The Relationship of Public Service Motivation to Job Satisfaction and Job Performance of Emergency Medical Services Professionals

Abstract

Public service motivation (PSM) are motivational factors that are unique in professions that serve the public. This study examined PSM’s relationship to self-reported job satisfaction and job performance in a unique sample of emergency medical services professionals, in which little research on the PSM construct has been undertaken. The PSM factors that emerged in this study did not mirror the traditional four-factor structure. The public interest and self-sacrifice factors formed a single public service factor, and a small number of compassion factors loaded on a second factor, with the policy-making factor being fully replicated. All three factors were significantly related to job satisfaction, and none were related to job performance, while controlling for the influence of demographic and contextual factors. All of these contextual factors were significantly related to job performance, except for the length of time in the emergency medical services (EMS) field, but not job satisfaction.