Purpose: Over the past three decades, the public service motivation (PSM) theory drew the scholarly attention towards the implicit characteristics of the individuals who pursue the career in public sector (Perry, 1996; Van der... [ view full abstract ]
Purpose: Over the past three decades, the public service motivation (PSM) theory drew the scholarly attention towards the implicit characteristics of the individuals who pursue the career in public sector (Perry, 1996; Van der Wal, 2013). Among them, the employee contracts' type plays a crucial role in shaping the public servants' public service motivation, have yet been examined thoroughly by extant PSM literature. Due to the cutting of the head-counts in the civil service reform, the non-standard contract types flourished in the public institutions (Kalleberg, 2000; Lodge & Hood, 2012; SU, 2010). Hence, contract employees were hired in the public institution to satisfy the shrinking head-counts and meet the institution’s actual workload demands. The permanent employee refers to the staff who work under a permanent employment contract, which is eligible for the full employee benefits offered by the public institutions. The contract employee is whose job contract needs to be reflected constantly and does not enjoy the benefits of what permanent employee have. Hence, the purpose of this article is to explores how the PSM differ between contract employees and permanent employees among public sector professionals under China’s context.
Design: This article is based on the surveys provided by the supervising managers of 40 public organizations in Shanghai and Guangzhou which are two mega cities in eastern and southern China. These senior-level public managers graded the PSM of their over 200 public employees by differentiating their employees’ contract types. Meanwhile, the authors also conducted intensive interviews with the staff and managers as a supplement.
Findings: The results show that among Chinese public sectors, the contract employees held a different level of the PSM than permanent employees did. This article is the first to differentiate the employment type in evaluating the PSM under the context of China. The results indicate that the PSM has associated with the employment contract type. This article also enhances the understanding of the rise of PSM study across various cultures and environments.
