Search results
1 – 10 of over 1000The purpose of this paper is to examine the cause‐effect chain between public services motivation (PSM) and consequences variables, which include organizational citizenship…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the cause‐effect chain between public services motivation (PSM) and consequences variables, which include organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and job satisfaction (JS) of employees in the public sector of Guangzhou. Another purpose of the paper is to discuss the structure of behavior under the Chinese public sector's traditional culture, from the perspective of integration of three different mechanisms of behavior (ration, norm and affective).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper modified the PSM questionnaire, based on Perry's PSM scale, according to Chinese cultural customs. The data of public service motivation, job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior were collected by randomly sampling from the employees in the public sector of Guangzhou. Results were obtained through structural equation modelling for the examination of multiple relationships between PSM and its dimensions, and the consequences; and ANOVA for testing the difference between groups.
Findings
It was found that there are significant differences between groups in the PSM level and correlations exist between PSM, and JS, OCB.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature regarding PSM by examining the relationship between the dimensions of PSM and the consequence variables of OCB and JS against a Chinese cultural background. The paper presents the findings as a model to show the dynamics in these relationships. The integration of three different mechanisms of behavior is novel in the field of human resource management (HRM). The paper not only contributes to the further development of the field, but also implies healthier and more sustainable practices in public HRM.
Details
Keywords
Achakorn Wongpreedee and Tatchalerm Sudhipongpracha
Village health volunteers are community health volunteers in Thailand that have helped the government deliver public health services for many years, particularly during the…
Abstract
Purpose
Village health volunteers are community health volunteers in Thailand that have helped the government deliver public health services for many years, particularly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Though labeled as “volunteers,” the village health volunteers are recruited, trained and supervised in a manner similar to how a government agency recruits, trains and supervises its street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). This study examines the two factors that affect how these street-level quasi-bureaucrats use their professional discretion: transformational leadership and public service motivation (PSM). Transformational leadership means a leadership style that develops, shares and sustains a vision to elevate SLBs to higher levels of performance, while PSM is defined as an SLB’s predisposition to make a difference by working in the public sector with a sense of calling. This study attempts to analyze the mediating role of psychological empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership, PSM and professional discretion.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a three-wave survey-based quantitative method to avoid common method biases. This method provides evidence gathered from 105 subdistrict health promotion hospitals and 798 village health volunteers (VHVs) in five provinces in Thailand.
Findings
PSM and transformational leadership influence the village health volunteers' use of professional discretion indirectly through the psychological empowerment mechanisms that make them feel positive toward their village health volunteer role and responsibility. The authors' findings suggest that the hospital directors' transformational leadership induces the village health volunteers' use of professional discretion by making them feel competent to do their work and feel fulfilled and valuable about their work. Similarly, the village health volunteers' PSM leads them to use professional discretion by making them feel fulfilled and valuable and by convincing them of the social and community impact of their work.
Research limitations/implications
While existing research focuses on VHVs' role in alleviating capacity constraints on the health care system, this study revealed an equally important role played by hospital directors. These directors' transformational leadership was instrumental in enhancing VHVs' psychological empowerment – particularly their perceptions of the meaning of their work and their competence – that ultimately enabled them to use professional discretion in their work. This study also highlighted the importance of VHVs' PSM, which leads to their use of professional discretion via the meaning and impact dimensions of psychological empowerment. Based on this study, PSM should also be incorporated into the community health volunteers' recruitment criteria. Also, public health agencies should consider including transformational leadership in the hospital directors' training programs and their promotion criteria.
Practical implications
As VHVs' high-PSM level was found to enhance their professional discretion, the process of recruiting ordinary citizens to serve as community health volunteers should incorporate assessment of the candidates' PSM. Also, the Ministry of Public Health should design and assign tasks that citizen volunteers, particularly VHVs, consider meaningful and at which they feel competent.
Social implications
Aside from technical training, directors of the subdistrict health promotion hospitals should regularly receive soft skill training (i.e. leadership training) and transformational leadership characteristics should be included in the government criteria for promotion.
Originality/value
While past research has examined the impact of other leadership styles on psychological empowerment, this study took a further step by examining the mediating effects of psychological empowerment on the relationship between transformational leadership and professional discretion among VHVs. The authors analyzed the mechanism linking PSM to the VHVs' professional discretion. In addition, by examining the relative importance of different dimensions of psychological empowerment, this study offers a nuanced understanding of the psychological processes by which transformational leadership and PSM shape the SLBs' use of professional discretion in their work.
