Does the Public Service Motivation Model Hold in the Caribbean?

• Author: Charlene M. L. Roach,Meghna Sabharwal,Romeo Abraham,Wayne Charles-Soverall
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X21996042
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X21996042

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2022, Vol. 42(3) 514 –536

© The Author(s) 2021

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0734371X21996042

journals.sagepub.com/home/rop

Article

Does the Public Service

Motivation Model Hold in

the Caribbean?

Charlene M. L. Roach1, Meghna Sabharwal2,

Romeo Abraham2, and Wayne Charles-Soverall3

Abstract

Researchers in public administration for the past few decades are interested in

exploring how public service motivation (PSM) influences turnover intentions. This

study puts the theory of PSM to test in a different cultural context and explores

the relationship between PSM and leadership on turnover intentions via person-

organization fit (P-O fit) in public sector employees from Trinidad and Tobago and

Barbados. Results of structural equation modeling indicate a significant negative

relationship between senior leadership and turnover intentions, but a positive and

significant relationship between PSM and turnover intentions. The positive effects of

PSM on turnover are different from the Western models of motivation in the public

sector. Results also show a partial mediation of PSM and turnover intentions via P-O

fit. This research highlights the need for studying leadership, motivation, and turnover

by utilizing a cultural and value lens to examine and understand employee behaviors

in public organizations outside of North America.

Keywords

public service motivation, leadership, turnover intentions, person-organization fit,

International Public Administration

1The University of the West Indies—St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago

2University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, USA

3The University of the West Indies—Cave Hill Campus, Barbados

Corresponding Author:

Meghna Sabharwal, Public and Nonprofit Management, School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences,

University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Road, GR 31, Richardson, TX 75080, USA.

Email: meghna.sabharwal@utdallas.edu

996042ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X21996042Review of Public Personnel AdministrationRoach et al.

research-article2021

Roach et al. 515

Introduction

Significant interest in public service motivation (PSM) research has garnered aca-

demics’ and practitioners’ attention over the last quarter century (Battaglio & Gelec,

2017; Breaugh et al., 2018; Caillier, 2007; Chen & Hsieh, 2015; Leisink & Steijn,

2009; Liu et al., 2015; Mann, 2006; Paarlberg et al., 2008; Perry, 2000; Perry et al.,

2010; Perry & Vandenabelle, 2015; Piatak et al., 2020; Taylor & Westover, 2011;

Vandenabeele, 2008). The proliferation of empirical works in PSM can be accredited

to the classic work by Perry and Wise (1990) who coined this term, using three core

dimensions of normative, rational, and affective motives. Currently, public managers

are interested in learning how PSM impacts challenges faced in human resource man-

agement (HRM). Some challenges include motivation, performance, engagement,

recruitment, retention, cost containment, scarce resources, contracting, and retire-

ment (Lane, 2001; Minto-Coy & Berman, 2016; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992; Roach &

Davis-Cooper, 2012).

Other contemporary scholars have asserted that PSM can be used as a strategic

HRM tool to attract individuals best suited for public sector work, and examine their

rational, affective and normative motivations (Carpenter et al., 2012; Clerkin &

Coggburn, 2012; Perry, 2000; Perry et al., 2010; Perry & Wise, 1990). These scholars

hypothesize that employees with higher levels of PSM have higher levels of job satis-

faction, performance, commitment, and lower turnover intentions compared to those

with lower PSM. If this is true, then, it may be feasible to use PSM as a strategic tool

for all aspects of public HRM functions and activities. However, PSM research is not

consistent across public employees’ work behaviors and attitudes. Some scholars

claim PSM promotes retention in public employment, and higher levels of PSM are

linked with lower turnover (Campbell et al., 2014; Naff & Crum, 1999); yet others

report the opposite (Moynihan & Pandey, 2007a, 2007b).

There is emerging PSM literature generated from non-Western fronts that point to

conflicting findings across different contexts. This controversy reinforces the need to

re-assess results and to challenge what dominates within a Western frontier. Recent

studies introduce the dark side of PSM and suggest that public workers with high PSM

may self-sacrifice themselves for their organizations and society to the extent that it

can undermine their health and well-being (Johns, 2010; Koumenta, 2015; Miraglia &

Johns, 2016; Wright et al., 2017). These studies highlight the negative individual and

organizational outcomes such as voluntary and involuntary absenteeism, lack of com-

mitment and withdrawal, disengagement, frustrations, increasing stress, burnout, and

presenteeism (i.e., employees go to work even when they are ill) affecting employees’

health, wellbeing, and increasing work-family conflicts (Johns, 2010; Koumenta,

2015; Miraglia & Johns, 2016; Wright et al., 2017).

Such areas of controversy and disagreement reinforce the need to examine PSM

in new contexts. More recently, a few scholars have indicated the variability in

PSM’s conceptual definition, operationalization, antecedents, and consequences,

supporting how it varies from its original theoretical premise (Giauque et al., 2011;

Houston, 2011; Kim & Hong, 2013; Vandenabeele, 2008; Vandenabeele & Van de