Adrian Ritz

Public service motivation and organizational performance in Swiss federal government

During the last 20 years public sector reforms focused on the increase of organizational performance mainly by implementing managerial tools and methods. The one-sided, output-oriented reforms meet with criticism. In our study we focus on the links between employee attitudes, managerial measures, institutional factors and organizational performance. Therefore, three attitudinal constructs, public service motivation, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, are analysed. The study empirically tests the effects of these dimensions on perceived performance in the federal administration of Switzerland. The analysed data of 13,532 federal employees give insight into the importance of employee commitment to the public interest and the need for goal-oriented management techniques. The results are discussed in light of previous studies. Points for practitioners Public administration research raises more and more criticism against New Public Management reforms. This study, however, shows that there is an important link between managerial techniques and the individual perception of organizational performance in administrative practice. There are a range of private management tools immigrating into the public sector. But for the tools to be effective, practitioners need to integrate them with consideration of the specific requirements of the employees commitment to the public interest.

Motivating Employees of the Public Sector: Does Public Service Motivation Matter?

ABSTRACT This article analyzes if, and to what extent, the public service motivation (PSM) construct has an added value to explain work motivation in the public sector. In order to address the specificity of PSM when studying work motivation, the theoretical model underlying this empirical study compares PSM with two other explanatory factors: material incentives, such as performance-related pay, and team relations and support, such as recognition by superiors. This theoretical model is then tested with data collected in a national survey of 3,754 civil servants at the Swiss municipal level. Results of a structural equations model clearly show the relevance of PSM. They also provide evidence for the importance of socio-relational motivating factors, whereas material incentives play an anecdotal role.

Competing for Future Leaders: A Study of Attractiveness of Public Sector Organizations to Potential Job Applicants

Employer marketing in public administration will become one of the most important functions in the light of shrinking labor supply due to future demographic change. For a successful development of human resource selection and marketing measures, public administration needs to know more about its perception as an attractive employer and what implications employer attractiveness has for the behavioral trends of potential employees. Using data from a sample of university students, this study tests a theoretical framework of employer attractiveness. Against the background of person–organization fit theory, the results show significant differences between the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic work motives. Overall, the results support the hypothesized relationship between public service motivation and attractiveness of public sector organizations and its impact on behavioral trends like intention to apply for a job or to recommend an employer.

Putting public service motivation into context: a balance between universalism and particularism

Research on Public Service Motivation (PSM) has increased enormously in the last 20 years. Besides the analysis of the antecedents of PSM and its impact on organizations and individuals, many open questions about the nature of PSM itself still remain. This article argues that the theoretical construct of PSM should be contextualized by integrating the political and administrative contexts of public servants when investigating their specific attitudes towards working in a public environment. It also challenges the efficacy of the classic four-dimensional structure of PSM when it is applied to a specific context. The findings of a confirmatory factor analysis from a dataset of 3754 employees of 279 Swiss municipalities support the appropriateness of contextualizing parts of the PSM construct. They also support the addition of an extra dimension called, according to previous research, Swiss democratic governance. With regard to our results, there is a need for further PSM research to set a definite measure of PSM, particularly in regard to the international diffusion of empirical research on PSM. Points for practitioners This study shows that public service motivation is a relevant construct for practitioners and may be used to better assess whether public agents are motivated by values or not. Nevertheless, it stresses also that the measurement of PSM must be adapted to the institutional context as well. Public managers interested in understanding better the degree to which their employees are motivated by public values must be aware that the measurement of this PSM construct has to be contextualized. In other words, PSM is also a function of the institutional environment in which organizations operate.

Does culture affect public service motivation? Evidence of sub-national differences in Switzerland

ABSTRACT This article explores societal culture as an antecedent of public service motivation. Culture can be a major factor in developing an institution-based theory of public service motivation. In the field of organization theory, culture is considered a fundamental factor for explaining organization behavior. But our review of the literature reveals that culture has not been fully integrated into public service motivation theory or carefully investigated in this research stream. This study starts to fill this gap in the literature by using institutionalism and social-identity theory to predict how the sub-national Germanic and Latin cultures of Switzerland, which are measured through the mother tongues of public employees and the regional locations of public offices, affect their levels of public service motivation. Our analysis centers on two large data sets of federal and municipal employees, and produces evidence that culture has a consistent impact on public service motivation. The results show that Swiss German public employees have a significantly higher level of public service motivation on the whole, while Swiss French public employees have a significantly lower level overall. Implications for theory development and future research are discussed.