Details
Keywords
Elina Karttunen, Katrina Lintukangas and Jukka Hallikas
The aim of this study was to identify interventions for and mechanisms of the digital transformation of purchasing and supply management (PSM) processes. The digital…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to identify interventions for and mechanisms of the digital transformation of purchasing and supply management (PSM) processes. The digital transformation of tactical and operational PSM processes has often progressed slowly despite the solid knowledge of advanced technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative exploratory approach based on 14 interviews with PSM executives from firms that are continuously working toward using advanced technologies in their PSM processes but have not yet gained full strategic benefits from digital transformation.
Findings
This study formulates five propositions regarding interventions and mechanisms that can positively influence the digital transformation of PSM processes. The main intervention in this regard is the renewal of data infrastructure, including platforms. PSM-related data should meet needs from both tactical and operational viewpoints. When applications serve as a source of data, they support digital transformation. Mechanisms such as supplier measurement and process improvement are outcomes of the digital transformation of PSM processes.
Practical implications
This study highlights the importance of common data sets for tactical and operational purchasing. These purchasing data should be owned and served by a cross-functional team. To create this interoperability, a firm needs global governance of open standards.
Originality/value
This study makes a theoretical contribution to the discussion of what kind of interventions positively influence on the digital transformation of PSM processes. Specifically, this study explains the integration needs of data and applications.
Details
Keywords
Qiu Wang, Kai-Peng Gan, Hai-Yan Wei, An-Qi Sun, Yi-Cheng Wang and Xiao-Mei Zhou
This study investigated the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of career growth opportunity in the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigated the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of career growth opportunity in the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and public employees' turnover intention.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors recruited 587 public employees from Yunnan Province, China to test moderation and mediation hypotheses. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis to determine the discriminant and convergent validity of the measures of PSM, turnover intention, job satisfaction and career growth opportunity. Finally, the authors carried out bootstrapping to ascertain direct, indirect and conditional indirect effects.
Findings
PSM had a negative effect on public employees' turnover intention, but this relationship was partially mediated by job satisfaction. Career growth opportunity moderated the association between job satisfaction and turnover intention. In particular, the indirect effect of PSM on turnover intention through job satisfaction weakened under high career growth opportunities.
Practical implications
The results highlighted the significance of PSM and career growth opportunity in shaping public employees' work-related attitudes and behaviors. Public organizations should consider PSM a key criterion in recruitment and selection and pay more attention to the significance of intervening in career growth to satisfy public employees' psychological needs related to individual career development.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the disputed link between PSM and turnover intention and uncovered the underlying mechanism through which PSM affects public employees' turnover intention by proposing job satisfaction and career growth opportunity as a mediator and moderator, respectively.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, the authors examine the potential mediating role of promotion focus in terms of the relationship between transformational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the present study is twofold. First, the authors examine the potential mediating role of promotion focus in terms of the relationship between transformational leadership and work engagement. Second, the authors set out to examine whether the indirect effect of transformational leadership and follower work engagement through promotion focus is stronger when followers' public service motivations are higher versus lower.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study examines the association between transformational leadership behavior and employees' work engagement. Data included measures of transformational leadership behavior and promotion focus as well as public service motivation and work engagement. Utilizing a field sample of 316 employees, the study tested the proposed relationships with robust data analytic techniques. Results were consistent with the hypothesized theoretical framework, in that promotion focus mediated the relationship between transformational leadership behavior and work engagement stronger when public service motivation was high and weaker when public service motivation was low. Based on the findings, the study concludes that the connection between transformational leadership behavior and work engagements partially mediated by promotion focus and this mediated connection is stronger when employees' public service motivation is high and weak when employees' public service motivation is low—thereby yielding a pattern of moderated mediation.
