HRM Practices, Intrinsic Motivators, and Organizational Performance in the Public Sector

• Published date: 01 June 2013
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026013487121
• Author: Simon Anderfuhren-Biget,David Giauque,Frédéric Varone
• Date: 01 June 2013
• Subject Matter: Articles

Public Personnel Management

42(2) 123 –150

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026013487121

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Article

HRM Practices, Intrinsic

Motivators, and

Organizational Performance

in the Public Sector

David Giauque1, Simon Anderfuhren-Biget1,2,

and Frédéric Varone2

Abstract

This article aims to determine the impact of human resource management (HRM)

practices on public service motivation (PSM) and organizational performance.

Based on a survey of Swiss cantonal public employees (N = 3,131), this study shows

that several HRM practices may be considered as organizational antecedents of

PSM and strong predictors of perceived organizational performance. Fairness, job

enrichment, individual appraisal, and professional development are HRM practices

that are positively and significantly associated with PSM and perceived organizational

performance. Moreover, these results suggest that HRM practices are stronger

predictors than either PSM or organizational commitment when explaining the

individual perception of organizational performance.

Keywords

public service motivation, organizational efficiency, human resources practices,

organizational antecedents

Introduction

The notion of high-performance work organizations (HPWO) refers to those using a

broad set of human resource management (HRM) practices thought to have desir-

able effects that enhance the organizations’ competitiveness, innovation, and flexi-

bility (Godard & Delaney, 2000; Kalleberg, Marsden, Reynolds, & Knoke, 2006;

1University of Lausanne, Switzerland

2University of Geneva, Switzerland

Corresponding Author:

David Giauque, Institute for Political and International Studies, University of Lausanne, Géopolis,

1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.

Email: david.giauque@unil.ch

487121PPM42210.1177/0091026013487121Public Personnel ManagementGiauque et al.

research-article2013

124 Public Personnel Management 42(2)

Wood, 1999). These kinds of HRM practices are also called high-commitment HRM

practices by other academics (Whitener, 2001). According to this literature, some

HRM practices may contribute to increased organizational performance and effi-

ciency. The relevant scientific literature is actually very broad and this notion is of

great interest to HRM specialists. As most of these high-performance HRM prac-

tices were developed for and studied in the private sector, it is necessary to assess

their relevance for the public sector, which features important HRM particularities.

This trend is also true for another widespread theoretical construct in the academic

community that is concerned with motivation processes in the public sector. Public

service motivation (PSM) is, indeed, one of the single most studied concepts of public

personnel management. A fast-growing body of literature is available on the subject

and PSM, which proves to be a highly relevant concept for describing the motivational

characteristics of staff in public organizations (Crewson, 1997; Naff & Crum, 1999;

Perry, 2000; Perry & Hondeghem, 2008; Vandenabeele, 2007). Research on PSM has

addressed many questions such as the issues of PSM measurement (Coursey & Pandey,

2007; Coursey, Perry, Brudney, & Littlepage, 2008; Perry, 1996), the individual ante-

cedents of PSM (Bright, 2005; Camilleri, 2007; DeHart-Davis, Marlowe, & Pandey,

2006; Hansen, 2009), and its correlates and outcomes (Bright, 2007, 2008; Cerase &

Farinella, 2006; Crewson, 1997; Wright & Pandey, 2008). However, according to

Brewer (2008), insufficient attention has been paid to the organizational antecedents

of PSM. In response, this study aims to fill that gap by examining the relationships

between PSM and HRM practices that may be considered as organizational character-

istics. In other words, this study assesses the effects of several HRM practices on PSM.

Studies of HPWO have demonstrated that some HRM practices may be considered

as levers of organizational efficiency in private organizations. The second aim of this

study, therefore, is to assess the relations between HRM practices, PSM, and organiza-

tional performance in public organizations, which can be measured in terms of indi-

vidual perception of organizational efficiency. It is, indeed, of great interest to explore

the causal relationship between PSM and organizational performance in distinction to

studies regarding high-performance HRM practices that have already shown that they

contribute to an increase of organizational performance. PSM research, nevertheless,

demonstrates that some link between PSM and organizational performance exists, but

that this relationship is not direct and other constructs such as organizational commit-

ment (OC), job satisfaction (JS), or person-organization fit (P-O fit) intervene in the

causality chain (Vandenabeele, 2009). As a consequence of the aforementioned results,

this study also integrates a measure of job attitudes (OC) to empirically test the assump-

tion of interference. Bearing in mind this comprehensive integration of high-performance

HRM practices, PSM, and OC, this study was designed to consider the extent to which

these variables explain organizational performance (individual perception of organiza-

tional efficiency). In a nutshell, the two research questions are as follows:

Research Question 1: Do high-performance HRM practices relate to PSM?

Research Question 2: How are high-performance HRM practices and PSM related

to individual perception of organizational efficiency?