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Public organisations face increasing challenges to attract young and highly qualified staff. Previous studies have shown that public service motivation (PSM) is associated with a higher propensity to apply for public sector jobs, but the implications from these findings for the design of the recruitment process are still unclear. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how differently framed recruitment messages (i.e. inspirational and rational) affect perceptions of person-job (PJ) and person-organisation (PO) fit, how these associations are moderated by PSM and how they translate into application intentions.

The authors conducted a survey experiment and tested the hypotheses in a sample of 600 students in Germany. The experimental stimuli were hypothetical job advertisements in which inspirational and rational messages on organisational missions and job tasks were varied.

Results show that recruitment messaging, as mediated by perceived PJ and PO fit, can increase application intentions depending on the framing of the messages. Inspirational framings are more effective in attracting personnel than rational framings, especially when such messages convey specific and extensive information about job tasks. The extent to which recruitment messages translate into perceptions of fit depends, in part, on the level of the applicant’s PSM.

By focusing on recruitment messages and their framings, this study is among the few that explore how human resource management can capitalise on previous findings of research on PSM. The findings have implications for the selection and presentation of information on organisational missions and job tasks in the recruitment process. In a more theoretical vein, results contribute to the emerging consensus on the role of perceived PJ and PO fit in the attraction to public sector jobs. The authors deepen this reasoning by introducing self-discrepancy theory to the field of public management.

The purpose of this paper is to examine abusive supervision and public service motivation (PSM) as antecedents of deviant workplace behaviours.

The study was conducted in a cross-sectional research design with survey data from 150 employees in the public, private, and non-profit sector in Germany and the USA.

Abusive supervision is positively associated with employee deviance, whereas PSM is negatively related to deviant behaviours. The employment sector moderates the negative relationship between PSM and employee deviance such that this relationship is stronger in the public and non-profit sector.

Limitations arise from the convenience sampling approach and the cross-sectional nature of the data set.

Human resource managers should consider behavioural integrity in the attraction, selection, and training of both supervisors and subordinates. Private organisations can address the needs of strongly public service motivated employees by integrating associated goals and values into organisational missions and policies.

This is the first study to introduce PSM into research on employee deviance. It shows that a pro-social motivation can drive anti-social behaviours when employees with high levels of PSM are members of profit-seeking organisations.

This paper aims at simulating on how “disorganization” affects team problem solving. The prime objective is to determine how team problem solving varies between an organized and disorganized environment also considering motivational aspects.

Using agent-based modeling, the authors use a real-world data set from 226 volunteers at five different types of non-profit organizations in Southwest England to define some attributes of the agents. The authors introduce the concepts of natural, structural and functional disorganization while operationalizing natural and functional disorganization.

The simulations show that “disorganization” is more conducive for problem solving efficiency than “organization” given enough flexibility (range) to search and acquire resources. The findings further demonstrate that teams with resources above their hierarchical level (access to better quality resources) tend to perform better than teams that have only limited access to resources.

The nuanced categories of “(dis-)organization” allow us to compare between various structural limitations, thus generating insights for improving the way managers structure teams for better problem solving.

The purpose of this paper is to statistically test if the public service motivation (PSM) measure operates in the same way across the public and private sectors of a municipal district in China. It also contrasts the relationship between PSM and workplace outcomes across sectors and employee age groups.

Survey data from independent samples of public (n=220) and private (n=230) sector employees in the Changsha Municipal District of China is used. The analysis tests for invariance across groups, before comparing mean values and regression weights.

Only in respect of one PSM dimension do findings show a significant higher mean in the public sector. No significant difference is found on the impact of PSM on employee performance across sectors, while it is in the private sector that PSM has the greater impact on intention to leave. Findings also show no marked impact of age upon outcomes.

