Public Sector Motivationad fonts: Personality Traits as Antecedents of the Motivation to Serve the Public Interest

Abstract

Public Service Motivation (PSM) is a topic that has generated considerable interest among Public Administration scholars. Research on PSM has mainly focused on either defining what PSM is and how this construct can be measured, or on testing how PSM affects individual and organizational variables. However, very little is known about how the motivation to serve the public interest is influenced by personality. We evaluate the psychological antecedents of PSM by distinguishing two classes of motives behind PSM: affective versus non-affective motives. Our analysis of data from responses to two independent questionnaires by 320 undergraduate students reveals that PSM is strongly influenced by core personality traits. Our results suggest that affective motives

Yours emotionally: How emotional intelligence infuses public service motivation and affects the job outcomes of public personnel

“…Another significant finding in our study is the direct positive relationship between EI and PSM. This finding supplements the few research endeavours taking a dispositional approach (e.g., Bakker ; Van Witteloostuijn et al ) to the study of PSM. Although our study's cross‐sectional design does not allow us to conclude causality between EI and PSM, we regard our findings of the positive correlation between the two variables as indicative of the merit EI has in augmenting public servants’ PSM, as it seems more likely that EI, a dispositional variable, serves as an antecedent of PSM, a motivational construct, rather than vice versa.…”

For Those Who Care: The Effect of Public Service Motivation on Sector Selection

“…This suggests that PSM plays a persistent role in job choice even before exposure to the norms and conditions of work in the public and nonprofit sectors. Third, the positive, significant relationship between PSM‐related values measured in late adolescence and early‐career decisions in young adulthood provides some evidence that PSM may be a “trait‐like” characteristic rather than a temporary state, consistent with recent evidence that personality traits and some dimensions of PSM are correlated (Van Witteloostuijn, Esteve, and Boyne ).…”

“…PSM‐related values rank alongside core characteristics that shape an identity, such as race, gender, and childhood SES, as one of the few factors that significantly predicts public service eight years later. The results demonstrate that PSM‐related values may be part of a stable disposition or trait, and suggest PSM, like other personality traits and dispositions, may become less malleable over time (Van Witteloostuijn, Esteve, and Boyne ).…”

Where Does the Good Shepherd Go? Civic Virtue and Sorting into Public Sector Employment

“…(Many) work activities in the public sector serve the community. Of course, there are also private sector jobs that are important for society, and private sector employees can have prosocial motives (Van Witteloostuijn et al ., , p. 20). However, in the public sector, service to society is often the primary goal of the organization and is directly experienced in job activities, which is less common in private sector positions (see also Perry et al ., , pp.…”