Public service motivation (PSM) is argued to be a meaningful predictor of the performance of employees in public organizations. Many scholars predict that as the level of PSM increases, the performance of public employees will also increase. Unfortunately, existing research has yet to fully support this hypothesis. Two published studies that tested this hypothesis have come to different conclusions. This study investigated whether Person—Organization Fit (P—O Fit) mediates the relationship between PSM and the self-reported performance of public employees, using structural equation modeling. Using a sample of 205 public employees randomly drawn from three public organizations, this study found that PSM had no significant direct impact on the performance of public employees, when P—O Fit was taken into account. The implications of this study and areas of future research are discussed.
Alonso, P., & Lewis, G.B. (2001). Public service motivation and job performance: Evidence from the federal sector. American Review of Public Administration, 31, 363-380.
2.
Bretz, R.D., & Judge, T.A. (1994). Person-organization fit and the theory of work adjustment: Implications for satisfaction, tenure, and career success. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 44(1), 32-54.
3.
Brewer, G.A., & Selden, S.C. (1998). Whistle blowers in the federal civil service: New evidence of the public service ethic. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 8, 413-440.
4.
Brewer, G.A., Selden, S.C., & Facer, L.F. (2000). Individual conceptions of public service motivation . Public Administration Review, 60, 254-264.
5.
Bright, L. (2005). Public employees with high levels of public service motivation: Who are they, where are they, and what do they want?Review of Public Personnel Administration, 25, 138-154.
6.
Bright, L. (in press).Why do public employees desire intrinsic non-monetary workplace opportunities?Public Personnel Management.
7.
Campbell, J.P., & Pritchard, R.D. (1976). Motivation theory in industrial and organizational psychology. In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 63-130). Chicago: Rand McNally.
8.
Crewson, P.E. (1997). Public service motivation: Building empirical evidence of incidence and influence. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4, 499-518.
9.
Curran, P.J., West, S.G., & Finch, J.F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16-29.
10.
Frank, S., & Lewis, G.B. (2004). Government employees: Working or hardly working?American Review of Public Administration, 34, 36-51.
11.
Houston, D.J. (2000). Public service motivation: A multivariate test . Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 4, 713-727.
12.
Hoyle, R. H. (Ed.). (1995). Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues, and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
13.
Kristof, A.L. (1996). Person-organization fit: An integrative review of its conceptualizations, measurement, and implications. Personnel Psychology, 49, 1-49.
14.
Kristof-Brown, A.L., Zimmerman, R.D., & Johnson, E.C. (2005). Consequences of individuals' fit at work: A meta-analysis of person-job, person-organization, person-group, and person-supervisor fit . Personnel Psychology, 58(2), 281-342.
15.
Moynihan, D.P., & Pandey, S.K. (2007). The role of organizations in fostering public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 67, 40-53.
16.
Muchinsky, P.M., & Monahan, C.J. (1987). What is person-environment congruence? Supplementary versus complementary models of fit. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 31(3), 268-277.
17.
Naff, K.C., & Crum, J. (1999). Working for America: Does public service motivation make a difference?Review of Public Personnel Administration , 19, 5-15.
18.
O'Reilly, C.A., & Chatman, J., (1986). Organization commitment and psychological attachment: The influences of compliance, identification, internalization on prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 492-499.
19.
Patchen, M., Pelz, D. C., & Allen, C. W. (1965). Some questionnaire measures of employee motivation and morale: A report on their reliability and validity . Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
20.
Perry, J. (1996). Measuring public service motivation: An assessment of construct reliability and validity. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 1, 5-22.
21.
Perry, J., & Wise, L. (1990). The motivational basis of public service. Public Administration Review, 50, 367-373.
22.
Scott, P.G., & Pandey, S.K. (2005). Red tape and public service motivation: Findings from a national survey of managers in state health and human services agencies . Review of Public Personnel Administration, 25, 155-180.
23.
Vancouver, J.B., & Schmitt, N.W. (1991). An exploratory examination of person-organization fit: Organizational goal congruence. Personnel Psychology , 44(2), 333-352.
24.
Verquer, M.L., Beehr, T.A., & Wagner, S.H. (2003). A meta-analysis of relations between person-organization fit and work attitudes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 473-489.
