Explicit and Implicit Basic Human Motives, and Public Service Motivation

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature on the roots of Public Service Motivation (PSM) by turning to the psychological theory of basic human motives. The study explores the differential associations of explicit and implicit basic human motives with PSM, Attraction to Policy-Making (APM), Commitment to the Public Interest (CPI), Compassion (COM), and Self-Sacrifice (SS). Methodologically, the research contributes to the literature by introducing a measurement instrument new to Public Administration: the Brief Implicit Association Test (BIAT). The BIAT is an easy-to-use and flexible tool to probe into the human unconsciousness, offering ample opportunities for further research in Public Administration and Management.

Motivational psychology and the call to professional public service in Canada

“…Business management servant‐leadership guru Greenleaf has, for example, argued that the very act of living in a community with others generates in some “an exportable surplus of love which the individual may carry into his many involvements with institutions which are not communities: businesses, churches, governments , schools” (1977: 24, emphasis added). These findings are at least compatible with recent PSM notions of “deeply rooted trait‐like motivation” (Esteve et al 2016: 178) and “a genuine inner urge to help others,” giving rise to behaviour that is “want‐to as well as have‐to” in character (Slabbinck and Witteloostuijn 2020: 4). This clearly goes well beyond the warm glow sometimes associated with altruistic/prosocial behaviour.…”

“…It is also difficult to square the argument that intrinsic motivation is “not motivated by public service ideals” and is “not a substitute for PSM, nor…an essential part of it” (Vandenabeele et al 2018: 265, 264) with Byron’s claim that the call to professional public service is a highly developed internal locus of control. Perhaps this kind of thinking was inevitable given that research on PSM as a dependent variable “is so far exclusively based on explicit traits and motives, and neglects the influence of unconscious, implicit variables” (Slabbinck and Witteloostuijn 2020: 3). All this suggests that, in a laudable search for greater reach and relevance, PSM theory has weakened its grasp on the call to professional public service.…”

“…If the current pieces of the PSM puzzle cannot be configured to include the call to professional public service, it is necessary to search for missing pieces. The state of the art in thinking about PSM in this regard is that greater insight into public administration issues requires that researchers move beyond empirical studies and pursue as yet unexplored psychological theories and pathways (Vandenabeele 2014: 154; Vandenabeele et al 2018: 272; Slabbinck and Witteloostuijn 2020: 2). Any such endeavours would have to speak to the kind of special pull or tug or call noted by exemplars such as Cappe, Heintzman, Smith and Byron and the institutional setting of professional public services, such as those in Canada, to which they are drawn.…”

“…The role of PSM as a dependent variable is a case in point. Numerous scholars note that the fundamental causal issues or fundamental roots of PSM have yet to be explored (Bozeman and Su 2015: 700; Thompson and Christensen 2018: 452; Slabbinck and Witteloostuijn 2020: 2), with Vandenabeele et al seeing the “thorniest issue” being that of “drawing solid causal inferences based on empirical evidence” (2018: 271).…”

Bribery and the Role of Public Service Motivation and Social Value Orientation: A Multi-Site Experimental Study in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

“…Implicit motives must be captured by non-explicit measures (e.g., Bing et al, 2007 ; Payne and Gawronski, 2010 ; Lang et al, 2012 ; Runge and Lang, 2019 ; Runge et al, 2020 ). An example of such an implicit measure is the (Brief) Implicit Association Test, or (B)IAT, which Slabbinck and van Witteloostuijn (2020) used to develop an implicit PSM measure, revealing that the explicit survey measure of PSM is indeed very different from their implicit BIAT counterpart. In future research, we hope to explore how explicit and implicit motivational measures might impact the likelihood of bribery differently.…”