Social welfare work has long been identified as a highly stressful occupation, and one in which considerations of motivating employees and encouraging increased responsibility and commitment are central to understanding individual and collective performance. In the face of organizational factors that negatively affect employees’ motivation, including a lack of promotion opportunities, red tape, and expected emotional exhaustion, it becomes much more important for management to motivate employees in such a way that they can provide meaningful and satisfactory services to their clients. Extant research suggests that employees with higher levels of public service motivation (PSM) are motivated to engage in prosocial behaviors that benefit others. Using survey data gathered from social welfare workers in South Korea, this research examines the impact of a number of job-related factors on employee levels of PSM. The results indicate that job significance, professional job involvement, and affective commitment all impact the levels of PSM, suggesting that attention to job characteristics and the dynamic nature of PSM are important in particularly stressful front-line professions.
Points for practitioners
Given the organizational constraints on reward programs that exist in public agencies, it becomes increasingly important to consider other job-related factors that may improve motivation – especially related to public goals – among social welfare workers. The findings of this study suggest that increasing opportunities for social welfare workers to directly meet and interact with their service beneficiaries or enabling employees to gain access to citizens’ feedback about their service quality or service impact (e.g. citizen satisfaction survey results), can play a major role in maintaining or improving employees’ level of public service motivation. The results also underline the importance of managers’ giving consideration to fostering employees’ public service motivation.
AlonsoPLewisGB (2001) Public service motivation and job performance. American Review of Public Administration31(4): 363–380.
2.
AndrewsDFBickelPJHampelFRHuberPJRogersWHTukeyJW (1972) Robust Estimates of Location: Survey and Advances, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
3.
BelléN (2013) Experimental evidence on the relationship between public service motivation and job performance. Public Administration Review73: 143–153.
4.
BertelliAM (2007) Determinants of bureaucratic turnover intention: Evidence from the Department of the Treasury. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory17(2): 235–258.
5.
BlauGJBoalKB (1987) Conceptualizing how job involvement and organizational commitment affect turnover and absenteeism. Academy of Management Review12(2): 288–300.
6.
BrewerGASeldenSC (1998) Whistle blowers in the federal civil service: New evidence of the public service ethic. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory8(3): 413–439.
7.
BrewerGSeldenSFacerRII (2000) Individual conceptions of public service motivation. Public Administration Review60: 254–264.
8.
BrightL (2007) Does person–organization fit mediate the relationship between public service motivation and the job performance of public employees?Review of Public Personnel Administration27(4): 361–379.
9.
BrightL (2008) Does public service motivation really make a difference on the job satisfaction and turnover intentions of public employees?American Review of Public Administration38(2): 149–166.
10.
CamilleriE (2006) Towards developing an organizational commitment: Public service motivation model for the Maltese public service employees. Public Policy and Administration21(1): 63–83.
11.
CoffeyMDugdillLTattersallA (2009) Working in the public sector: A case study of social services. Journal of Social Work9(4): 420–442.
12.
CrewsonPE (1997) Public service motivation: Building empirical evidence of incidence and effect. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory7(4): 499–518.
13.
DillonC (1990) Managing stress in health social work roles today. Social Work in Health Care14: 91–108.
14.
ElloyDFTerpeningWKohlsJ (2001) A causal model of burnout among self-managed work team members. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied135(3): 321–334.
15.
GeorgellisYLossaETabvumaV (2011) Crowding out intrinsic motivation in the public sector. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory21(3): 473–493.
16.
Gould-Williams JS, Mostafa AMS and Bottomley P (2013) Public service motivation and employee outcomes in the Egyptian public sector: Testing the mediating effect of person–organization fit. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. doi: 10.1093/jopart/mut053.
17.
GrantAM (2007) Relational job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference. Academy of Management Review32(2): 393–417.
18.
GrantAM (2008) The significance of task significance: Job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Applied Psychology93(1): 108–124.
19.
GrantAM (2010) Leading with meaning: Beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. Academy of Management Journal55(2): 458–476.
20.
GrantAMDuttonJ (2012) Beneficiary or benefactor: Are people more prosocial when they reflect on receiving or giving?Psychological Science23(9): 1033–1039.
21.
GrantAMCampbellEMChenGCottoneKLapedisDLeeK (2007) Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes103(1): 53–67.
22.
HackmanJROldhamGR (1980) Work Redesign, Reading: Addison-Wesley.
23.
HoustonDJ (2006) ‘Walking the walk’ of public service motivation: Public employees and charitable gifts of time, blood, and money. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory16(1): 67–86.
24.
Hwang SW and Ham JS (2001) Public employees’ perception and attitudes toward public administration. Korean Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) Research Report 01-18-2 (in Korean).
25.
Hwang IS, Ahn SH and Seo SA (2004) A survey of opinions of public employees and citizens toward public administration. Korean Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) Research Report 04-12 (in Korean).
26.
JaccardJWanCKTurrisiR (1990) The detection and interpretation of interaction effects between continuous variables in multiple regression. Multivariate Behavioral Research25(4): 467–478.
27.
JanssenPPJongeJDBakkerAB (1999) Specific determinants of intrinsic work motivation, burnout and turnover intentions: A study among nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing29: 1360–1369.
28.
