PSM and Turnover Intention in Public Organizations

• Author: Tobin Im,Jesse W. Campbell
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X14567366
• Date: 01 December 2016
• Published date: 01 December 2016
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2016, Vol. 36(4) 323 –346

© The Author(s) 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X14567366

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Article

PSM and Turnover Intention

in Public Organizations:

Does Change-Oriented

Organizational Citizenship

Behavior Play a Role?

Jesse W. Campbell1 and Tobin Im2

Abstract

Not all employees contribute equally to the performance of their organizations,

and the highest performers may have a disproportionate impact on organizational

success. It is thus crucial for public organizations to retain top performers. Public

service motivation (PSM) has been shown to be a differentiator of various types of

individual job performance, and has also been linked to reduced turnover intention.

This study examines the relationship between PSM, change-oriented organizational

citizenship behavior (CO-OCB), and turnover intention using survey data from 16

central government ministries in South Korea. Analysis results suggest that CO-

OCB plays a mediating role in the relationship between PSM and turnover intention,

providing a creative outlet for the most intrinsically motivated employees that in turn

strengthens their commitment to their organization. A number of implications of

these findings are discussed.

Keywords

public service motivation, turnover intention, change-oriented organizational

citizenship behavior, mediation, South Korea

Introduction

Public service motivation (PSM) has come to occupy a central place in public

sector studies as an individual-level trait that underpins a wide range of

1Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

2Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author:

Tobin Im, Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University, Building 57-1, Gwanak

599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 151-742, Korea

Email: tobin@snu.ac.kr

567366ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X14567366Review of Public Personnel AdministrationCampbell and Im

research-article2015

324 Review of Public Personnel Administration 36(4)

organizationally beneficial attitudes and behaviors (Perry, Hondeghem, & Wise,

2010; Perry & Wise, 1990). Individuals with high levels of PSM are said to have an

inherent attraction to the values and goals embedded in public institutions, and

some research suggests that PSM is related to self-selection into positions which

facilitate the realization of socially oriented ideals (Lewis & Frank, 2002; Steijn,

2008; Vandenabeele, 2008). Extending this attraction/selection hypothesis, schol-

ars have also postulated that PSM fosters a desire to retain public sector jobs once

they are obtained, and a number of empirical studies have demonstrated that higher

levels of PSM are associated with lower turnover intention among public employ-

ees (Campbell, Im, & Jeong, 2014; Crewson, 1997; Naff & Crum, 1999). At the

same time, given that employee turnover is intimately related to organizational

performance (March & Simon, 1958; Meier & Hicklin, 2007), a better understand-

ing of the underlying mechanisms that link PSM to turnover remains a significant

research goal (Bright, 2008).

How does PSM reduce turnover intention? Although some scholars have sought the

answer to this question in the way that PSM facilitates value-fit with public organiza-

tions (Bright, 2008), it has not been asked whether the behavioral outcomes of PSM

play a role in enhancing commitment to public organizations and reducing turnover

intention. As PSM can drive individual performance, including valuable types of con-

textual performance such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB; Naff & Crum,

1999; Pandey, Wright, & Moynihan, 2008; Vandenabeele, 2009), and second, as both

formal and contextual performance have long been linked to turnover in the private

sector literature (Chen, Hui, & Sego, 1998; Dreher, 1982; Jackofsky & Peters, 1983;

March & Simon, 1958; N. P. Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009; Spencer

& Steers, 1981), such a hypothesis has the potential to integrate a number of separate

streams of research and provide insights into an organizational phenomenon with

important practical implications.

Drawing on both public and private sector theory and empirical evidence, this study

explores a model in which change-oriented OCB (CO-OCB), a type of contextual

employee performance aimed at introducing positive change into the organization

(Bettencourt, 2004; Morrison & Phelps, 1999), functions as a mediating mechanism in

the PSM-turnover intention relationship. Such as model is theoretically viable as PSM

has been linked with attitudes that promote positive change in public organizations

(Perry & Wise, 1990; Wright, Christensen, & Isett, 2013), and secondly as CO-OCB’s

status as a performance-oriented but discretionary behavior makes it a particularly

attractive predictor of turnover intention (Chen et al., 1998).

The remainder of this article is divided into several parts. First, a review of the

relevant literature related to PSM, turnover intention, and CO-OCB is presented.

Empirical hypotheses derived from this review are tested using data gathered from the

headquarters of central government ministries in South Korea. Some relevant features

of the Korean context are also described. Following a summary of the principal find-

ings of the analysis, the final section of the article is dedicated to discussing the theo-

retical and practical significance of the results.