Who Needs Leaders the Most? The Interactive Effect of Leadership and Core Self-Evaluations on Commitment to Change in the Public Sector

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to shed light on an understudied topic in public administration, namely, commitment to organizational change. Specifically, this study examines the extent to which the quality of the relationship between employees and their managers positively influences employees’ commitment to change. Further, it investigates whether this relationship varies as a function of a persons core self-evaluations, that is, the valence of a persons self-regard. Evidence from a multivariate regression analysis in a public sector organization at the local level in the UK revealed that individuals who have high-quality relationships with their managers are more likely to be accepting of change; this is especially true for individuals with lower levels of core self-evaluations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Introduction to a Symposium on Public Service Motivation: An International Sampling of Research

The motivation of public servants is a crucial variable in the operation of public sector organizations, and it affects their ability to deliver public services in an efficient, effective, and equitable manner. Indeed, it can be argued that the provision of public services cannot occur without motivated employees; their will and skill are crucial to service delivery and achieving the desired outcomes of public policy. Public sector employees can be motivated in many different ways. The amalgam of these motivators (i.e., salary, pension rights, interesting tasks, etc.) and their associated motivations (i.e., self-interested, altruistic, intrinsic, extrinsic, etc.) is defined as public sector motivation. One particular subset of this type of motivation has a special status because it is chiefly found within the public sector and plays an important role in the delivery of public services: this type of motivation is called public service motivation or the motivation people have to serve others and contribute to the welfare of society at large. Therefore, public service motivation is by definition “other oriented.” This distinguishing feature—which can be described as an orientation towards the known proximate other or the distant unknown or abstract other, including abstractions at the aggregate level such as the community or society as a whole—makes public service motivation

From Leadership to Citizenship Behavior in Public Organizations When Values Matter

After decades of management reforms in the public sector, questions on the impact of leadership behavior in public organizations have been attracting increasing attention. This article investigates the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and organizational citizenship behavior as one major extra-role outcome of transformational leadership. Referring to a growing body of research that shows the importance of public service values and employee identification in public administration research, we include public service motivation and organizational goal clarification as mediating variables in our analysis. Structural equation modeling is applied as the method of analysis for a sample of 569 public managers at the local level of Switzerland. The findings of our study support the assumed indirect relationship between leadership and employee behavior and emphasize the relevance of public service values when analyzing leadership behavior in public sector organizations.

Talent Management – Überblick und konzeptionelle Grundlagen

Seit Ende der 1990er Jahre pragt der Begriff „War for Talents“ aufgrund einer Studie von McKinsey die Diskussion rund um das Talent Management (vgl. Michaels/Handfield-Jonas/Axelrod 2001: 1). Auch heute wird Talent Management daher unweigerlich mit diesem Kampf um die Besten assoziiert. Diese bewusste Begriffswahl soll aufzeigen, dass es fur Organisationen uberlebenswichtig ist, uber Talente zu verfugen. Die Grundannahme einer eher feindlichen Organisationsumgebung kann im „War for Talents“ mehrfach zum Organisationserfolg beitragen. Denn eine realistische Einschatzung von eigenen und frem denAbhangigkeiten ist zentral, um im Sinne des Vorsichtsprinzips die Notwendigkeit zur Ausbalancierung von Macht und Gegenmacht sowie von Vertrauen und Misstrauen auf dem Arbeitsmarkt zu erkennen. Daruber hinaus konnen Organisationen so im umkampf ten Markt um die Besten ermutigt werden, selbstbewusst und offensiv zu handeln. Sie mussen erkennen, dass sie auf sich selbst gestellt sind und fur ihre Attraktivitat auf dem Arbeitsmarkt eigenstandig sorgen mussen (vgl. von der Oelsnitz/Stein/Hahmann 2007: 195). Doch wer Talent Management primar als „Krieg“ versteht, wird ihn verlieren. Denn „Krieg“ ist ein Zustand, welcher von Konflikten gepragt ist, was nicht Ziel einer umfassenden Talent Management Strategie sein kann. Zusatzlich ist es von zentraler Bedeutung, dass die Organisation das Talent Management zu einer prioritaren Aufgabe erklart (vgl. Lubitsh/Smith 2007: 6).

Utilization-focused performance reporting

How best to define performance measures is a much-debated issue. Mismatches between goals and indicators can lead to distortions that undermine impact-oriented steering. This article presents a model of goal and indicator development and explains its applicability, benefits and limitations.