The role of public service motivation in performance. Examining the potentials and pitfalls through an institutional approach

Abstract

Cover designEsther Ris, www.proefschriftomslag.nl Internal designMadelief Brandsma grafisch ontwerp, Arnhem English editingGiles Stacey, Englishworks PrefaceBeing a public service motivation (PSM) scholar is great. People seem to always think about your research topic -the motivational drive to contribute to society unselfishly, even being willing to sacrifice yourself for society -and have an opinion about it. For instance, whenever colleagues needed help they would immediately assume (and express) that I would help them because I am very public service motivated (just as someone studying consumerism in sports is a sports consumer and someone focusing on transparency is fully transparent… the force of logic is strong in science). Getting coffee is something I would of course sacrifice myself for -would it not contribute to society because coffee was essential for others to finish their PhD? Actually, on this last point I have to agree as the coffee trips to IJs& Zopie were crucial in finishing this book. Moreover, at parties when I would tell about my dissertation (yes, I go to very exciting parties!) and state that I study the motivation of public servants, the reaction was usually: "Then you must be finished quickly" followed by a rant on lazy and unresponsive public servants… Luckily, I found that these public servants were motivated enough that it remained interesting for me to study for four years (full-time!).A common question asked to any PhD is why? Why spend four years on one topic? And why this topic? As a student I wrote every paper on the European Union. I wrote my high school final project on the potential success and failure of the expansion of the European Union and my bachelor thesis on the (lack of) Europeanisation in Dutch municipalities. Then why switch to public service motivation? I guess the main reason is that I have always felt a fascination for those people in our society that try to make it a better place to live, sacrificing their time and energy often above what is asked of them, and even putting their lives on the line. I have heard them being described as self-interested, lazy bureaucrats but that was not my impression and I therefore wanted to know more about their drive to work for society. I have not been disappointed in that regard, as I have had the fortune to meet many inspiring public employees that do their work with incredible passion. What wondered me was the general proposition in the literature that highly public service motivated employees will perform better in their job than those with lower levels of PSM. Did it not matter what situation you are in? What would happen if a public servant that really wants to contribute to society does not feel able to do so through his or her work? We have all encountered situations in which we were motivated but were thwarted in reaching our goals.When finishing a PhD for instance, you encounter difficulties such as organizations that do not respond, time constraints and losing sight of the goal. The title of my research process co...