JungCSRaineyHG (2011) Organizational goal characteristics and public duty motivation in US federal agencies. Review of Public Personnel Administration31(1): 28–47.
29.
Kim KH (2013) Testing the causal relationships between role stress, burnout, and turnover intention: Focused on employees in local self-sufficiency centers. Korean Journal of Social Welfare Research 34: 101–132 (in Korean).
30.
Kim KH and So SC (2011) A comparative analysis of public officials’ work performance experiences at the local government: Focusing on general administrative duties and social welfare duties. Seoul Urban Studies 12(4): 191–208 (in Korean).
31.
KimS (2005) Individual-level factors and organizational performance in government organizations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory15: 245–261.
32.
KimS (2009) Testing the structure of public service motivation in Korea: A research note. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory19(3): 839–851.
33.
LeeSOlshfskiD (2002) Employee commitment and firefighters: It’s my job. Public Administration Review62: 108–114.
34.
LipskyM (1980) Street-level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
35.
LiuBZhangXDuLHuQ (2015) Validating the construct of public service motivation in for-profit organizations: A preliminary study. Public Management Review17(2): 262–287.
36.
LloydCKingRChenowethL (2002) Social work, stress and burnout: A review. Journal of Mental Health11(3): 255–265.
37.
MaslachCSchaufeliWBLeiterMP (2001) Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology52: 397–422.
38.
MastracciSHGuyMENewmanMA (2011) Emotional Labor and Crisis Response: Working on the Razor’s Edge, Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.
39.
Maynard-MoodySMushenoM (2003) Cops, Teachers, Counselors: Stories from the Front-lines of Public Service, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
40.
MeyerJPAllenNJ (1984) Testing the ‘side-bet theory’ of organizational commitment: Some methodological considerations. Journal of Applied Psychology69(3): 372–378.
41.
MeyerJPAllenN (1991) A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review1(1): 61–89.
42.
MowdayRTSteersRMPorterLW (1979) The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior14(2): 224–247.
43.
MowdayRTPorterLWSteersRM (1982) Employee–organization Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism and Turnover, New York: Academic Press.
44.
MoynihanDPPandeySK (2007) Finding workable levers over work motivation: Comparing job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Administration & Society39(7): 803–832.
45.
MoynihanDPPandeySK (2008) The ties that bind: Social networks, person–organization value fit, and turnover intention. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory18(2): 205–227.
46.
NaffKCCrumJ (1999) Working for America. Review of Public Personnel Administration19(4): 5–16.
47.
NunnallyJCBernsteinIH (1994) Psychometric Theory, 3rd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
48.
NyhanRC (1999) Increasing affective organizational commitment in public organizations: The key role of interpersonal trust. Review of Public Personnel Administration19(3): 58–70.
49.
OkWKimS (2001) A study on job stress and job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of local public service. Korean Public Administration Review25(4): 355–373.
50.
O’ReillyCAChatmanJ (1986) Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification, and internalization on prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology71(3): 492–499.
51.
PaarlbergLE (2007) The impact of customer orientation on government employee performance. International Public Management Journal10(2): 201–231.
52.
PaarlbergLELavignaB (2010) Transformational leadership and public service motivation: Driving individual and organizational performance. Public Administration Review70: 710–718.
53.
PaarlbergLEPerryJLHondeghemA (2008) From theory to practice: Strategies for applying public service motivation. In: PerryJLHondeghemA (eds) Motivation in Public Management: The Call of Public Service, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 268–293.
54.
PerryJL (1996) Measuring public service motivation: An assessment of construct reliability and validity. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory6: 5–22.
55.
PerryJL (1997) Antecedents of public service motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory7(2): 181–197.
56.
PerryJL (2000) Bringing society in: Toward a theory of public-service motivation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory10(2): 471–488.
57.
PerryJLWiseLR (1990) Motivation bases of public service. Public Administration Review50(3): 367–373.
58.
PerryJLHondeghemAWiseLR (2010) Revisiting the motivational bases of public service: Twenty years of research and an agenda for the future. Public Administration Review70(5): 681–690.
59.
RiccucciNM (2005) How Management Matters: Street-level Bureaucrats and Welfare Reform, Washington: Georgetown University Press.
60.
StalkerCAMandellDFrenschKMHarveyCWrightM (2007) Child welfare workers who are exhausted yet satisfied with their jobs: How do they do it?Child and Family Social Work12(2): 182–191.
61.
VandenabeeleW (2009) The mediating effect of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on self-reported performance: More robust evidence of the PSM–performance relationship. International Review of Administrative Sciences75(1): 53–78.
62.
Wright BE (2003) Toward understanding task, mission, and public service motivation: A conceptual and empirical synthesis of goal theory and public service motivation. Paper presented at the 7th National Public Management Research Conference, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Washington, DC, 9–11 October.
63.
WrightBE (2007) Public service and motivation: Does mission matter?Public Administration Review67(1): 54–64.
64.
WrightBEGrantAM (2010) Unanswered questions about public service motivation: Designing research to address key issues of emergence and effects. Public Administration Review70: 691–700.
65.
WrightBEPandeySK (2008) Public service motivation and the assumption of person–organization fit: Testing the mediating effect of value congruence. Administration & Society40(5): 502–521.
