Promote or Deter: How Organizations Influence Public Service Motivation

• Author: Tyler Klatt,Matthew Fairholm
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221121101
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221121101

Public Personnel Management

2023, Vol. 52(1) 48 –69

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00910260221121101

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Article

Promote or Deter: How

Organizations Influence Public

Service Motivation

Tyler Klatt1 and Matthew Fairholm2

Abstract

How an employee perceives their organization has an important influence on their

feelings of public service motivation. The public service motivation literature has

largely focused on the ways in which public service motivation influences outcomes

related to organizational performance and public service outcomes. This research

flips the causal arrow, examining how the way employees perceive their organization

influences their feelings of public service motivation. Municipal employees in

Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota were surveyed to explore the

relationship between perceived organizational traits and public service motivation.

Using four linear regression models, we find evidence that organizations perceived as

having human resource traits and symbolic traits each promoted the public service

motivation of employees. The results also indicate that there may be a positive

relationship between structural traits and a negative relationship between political

traits and public service motivation.

Keywords

public service motivation, local government, organizational theory

Introduction

Public service motivation (PSM) has been a significant development for understand-

ing both how public sector workers view their work and the field of public administra-

tion in general (Perry & Vandenabeele, 2015; Ritz et al., 2016; Vandenabeele et al.,

2014). The PSM literature has highlighted a variety of positive outcomes which can be

1Minnehaha County, Sioux Falls, SD, USA

2University of South Dakota, Vermillion, USA

Corresponding Author:

Tyler Klatt, 2308 S. Katie Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57106, USA.

Email: Tyler.Klatt@coyotes.usd.edu

1121101PPMXXX10.1177/00910260221121101Public Personnel ManagementKlatt and Fairholm

research-article2022

Klatt and Fairholm 49

attributed to the motivations of public sector employees. As people spend a majority

of their lives working in, working with, and being influenced by organizations, inves-

tigating the relationship between the organization, and PSM is a practical step toward

both capitalizing on and improving the positive outcomes associated with PSM.

The literature surrounding PSM has uncovered a litany of relationships between PSM

and the positive outcomes that organizations experience including commitment to diffi-

cult jobs (Dum & Fader, 2013), increases in job satisfaction (Homberg et al., 2015),

decreases in work-related stress (De Simone et al., 2016), and higher ethical standards

(Wright et al., 2016). While understanding the relationship between PSM and its out-

comes is a significant and uniquely important aspect of public administration literature,

the concept cannot be fully understood without a deeper investigation into the causes of

PSM. Where the literature has predominantly viewed PSM as having an influence on

outcomes like job satisfaction, this study adds to the literature by reversing the causal

relationship, examining PSM as the outcome variable and examines how individual per-

ceptions of organizational traits influence feelings of motivation. To conceptualize the

perception of organizational traits, this study used Bolman and Deal’s (2017) four orga-

nizational frames. The traits and concepts which make up each of the four frames repre-

sent distinct ways to understand an organization. Each of these frames will be considered

as influencing factors on how municipal employees perceive their own organizations

and how those perceptions influence PSM.

The development of PSM has progressed from defining and measuring to a stage of

concept validation and has now entered its “third wave” of research, which is to tease

out any of the missing pieces of the puzzle (Perry, 2014). Frequently, PSM is treated

as a factor which influences the outcomes of specific traits or job attitudes. This

approach has solved a significant portion of the puzzle; but one piece of this puzzle

that has received less attention is the use of PSM as the dependent variable.

PSM as the dependent variable is not an entirely new approach. For example,

Gailmard (2010), explained that PSM is influenced by the structure of personnel poli-

cies and the organization’s role in the policymaking process. Yet, Bozeman and Su

(2015) lamented the gap in our understanding of what causes PSM, calling the litera-

ture examining PSM as a dependent variable “woefully underdeveloped” (p. 706).

Building on the existing PSM literature, this study focuses on the mutability of PSM

and the ways in which institutions may influence PSM. This may be useful in assess-

ing whether an employee’s perception of their organization has an influence on PSM.

This article proceeds with a review of the literature on both PSM and the four

frames theory. Second, the model and the four hypotheses are explained. Third, the

survey administration and variables are explained in the research approach and method

section. Fourth, the results are presented. Fifth, the discussion contextualizes the

results for both scholars and practitioners. Last, a conclusion addresses the study and

the potential to develop the theory in future work.

Literature Review and Hypotheses

Perry and Wise (1990) developed PSM to better understand the motivations of indi-

viduals working in the public sector. During the past 30 years, PSM has been