Getting engaged: Public-service merit and motivation revisited

Abstract

The concepts of merit and motivation are central to recruiting and retaining high‐quality public servants. The meaning of merit has evolved to the more flexible interpretation contained in the 2003 federal Public Service Employment Act (PSEA), and the concept of motivation has become much more central to public management. The PSEA enshrines merit and non‐partisanship as the main values to be protected in public‐service appointments. It also provides a new definition of merit. Employees with a high level of public‐service motivation (PSM) are predisposed to having greater job satisfaction and organizational commitment and, therefore, to performing at a higher level. The challenge is to recruit and retain employees with a high PSM level and to maintain this level while fostering high performance by other employees. This challenge is being pursued in part by fostering employee engagement in the sense of job/organization satisfaction and organizational commitment. Among the major drivers of employee engagement is fair staffing practices, including merit‐based hiring. The successful pursuit of a high level of employee engagement can improve public‐sector management in general and human resource management in particular.

Proud to Be a Public Servant? An Analysis of the Work-Related Determinants of Professional Pride among Dutch Public Servants

“…Besides these existing psychological factors, the new concept professional pride gained increasing attention within several governmental HRM departments across the world such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands (Lavigna, 2013;Cotton, 2012;Kernaghan, 2011;Jansen, Brink, & van den Kole, 2010). A proud public servant is defined as someone who works honorably, conscientiously and with dedication and makes use of his or her education, knowledge, experience, and professional ethics to reach this state (Vermeeren en van Geest, 2012).…”

Exploring the Job Demands–Resources Model of Work Engagement in Government: Bringing in a Psychological Perspective

“…Lavigna (2013), among others, argued that several specific factors in the public sector might influence the work engagement of public servants. The two most important factors mentioned are the bureaucratic structures and especially the perceived red tape, and the specific motivation of public servants to work in the public sector (PSM; Kernaghan, 2011). Despite the attention to these factors in public administration literature (Loon, van Leisink, Knies, & Brewer, 2016;Perry & Vandenabeele, 2015), they have barely been empirically related to the JD-R model in general (an exception is Giauque, Anderfuhren-Biget, & Varone, 2012), let alone to the JD-R model of work engagement in particular (Bakker, 2015).…”

Encouraging civil servants to be frank and fearless: Merit recruitment and employee voice

“…Since reforms introduced in the 1960s designed to make the hiring process more efficient and less bureaucratic, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has delegated responsibility for hiring personnel to the administrative department head (most often the deputy minister). Under the Public Service Employment Act, each department's administrative head—or the head's delegate—is responsible for outlining the qualifications for open positions and ensuring that selected candidates satisfy such criteria (Kernaghan ). Furthermore, there is no obligation that the recruitment process consider more than one candidate.…”

“…Under the Public Service Employment Act, each department's administrative head-or the head's delegate-is responsible for outlining the qualifications for open positions and ensuring that selected candidates satisfy such criteria (Kernaghan 2011). Furthermore, there is no obligation that the recruitment process consider more than one candidate.…”