Meta-analysis on the relevance of Public Service Motivation (PSM) for public sector employees

Abstract

As there are very few conceptual papers to discuss the current relevance of Public Service Motivation (PSM) to public sector employees, the objective of the paper is to explore the significance of PSM in explaining public sector employees in recent history. The paper would highlight the development of the construct of Public Service Motivation (PSM) and how it is being used by researchers now, whether it is still a multidimensional concept as it was developed in the 1990s. The paper would provide an extensive understanding of the concept of PMS concerning public sector employees. This research would contribute to the existing body of literature, on the usefulness of PSM in understanding the behaviour of public sector employees. It fills the gap in PSM research, by providing a meta-analysis of the empirical studies of PSM, on some of the most common areas of studies of PSM, such as Job performance, Satisfaction, commitment, person-organization fit, and so on, while showing that there are limited studies on the dark side of PSM, which needs to be studied for future research perspective. Analysis based on existing research shows that PSM alone is not sufficient to create desired work-related outcomes for public sector employees, hence organization-related factors need to be improved to create meaningful work for public sector employees.