; Smith, 2016; Van der Voet, Steijn & Kuipers, 2016). This has raised conceptual and operational questions about the distinction between both concepts. In this study, we examine three interrelated research questions. First, can global measures of PSM and prosocial motivation empirically be distinguished from each other? Second, can measurement equivalence for both concepts be established between different occupational groups within the public sector? Third, do PSM and prosocial motivation have different effects on outcome variables in the different sectors?
In order to address these research questions, we use data from a Dutch national survey in 2016 conducted by the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations (program InternetSpiegel). 5716 respondents participated in the survey (response rate 37%). These respondents are working in various Dutch public sector organizations ranging from police and primary schools to municipalities and water boards. The authors have been involved in the questionnaire construction. For the purpose of this study, we focus on respondents in the sectors central government, local government, education, police and academic medical centers.
Concerning the first research question, Wright, Christensen & Pandey (2013) have previously concluded that PSM and prosocial motivation cannot be empirically distinguished from each other. We expand on this study by comparing the global measure of PSM (Vandenabeele, 2016) with the global measure of prosocial motivation (Grant, 2008) between the above sectors.
Concerning the second research question, Kim et al. (2013) have focused on the measurement equivalence of PSM between several countries. However, measurement equivalence between occupational groups has not yet been systematically examined. Therefore, we examine measurement equivalence of both PSM and prosocial motivation in the above sectors.
Concerning the third research question, we asses to what extent PSM and prosocial motivation have different effects on employees’ attitudes (organizational commitment, work engagement, person-organization fit and person-job fit).
Practical of theoretical implications are discussed.
