The growth in international research on public service motivation (PSM) raises a number of important questions about the degree to which the theory and research developed in one country can contribute to our understanding of PSM in other counties. To help address this issue, this study revisits the conceptual and operational definitions of PSM to address weaknesses previously noted in the literature. Although some important steps have been taken to both improve and internationalize the PSM scale, this work has been done incrementally. In contrast, this study takes a more systematic and comprehensive approach by combining the efforts of international PSM scholars to develop and then test a revised measurement instrument for PSM in 12 countries. Although the resulting four dimensional 16-item measure of PSM reported here provides a better theoretical and empirical foundation for the measurement of PSM, our results suggest that the exact meaning and scaling of PSM dimensions are likely to differ across cultures and languages. These results raise serious concerns regarding the ability to develop a single universal scale of PSM, or making direct comparisons of PSM across countries.Its earlier versions were delivered at the Annual Conference

Based on a survey of 259 full-time employees in the public sector who were also part-time students for the Master of Public Administration program at a prestigious university in eastern China, it was found that person-organization (P-O) fit is a good predictor of job satisfaction and turnover intention in a Chinese context. In contrast to previous findings, the results of competition model analysis indicate that job satisfaction does work as a full mediator between P-O fit and turnover intention. In fact, P-O fit affects turnover intention through job satisfaction as a mediator.

While business and psychology researchers have strived to identify effective strategies to reduce occupational stress, public administration scholars have paid insufficient attention to this issue. This article examines the role of motivational bases in the stressor-wellbeing relationship, a nascent research area in business and psychology, focusing on a particular type of motivation that is salient in public organizations: public service motivation (PSM). Based on a survey of 412 police officers from a large metropolitan city in eastern China, this study finds that PSM moderates the relationship between work stressors and individual wellbeing. Respondents with higher levels of PSM can better handle the increase of stressors so that their physical and mental wellbeing will decrease more slowly. Overall, respondents with higher levels of PSM tend to experience higher mental wellbeing but lower physical wellbeing than their low-PSM colleagues.

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To explore the psychological mechanism of public service motivation (PSM), we used a time-lagged design to examine the mediating effects of organizational identification on the relationship between PSM and work attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction) and behavior (i.e., community citizenship behavior). A two-wave study of 241 public servants from District A of a large metropolitan city in Eastern China was conducted. Controlling job security and demographic variables, results from a structural equation modeling showed the relationship between public service motivation and job satisfaction and the relationship between public service motivation and community citizenship behavior were partially mediated by organizational identification. Results also demonstrated that in comparison with job security, public service motivation contributed more to community citizenship behavior than job satisfaction. The study contributes to our understanding of public service motivation by illuminating a mechanism through which public service motivation influences work attitudes and behavior.Keywords public service motivation, employee attitudes, behavior, motivation, organizational behavior/development, workplace environment/culture, human capital Public service motivation (PSM) has received considerable research attention in the past two decades, and interest in PSM continues to grow (e.g., Kim et al.