At the front line: examining the effects of perceived job significance, employee commitment, and job involvement on public service motivation

Abstract

Social welfare work has long been identified as a highly stressful occupation, and one in which considerations of motivating employees and encouraging increased responsibility and commitment are central to understanding individual and collective performance. In the face of organizational factors that negatively affect employees' motivation, including a lack of promotion opportunities, red tape, and expected emotional exhaustion, it becomes much more important for management to motivate employees in such a way that they can provide meaningful and satisfactory services to their clients. Extant research suggests that employees with higher levels of public service motivation (PSM) are motivated to engage in prosocial behaviors that benefit others. Using survey data gathered from social welfare workers in South Korea, this research examines the impact of a number of job-related factors on employee levels of PSM. The results indicate that job significance, professional job involvement, and affective commitment all impact the levels of PSM, suggesting that attention to job characteristics and the dynamic nature of PSM are important in particularly stressful front-line professions. Points for practitionersGiven the organizational constraints on reward programs that exist in public agencies, it becomes increasingly important to consider other job-related factors that may improve motivation -especially related to public goals -among social welfare workers. Downloaded fromThe findings of this study suggest that increasing opportunities for social welfare workers to directly meet and interact with their service beneficiaries or enabling employees to gain access to citizens' feedback about their service quality or service impact (e.g. citizen satisfaction survey results), can play a major role in maintaining or improving employees' level of public service motivation. The results also underline the importance of managers' giving consideration to fostering employees' public service motivation.

The Influence of Motivation, Leadership and Perceived Workload as Intervening on Teacher Commitment

“…This proves that the commitment of teachers in school was formed when the teacher felt the workload provided was appropriate. This is in accordance with research by (Kim, Henderson, & Eom, 2015) in a study found that the negative impact of heavy workload and the resulting fatigue on employees' motivation.…”

Job characteristics, Public Service Motivation, and work performance in Korea

“…When employees perceive a high degree of task significance, they gain opportunities to fulfil their higher-order needs, such as selfactualization and self-esteem (Wright and Kim, 2004). Perceived job significance has a positive and statistically significant impact on PSM levels, supporting the idea that such perceptions are critical to developing a prosocial orientation and PSM in Korean public sector employees (Kim, Henderson, and Eom, 2015). Employees are particularly motivated by the extent to which their jobs affect the well-being of others and society (Hackman and Oldham, 1980).…”

“…It has been taken for granted that public employees joining the public sector with high PSM bring positive behavioral and organizational outcomes (Kim, Henderson, and Eom, 2015;Perry and Wise, 1990). However, it is also possible that employees are attracted to public service professions with different motives.…”

“…Those who work in public organizations may inculcate and strengthen PSM over time. However, relatively few studies have examined how PSM can be KIM S., 2016, « Job characteristics, public service motivation, and work performance in Korea», Gestion et Management Public, vol.5, issue 1, 2016/3, p.7-24 [ISSN : 2111 Job Characteristics, Public Service Motivation, and Work Performance in Korea / Sangmook KIM 8 fostered or strengthened through jobs in the government (Camilleri, 2007;Kim, Henderson, and Eom, 2015).…”

Public Service Motivation Research: Lessons for Practice

“…Bellé (); Christensen and Wright (); Grant (); Kaiser (); Kim (); Stritch and Christensen (); Taylor (); Vogel and Kroll (); Waterhouse, French, and Puchala (); Wright and Pandey (); Wright, Shahidul, and Christensen ().…”