Thinking globally about the public service work experience

Abstract

While a century of scholarship in public administration has probed policy process and analysis, implementation and management, institutions, principals and agents, and human, financial, and information resources, readers are left to fill in the blank for what public service feels like and what the everyday experience is. The preference for cognition over emotion has produced a tranche of research into tangible, measurable components, to the exclusion of those elements that contribute rapport between citizen and state, job satisfaction, meaningfulness, and the sparkle that reinforces public service motivation. Descarte’s error becomes obvious: The heart and the head are not separate; they strive to be in harmony. Valuing both the emotive and the cognitive is at the vanguard of research into effective public service and citizen engagement. Citizens must feel good about government just as public servants must care. Thus, the emotive component is coming into focus. This chapter explains why it is important, why it matters in today’s environment, and what remains to be learned.