Technological Advancement and Public Service Motivation: Insights from the Lebanese Public Service

The 1950s and 1960s witnessed the rise of a new anti-bureaucratic philosophy, namely public choice theory. The advocates of this theory, like Anthony Downs and William Niskanen, called for downsizing, trimming the size of the bureaucracy, contracting out and privatizing public sector services. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed the rise of a new paradigm, namely new public management (NPM), which has its origins in public choice theory. The supporters of NPM, like political rulers in Western democratic countries and international donors, called for downsizing the public sector, privatizing its services, and introducing pro-market and business management techniques to the public service out of the belief that private sector firms are superior to public organizations. The widespread adoption of these business management principles in the public sector has blocked the performance of public servants who are motivated by intrinsic motives along with causing real threats to the existence and identity of public sector values and norms like equity, accountability, fairness and merit. This led to the revival of public service motivation which was a reaction against the widespread use of market principles in the public sector. Public management scholars studied public service motivation from different sides; however, no one has studied the effect of technology, as part of the external environment, on public service motivation. This study will fill this gap in public service motivation literature. Keywords: Public service motivation, technology, electronic government, civil service,  transparency, accountability, equity

The effects of socio-cultural factors on public service motivation: Insights from the Lebanese public service

The infusion of market and business management principles into the public sector has impeded the behaviour of public service motivated employees who are motivated by intrinsic motives. Besides, the infusion of such principles caused great threats to basic values of the civil service, like equity, fairness, justice, accountability, impartiality, public welfare and other values related to the public sector. From here, public service motivation (PSM) emanates as a reaction against these principles/techniques in the civil service. Public management scholars have studied PSM from different angles and perspectives; however, no one has studied the effects of socio-cultural factors on PSM. This study will fill this gap in PSM literature by studying how socio-cultural factors impede/block the development of this construct with lessons learnt from the Lebanese civil service

Public Service Motivation in an International Context: Evidence from the Lebanese Civil Service

Public service motivation has been developed partly as a reaction to the failures of new public management in reforming the civil service, and partly as a reaction to the negative effects that this model has on public service ethics. In 1990, the United States of America witnessed an attempt with the aim of reviving and developing the concept of public service ethics, also known as public service motivation (PSM) or public service ethos (PSE) in order to improve the performance of the American civil servants. PSM has been studied in different developed countries; however, it was almost ignored in developing countries. This study focuses on the conceptualization of PSM in Lebanon with a particular focus on civil service. This study shows that PSM is an international concept, which is present in the Lebanese context as well. However, other value-laden elements appeared to surface, where they yield additional information on the content of PSM. Keywords: Public service motivation, new public management, public sector motivation, legality, objectivity, ethics, neutrality and meri