This study provides an initial set of results and further research will need to be undertaken to verify them. The limited sample size and narrow geographical focus, although in line with similar studies on China, means the ability to draw generalisations is limited. The reliance on self-reported measures means issues with common method bias cannot be ignored. Measures were taken during data collection to minimise issues of bias and a set of post-hoc test results are provided.

The recruitment of employees with higher levels of PSM can be expected to play a role in achieving better outcomes, regardless of sector and age profile.

The PSM measure has been applied by researchers across various economic sectors. This paper is one of the first to statistically test if the concept and its measure operates in the same way across sectors. The paper contributes to the on-going debate on PSM in the context of China and its relationship with a number of key output variables. Finally, the paper contributes to the emerging debate on changing workforce demographics and their role in shaping outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the special issue on public service motivation (PSM) and human resource management (HRM). The authors analyse and review how the literatures on HRM and PSM relate to each other.

The paper combines two complementary studies: a bibliometric analysis of the interrelationships between the two literatures and a meta-analysis of the impact of HR practices on PSM.

Although HRM is among the core subject categories to which the literature on PSM refers, the pre-eminence of HR topics self-reported by PSM researchers indicates large room for further transfer. Intrinsic HR practices show positive and significant effects on PSM, while no such association was found for extrinsic HR practices.

The editorial is a complement to a recent bibliometric review of PSM research, focusing more particularly on the interrelationships with HRM and applying hitherto unused techniques. It is also the first meta-analysis of the association between HR practices and PSM.

The purpose of this paper is to theoretically clarify the relationship between public service motivation and performance by suggesting a framework in which social networks among members provide an explicit mechanism linking employees’ PSM with their performance and by proposing several empirically testable propositions.

The author suggests a theoretical framework based on a literature review and combining insights from several major strands of theory including social capital and social network theories.

Conceptually, the paper shows that, first, the extent of the social relationships among group members and their positions within a network vary depending on the level of PSM; second, individuals with high PSM are more likely to complete their tasks when they are in central positions in a network of advice relations and less likely to complete their tasks when they are in peripheral positions in central positions and a network of advice relations in a network of adversarial relations; third, group members with high PSM are more likely to complete group tasks when the group has higher density in a network of advice relations and less likely to complete tasks in a dense network of adversarial relations.

The author demonstrates the possibility of reciprocal relationships between PSM and social networks, in which PSM builds social capital that reinforces each member’s PSM by enhancing relationship quality, which will positively affect performance.

This paper provides opportunities for future empirical research by developing the discussion about a new conceptual mechanism in the relationship between PSM and performance, proposing an initial conceptual framework that clarifies the PSM and performance linkage, and suggesting several testable propositions.

The purpose of this “viewpoint” is to consider developments in the governance practices in UK public organizations, showing how ideas from the governance of listed companies have translated into public bodies.

It discusses the literature of corporate governance and public service motivation and reflects it against practice evidenced in documentation for the UK Corporate Governance Code, codes for boards of different levels of public organizations, and both formal and informal evaluations of practice.

The use of independent, non-executives directors in public bodies encapsulates the tension in the private sector between the service role of directors and how they control managers. The paper gives a preliminary investigation of three public bodies, comparing how reform of their governance has affected tensions in accountability and director motivation. The changes involve greater emphasis on extrinsic goals, potentially at the cost of the intrinsic ones.

The paper suggests avenues for future research, linking notions of the tensions between the service and control functions in corporate governance with the balance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

Directors in both public and private bodies face a need to hold at bay forces that push in opposing directions to accommodate demands for greater accountability while sustaining the altruism social mindedness.

The area of public sector boards is undergoing considerable change in the UK and this paper, although preliminary, is one of the few to examine the links to motivation.

The purpose of this “viewpoint” is to consider the unintended consequences of variable pay and incentive schemes in healthcare environments.

Reviews a series of side effects of incentives.

The paper suggests that pay-for-performance schemes should be avoided.

The area of public sector boards is undergoing considerable change in the UK and this paper, although preliminary, is one of the few to examine the links to motivation.