Does Public Service Motivation Influence the College Students’ Intention to Work in the Public Sector? Evidence From Korea

• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X13511974
• Date: 01 June 2016
• Published date: 01 June 2016
• Author: Geon Lee,Do Lim Choi
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2016, Vol. 36(2) 145 –163

© 2013 SAGE Publications

Reprints and permissions:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0734371X13511974

rop.sagepub.com

Article

Does Public Service

Motivation Influence the

College Students’ Intention

to Work in the Public Sector?

Evidence From Korea

Geon Lee1 and Do Lim Choi2

Abstract

Previous studies have produced significant distinctions between public- and private-

sector employees with respect to public service motivation (PSM) and PSM-related

variables. Little, however, is known about whether those variables are associated

with employment choice at a pre-entry level. This article will address this gap in the

literature by exploring the effect of PSM on college students’ sector choice in Korea.

In previous research on PSM, three types of PSM measures—Perry’s PSM scale,

work values, and prosocial behaviors—were utilized as a PSM variable. In exploring

the association between PSM and sector choice, we employed the three measures.

The empirical model showed that PSM and prosocial behaviors were not associated

with public-sector choice. Only job security was found to be a main reason why

college students intended to enter the public sector in Korea. We will discuss the

implications of our findings in this article.

Keywords

public service motivation, recruitment and selection, work motivation

Introduction

Civil service careers in the public sector have become less popular over time in the

United States (Chetkovich, 2003; G. B. Lewis & Frank, 2002). There are many rea-

sons for this: public organizations are negatively portrayed as bureaucratic (Naff &

1Kyonggi University, Suwon, Republic of Korea

2Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

Corresponding Author:

Do Lim Choi, Chungnam National University, 220. Gung-dong, Yu-seong-gu, Daejeon, Korea 305-764.

Email:dmchoi@cnu.ac.kr

511974ROP36210.1177/0734371X13511974Review of Public Personnel AdministrationLee and Choi

research-article2013

146 Review of Public Personnel Administration 36(2)

Crum, 1999), trust in government has declined over time (Perry & Wise, 1990), ben-

efits in public-sector agencies are less than those in private-sector counterparts (Naff

& Crum, 1999), and public employee satisfaction at work has gradually decreased (H.

Lee, Cayer, & Lan, 2006). Nevertheless, what makes certain job seekers consider the

public sector as a career choice? This is an important question in public administration

research. Perry and Wise (1990) answered this question by proposing public service

motivation (PSM) as a unique motivation of job candidates who want to pursue a

career in the public sector. They argued that individuals with a high degree of PSM

tend to seek membership in a public agency. Currently, PSM is considered an impor-

tant theme in public administration and management research (Behn, 1995; Brewer,

Selden, & Facer, 2000; Vandenabeele, 2008). The concept of PSM originates from

“public service ethics” proposed by Buchanan (1975), who argues that public servants

are characterized by a public service ethic: attitudes and behaviors that differentiate

public managers from business managers. A great body of research on motivation of

public employees has been undertaken in the field, and it is well documented that

motivational differences exist between public-sector employees and their private-sec-

tor counterparts (e.g., Crewson, 1997; Frank & Lewis, 2004; Khojasteh, 1993; Rainey,

Backoff, & Levine, 1976; Wittmer, 1991).

In the literature, there are two perspectives on why the motivations of public- and

private-sector employees differ: attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) and adaptation-

socialization (AS; Wright & Grant, 2010). From the ASA perspective, public–private

differences in attitudes and perception emanate from self-selection of individuals with

high levels of PSM into public-sector work (Leisink & Steijn, 2008; Wright &

Christensen, 2010). The socialization view proposes that PSM is cultivated through

the socialization process by which organizational members are imbued with public

values and ethics in public institutions (Kjeldsen, 2012; Moynihan & Pandey, 2007).

Moynihan and Pandey (2007) maintained that “PSM may be formed by sociohistorical

factors before employees enter the organization, but it will also be influenced by the

organizational environment in which employees find themselves” (p. 42; Kjeldsen,

2012; Moynihan & Pandey, 2007)

Our focus here is on the relationship between PSM and sector-choice decisions of

job seekers with the ASA framework. Although this relationship has been found to be

straightforward, most of the findings come from empirical research based in Western

countries (Kim & Vandenabeele, 2010). The purpose of our study is twofold. First, we

will primarily investigate to what extent PSM influences public-sector employment

choice at a pre-entry level in Korea. A theory is said to be a good theory if it is applied

to reality in as many contexts as possible. Except for several studies (Kim, 2006;

Bangcheng, 2009; Bangcheng, Tang, & Zhu, 2008), most empirical studies on PSM

have been made in Western society contexts such as the United States and other

Western countries. Given that institutional and cultural factors in a society influence

the social behavior of members within the society, motives and PSM-related behaviors

may vary across cultures and nations (Flanagan, Bowes, Jonsson, Csapo, & Sheblanova,

1998; Koehler & Rainey, 2008). This study seeks to uncover whether PSM serves as a

predictor of public-sector employment in the Korea context.