Marketization and Public Service Motivation: Cross-Country Evidence of a Deleterious Effect

• Author: Jesse W. Campbell
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221126694
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221126694

Public Personnel Management

2023, Vol. 52(1) 91 –116

© The Author(s) 2022

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00910260221126694

journals.sagepub.com/home/ppm

Article

Marketization and Public

Service Motivation:

Cross-Country Evidence

of a Deleterious Effect

Jesse W. Campbell1

Abstract

The introduction of market-based competition into the public service delivery process

may incentivize desirable bureaucratic behaviors but may also have unintended effects.

Using a sample of public servants from 48 countries and cross-country estimates of

public service marketization, this study provides evidence of a competition-based

erosion of public service motivation (PSM). Second, using three different estimates

of external market competitiveness, the analysis shows that the negative effect of

marketization on PSM strengthens as external competitiveness intensifies. This study

extends the motivational crowding literature by linking the hypothesis to contextual

factors and testing the theory in a cross-national setting.

Keywords

public sector competition, performance pay, intersectoral competition, public service

motivation, crowding effect, prosocial attitudes, cross-national analysis

Introduction

A desire to understand the potentially unique nature of motivation in the public sector

has grown steadily over the past 30 years and species of the public service ethic, most

notably public service motivation (PSM), have been linked to a variety of attitudes and

behaviors of significance to public organizations (Ritz et al., 2016; Vandenabeele

1Incheon National University, South Korea

Corresponding Author:

Jesse W. Campbell, Department of Public Administration, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro,

Songdo 1-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, South Korea.

Email: jcampbell@inu.ac.kr

1126694PPMXXX10.1177/00910260221126694Public Personnel ManagementCampbell

research-article2022

92 Public Personnel Management 52(1)

et al., 2018). Because service-oriented motives are related to job performance (Alonso

& Lewis, 2001; Bellé, 2013, 2015; Paarlberg & Lavigna, 2010), the question of which

factors shape PSM has operational significance. Perry’s (1997) early study, which

drew on a definition of PSM as a “predisposition to respond to motives grounded pri-

marily or uniquely in public institutions and organizations” (Perry & Wise, 1990, pp.

368), conceived of PSM as a relatively stable trait, fixed by early-life factors such as

having a religious upbringing. However, more recently scholars have found that PSM

displays “significant within-person variability” (Bellé, 2013, p. 150), and studies have

sought antecedents of PSM in the context and organizationally specific features of

public sector work (Abdelmotaleb & Saha, 2019; Campbell, 2017; Kim, 2021;

Moynihan & Pandey, 2007; Ward, 2014; Wright et al., 2012). This research suggests

that the management and governance of public organizations can play a role in foster-

ing the service motives of public sector employees.

But if organizations and managers can foster the public service ethic, they can

also destroy it. For many decades now and in many countries, reformers have pro-

moted policies and techniques designed to make public organizations function in a

more business-like and competitive manner (Christensen & Lægreid, 2016).

Grounded in the simplistic assumptions of public choice theory (Gruening, 2001)

and possessing (a less remarked upon but undeniable) populist appeal (Kearney &

Hays, 1998), the New Public Management (NPM) approach to the design and man-

agement of public services has faced criticism from both scholars and practitioners.

Although these criticisms are various (Haque, 2001; Moynihan, 2008), prominent

among them is the concern that by introducing competitive pressures into the design,

delivery, and evaluation of public service provision, the public servant will be

stripped of opportunities to experience and draw energy from the intrinsic rewards

inherent in service. At present, however, there are few empirical studies that com-

prehensively assess the motivational implications of exposing public servants to

strong competitive pressures.

The marketization of public service delivery aims to enhance performance not only

through making internal processes more competitive but also by exposing public orga-

nizations to the pressures of the market (Boyne, 1998). As such, when competition for

clients is weak and private sector organizations are heavily regulated, inter-sectoral

competition may produce few performance gains. By this same logic, competitive

external markets may compound the deleterious effect of service marketization on

PSM. A highly competitive business environment is unlikely to affect the PSM of

public employees if they are insulated from external competition. In contrast, even if

employees are exposed to private-sector competition, if competitive pressures are

themselves weak, they are likely to have a reduced motivational effect. Accordingly,

competitive private markets are likely to erode PSM to the extent that public employ-

ees are exposed to them, and this exposure should amplify the negative effects of

marketization.

Several studies have addressed the link between public management reform and

motivation, both in terms of PSM and the public service ethic more generally (Bellé,