Commitment Intensity in Public Organizations

• Author: Jisu Jeong,Jesse W. Campbell,Tobin Im
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Date: 01 September 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X13514094
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2016, Vol. 36(3) 219 –239

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X13514094

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Article

Commitment Intensity

in Public Organizations:

Performance, Innovation,

Leadership, and PSM

Tobin Im1, Jesse W. Campbell2, and Jisu Jeong1

Abstract

Individuals with high levels of Public Service Motivation (PSM) are assumed to be

a good fit for public organizations due to their commitment to service-orientated

values. However, public organizations vary in terms of performance, leadership,

and other qualities, and some organizations may be a better fit for PSM-driven

employees than others. This study examines whether organizational characteristics

influence the relationship between PSM and affective organizational commitment. The

findings indicate that perception of organizational performance and transformational

leadership strengthen the relationship between PSM and commitment. On the

other hand, climate for innovation is shown to have a strong direct influence on

organizational commitment for all employees regardless of their PSM level. A number

of theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords

PSM, transformational leadership, performance, innovation climate, organizational

commitment

Introduction

Based on the service-orientated values of public servants, significant value congru-

ence between public sector organizations and the employees who work there is widely

believed to exist (Perry & Wise, 1990; Rainey & Steinbauer, 1999). Nevertheless, a

one-to-one correspondence between public service motivation (PSM) and the values

1Seoul National University, South Korea

2Chung-Ang University, Seoul, South Korea

Corresponding Author:

Jesse W. Campbell, College of Public Service, Chung-Ang University, 221 Heuk seok-dong, Dong jak-gu,

Seoul, 156-756, South Korea.

Email: jessewcampbell@gmail.com

514094ROP36310.1177/0734371X13514094Review of Public Personnel AdministrationImReview of Public Personnel Administration XX(X)Im et al.

research-article2013

Im et al.

220 Review of Public Personnel Administration 36(3)

of public organizations is problematic. Individuals may decide to work in government

for many different reasons, with PSM having only a marginal or no impact on the

choice. Moreover, once highly motivated individuals do work for government, there is

the possibility that a given organization’s characteristics come to frustrate the potential

formation of an affective bond between them and their workplace (Rainey &

Steinbauer, 1999). As such, it is reasonable to assume that the effect of PSM on orga-

nizational commitment as well as other dispositions and behaviors desirable from an

organizational perspective may be moderated by the task and other context-specific

characteristics of a given organization (Coursey, Yang, & Pandey, 2012; Perry &

Vandenabeele, 2008; Steijn, 2008; Taylor, 2008).

This paper explores how different organization-level characteristics moderate the

relationship between PSM and affective organizational commitment. In particular, it is

argued that the relationship between PSM and commitment is strengthened to the

extent that the employee perceives higher organizational performance, a stronger cli-

mate for innovation, and encounters transformational leadership. In the first instance,

as PSM is related to commitment to the public interest (Perry & Wise, 1990), we argue

that public organizations that are perceived to be effective in achieving their goals may

inspire a greater affective response from those employees with an a priori commitment

to those goals. Second, organizations that encourage innovation in the workplace by

opening up work processes and soliciting input about how to improve the functioning

of the organization may also benefit through increased employee commitment.

However, innovation climate may be more important for employees with an inherent

orientation toward organizational goals, which high-level PSM employees are hypoth-

esized to be. Finally, organizational leadership that strives to relate the goals of the

organization to individual employees, stimulates their intellectual curiosity, and pro-

vides an idealized model of behavior should enhance organizational commitment. We

argue, however, that employees who are pre-orientated toward the organization’s val-

ues, such as high-level PSM employees, may benefit disproportionately from high-

quality leadership, and thus that transformational leadership also will moderate the

relationship between PSM and commitment. This study tests these hypotheses using

data from a large survey of local government employees in South Korea.

Literature Review

PSM and Organizational Commitment

Perry and Wise (1990) define PSM as “an individual’s predisposition to respond to

motives grounded primarily or uniquely in public institutions and organizations”

(p. 368) and argue that individuals with high-levels of PSM tend to seek out employ-

ment in the public sector, a hypothesis which has been corroborated in the empirical

literature (Lewis & Frank, 2002; Steijn, 2008; Vandenabeele, 2008). Some disposi-

tions and behaviors related to PSM are valued particularly highly in the public sector,

such as higher trust in government, while others are equally important for the private

sector, such as higher productivity, improved interpersonal relationships, and