Moving beyond public service motivation. Exploring the link between work motivations and employee attitudes in public sector organisations

  • This dissertation examines employee work motivations, attitudes, and outcomes within the public sector drawing upon quantitative cross-country survey data. It challenges the dominant idea that public service motivation (PSM) is the only form of work motivation that matters for public servants by examining PSM against traditional intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation based on the framework of self-determination theory (SDT). It links these motivation types to different employee outcomes such as job satisfaction, ethics, and employee engagement while also taking into consideration stress in the workplace. It then shifts focus to examine interpersonal relationships at the organisational level through the concept of organizational social capital (OSC) and how management instruments support or impede OSC. This is relevant as it introduces conceptual and empirical differentiation between PSM and SDT, which is limited, or conflated, in PSM research. Additionally, understanding how management tools are linked to social capital provides a new angle for assessing management interventions and how they support or hinder the values, trust, and support within organisations. This research analyses civil service perceptions and attitudes across Europe and is presented in the form of four distinct papers. Overall findings show that PSM and SDT work motivation are different based on temporal focus, motivation needs, and measurement strategies and their individual utility differs depending on what type of attitude and outcome is measured. SDT appears to be more strongly related to job-related outcomes, while PSM is more strongly related to attitudes associated with job purpose. However, more nuanced findings suggest that different motivations may compensate for the failings of another and that they behave differently in different contexts and different stressors. Results also show that management tools focusing on interpersonal interactions are associated with positive social capital and can deter the impact of political interference. This dissertation contributes to the theoretical and empirical differentiation between PSM and SDT work motivation, providing evidence to support the fact that motivation types are context-specific and different motivations matter in evoking specific attitudes and behaviours. Consequently, future research should identify which motivations are most appropriate for which line of study and management actions should take this into consideration when designing institutional policies and interventions.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Author(s):Jessica Breaugh Bossdorf
Advisor:Gerhard Hammerschmid, Ritz Bern
Referee:Gerhard HammerschmidORCiD
Hertie Collections (Serial Number):Dissertations submitted to the Hertie School (04/2020)
Publication year:2020
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
Granting Institution:Hertie School
Thesis date:2020/07/30
Number pages:159
Related URL:https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1400580
Related URL:https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1561929
Related URL:https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026020912516
Release Date:2020/08/27
Notes:
Shelf mark: 2020D004 + 2020D004+1
Hertie School Research:Publications PhD Researchers
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
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