Investigation into intrinsic motivation and reputational concerns in the public sector

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Docter of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University on 22nd December 2009.The objective of this thesis is to provide both empirical evidence and theoretical explanations that will show the positive and negative effects of intrinsic motivation and reputational concerns in the public sector. The thesis argues that by having intrinsically motivated individuals in the public sector (i.e. individuals that are public service motivated), the government can provide higher quality public goods and services at a lower cost. The thesis finds empirical evidence for the existence of public service motivation and also finds that high extrinsic rewards in the public sector deter individuals with high levels of public service motivation from joining the public sector. There is also empirical evidence showing that individuals remain public service motivated in the long term. This thesis also investigates whether the reputational concerns of a principal (government) can lead to under provision of quality improving effort by contracted firms in procurement contracts. The thesis finds that reputational concerns cause the decision maker to intervene in procurement projects more frequently than is optimal. This then results in the contracted private firm exerting less effort to produce quality improving firm specific investments. Since public service motivation can improve the delivery of public goods and services, these findings lead us to conclude that governments must find ways to recruit a larger proportion of public service motivated individuals into the public sector. These findings also highlight the importance of reputational concerns in the decision making process of governments. They show us that reputational concerns can have very negative effects on procurement contracts

Crowding Out Public Service Motivation

Employing workers with Public Service Motivation (PSM) has been proposed as a means of improving performance in the public sector. There is, however, no conclusive evidence showing PSM among individuals. In this paper we attempt to firstly find evidence of PSM by investigating why people change jobs from the private to the public sector. Secondly we attempt to identify factors that crowd out PSM and thus hinder individuals with PSM from joining the public sector.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between public service motivation and job satisfaction

In recent years, much research has been conducted on the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and various outcomes, including job satisfaction. This article presents a meta-analysis aggregating the effects of PSM on job satisfaction. Meta-regression analysis is used to assess the impact of numerous study characteristics and to identify potential issues of publication bias. The findings, based on 28 separate studies, show no evidence of publication bias and support the positive relationship between PSM and job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results support the importance of providing individuals with the opportunity to serve the public within this relationship. Given the organizational benefits that can be derived from improved job satisfaction and the focus of PSM research on its implications for job satisfaction, these findings are of interest to both academics and practitioners in the field of public administration

Is the grass greener on the other side? A longitudinal study of the impact of employer change and occupational change on job satisfaction

Research shows that individuals experience a honeymoon-hangover pattern when they change employers. This study provides further insight into this pattern by comparing the experience of those who change employers within and across occupations. Drawing on the longitudinal data from the British House Panel Survey 1991–2008, we find that the honeymoon effect was primarily driven by the experience of those who change employers across occupations. Patterns of post-transition adaptation also differ between the two categories of job changers. While there is evidence of adaptation of job satisfaction to employer change within occupation, those who change employers across occupations experience a steady decline of intrinsic job satisfaction which continues for at least six years after the transition

Public service motivation in the Chinese public and private sectors

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to statistically test if the public service motivation (PSM) measure operates in the same way across the public and private sectors of a municipal district in China. It also contrasts the relationship between PSM and workplace outcomes across sectors and employee age groups. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data from independent samples of public (n¼220) and private (n¼230) sector employees in the Changsha Municipal District of China is used. The analysis tests for invariance across groups, before comparing mean values and regression weights. Findings – Only in respect of one PSM dimension do findings show a significant higher mean in the public sector. No significant difference is found on the impact of PSM on employee performance across sectors, while it is in the private sector that PSM has the greater impact on intention to leave. Findings also show no marked impact of age upon outcomes. Research limitations/implications – This study provides an initial set of results and further research will need to be undertaken to verify them. The limited sample size and narrow geographical focus, although in line with similar studies on China, means the ability to draw generalisations is limited. The reliance on self-reported measures means issues with common method bias cannot be ignored. Measures were taken during data collection to minimise issues of bias and a set of post-hoc test results are provided. Practical implications – The recruitment of employees with higher levels of PSM can be expected to play a role in achieving better outcomes, regardless of sector and age profile. Originality/value – The PSM measure has been applied by researchers across various economic sectors. This paper is one of the first to statistically test if the concept and its measure operates in the same way across sectors. The paper contributes to the on-going debate on PSM in the context of China and its relationship with a number of key output variables. Finally, the paper contributes to the emerging debate on changing workforce demographics and their role in shaping outcomes

Does public service motivation adapt?

Theoretical arguments highlight the importance of Public Service Motivation (PSM) in underpinning employment relationships in the public sector, mainly based on the presumption that many aspects of public service provision are non-contractible. Consequently, hiring workers who are public service, or pro-socially, motivated helps to overcome incentive problems and to increase organizational efficiency, thus reducing the need for high-powered incentives. However, such an argument would be undermined should workers' pro-social or intrinsic motivation dissipates rapidly with job tenure. Based on longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we explore patterns of overall and domain satisfaction measures for workers who made the transition from private to public sector employment. We are particularly interested in finding out whether any possible boost in satisfaction with the nature of the work itself, our proxy for pro-social or Public Service Motivation (PSM), associated with accepting public sector employment dissipates following the transition into public sector employment. Our results reject the hypothesis of a rapid and complete adaptation of PSM back to baseline or pre-transition levels. Interestingly, this is not the case for public to private or for within-sector transitions, which result in a short-lived increase in intrinsic motivation. This is welcome evidence for the advocates of the benefits of having pro-socially or intrinsically motivated people working in the public sector. Copyright � 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Orientation Training and Job Satisfaction: A Sector and Gender Analysis

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we investigate how various types of job training impact upon employees’ job satisfaction and its domains. We find that orientation training exerts a significant positive effect on newcomer male employees’ job satisfaction in both the private and public sectors, but it increases the job satisfaction of newcomer female employees only in the public sector. Other types of job training have only a weak effect on job satisfaction. We attribute the predominance of orientation training as a strong predictor of job satisfaction to its important function of facilitating the workplace socialization of new employees by reducing the uncertainty about aspects of the job that are not always easily contractible

The impact of life events on job satisfaction

Employing fixed effects regression techniques on longitudinal data, we investigate how life events affect employees' job satisfaction. Unlike previous work–life research, exploring mostly contemporaneous correlations, we look for evidence of adaptation in the years following major life events. We find evidence of adaptation following the first marriage event, but we find that the birth of the first child has a long-lasting impact on employees' job satisfaction. Our findings also suggest that there is a general boost in job satisfaction prior to first marriage and to a lesser extent prior to the birth of the first child, consistent with evidence of anticipation. Accordingly, our study provides some of the first evidence on the dynamic effect of non-work related factors on job satisfaction and it introduces a novel methodology and a new perspective for investigating the dynamic interaction between the work and life domains