Findings
The study findings suggest five main conclusions. First, consistent with previous studies (Aryee et al., 2012; Bui et al., 2017; Hetland et al., 2018; Li et al., 2021; Ng, 2017; Tims et al., 2011; Zhu et al., 2009), the study found a positive relationship between transformational leadership and employees' work engagement. Second, along the same lines of previous research (Brockner and Higgins, 2001; Hetland et al., 2018; Johnson et al., 2017; Kark et al., 2018; Tung, 2016), this study found a positive association between transformational leadership and employees' promotion focus. Third, as hypnotized, the study found a positive association between employees' promotion focus and their work engagement. Fourth, as hypothesized using regulatory focus theory, promotion focus positively mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and employees' work engagement. This result elucidates the underlying mechanism that enables leadership to influence employees' work engagement, particularly, through the self-regulatory promotion focus. The result demonstrates that leadership relates to and affects basic motivations of the promotion systems, which have been known as a basic human need for development and growth. The study demonstrates that leaders may be able to promote followers' motivations by provoking a promotion focus frame and this motivational frame further shapes followers' outcomes in terms of employees' work engagement. Hence, this finding support previous research claiming that promotion focus acts as a mediating mechanism in the relationship between transformational leadership and various outcomes(e.g. Johnson et al., 2017; Kark et al., 2018). However, this study adds significantly to existing research by being the first study to empirically test and pay attention to the promotion focus frame as the underlying psychological mechanism through which transformational leaders motivate followers to higher levels of work engagement. Finally, consistent with the study hypothesis, public service motivation has a moderating effect on the promotion focus-work engagement association. In addition, as the study hypothesized, public service motivation has a moderating effect on the mediating relationships between transformational leadership and employees' work engagement through promotion focus in public sector organizations. It appears that the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' work engagement through promotion focus is enhanced by the role of employees' PSM. In other words, the employees' public service motivation increases employee engagement further for employees with high situational promotion focus than for employees with a low situational promotion focus, which could be explained by the fact that more public service motivation is more meaningful to followers with promotion focus motivational framework to be more engaged. That is, public servants who are predisposed to respond to motives grounded primarily or exclusively in public institutions and organizations are more engaged at work due to their self-regulatory promotion focus spirit. This result is in congruence with findings that indicate that PSM is an important driver of organizational performance and has a positive impact on organizational behavior (Ritz et al., 2016). This finding does provide support to Bakker's (2015) proposition that PSM may strengthen the positive relationship between personal resources (e.g. optimism and self-efficacy) and work engagement because public servants with high levels of enduring PSM find their work important and meaningful. Therefore, they are likely to invest their resources in public service work, be engaged in their work and perform well.
Research limitations/implications
First, it examines the extent to which transformational leadership contributes to employee work engagement. That is, the current study adds to the literature by using promotion focus attributes to probe the underlying mechanism through which transformational leaders enhance employee engagement in the workplace (Kark and van Dijk, 2019). Second, by combining insights obtained from the literature on the self-regulatory theory (Higgins, 1997) and the PSM theory (Perry and Wise, 1990), this study adds to work engagement literature by showing the importance of PSM as an institutional factor in work engagement. Lastly, the study expands the transformational leadership literature by using a moderated mediating model that recognizes PSM as a situational variable in the mediating relationship between transformational leadership and employee engagement.
Practical implications
The results have several implications for practice. Findings reveal that transformational leaders can enhance follower work engagement by inducing their promotion focus orientation. Managers can, therefore, display more transformational behaviors, such as providing a compelling vision, communicating high expectations, promoting new ideas and giving personal attention to each employee in the workplace. In addition, managers may develop a promotion-focus orientation among their followers by appealing more to their ideals and aspirations than to their duties and responsibilities (Brockner and Higgins, 2001). Organizations, on the other hand, could offer leadership training and development programs designed to enhance transformational leadership Behaviors. As for employees' PSM, public organizations have to be more creative in attracting, selecting and retaining employees with high levels of public service motives (Kim, 2021). Public organizations can also train their employees on public service values and enhance their incentives structures to align their motivational predispositions with the organization mission and values.
Originality/value
The present study adds to the existing theory in two ways. First, despite significant progress in exploring the process and boundary conditions for transformational leadership with beneficial work behaviors, the study findings paid attention to the underlying psychological mechanism, precisely the self-regulatory promotion focus frame through which transformational leaders motivate followers to higher levels of work engagement. A second theoretical contribution of the present study is that it adds to the long line of research supporting a more concerted effort to understand both the moderating and mediating mechanisms that link transformational leadership to follower outcomes. By using the moderated mediating model, this study shows that transformational leaders can induce a promotion focus within followers who have developed a public service motivation profile to be more willing to engage in their organizations. The current study also has several practical implications that can be drawn from the study findings. First, organizations should become more sensitive to their employees' (promotional and preventive) self-regulatory foci. Managers should be trained to be strategically oriented toward people's growth and development. Second, by serving as role models, managers can shape their subordinates' regulatory foci. The more managers' actions suggest that they are focused on promotion, the more likely it is that their subordinates will follow suit. Third, managers may emphasize the use of positive feedback, such as praise, by giving it when employees succeed and withholding it when they fail. This feedback style is more likely to elicit a promotion focus, especially if the praise for success focuses on what the employee was able to accomplish (e.g. “You aided in the advancement of an important task!”) rather than negative occurrences that the employee was able to avoid (e.g. “You were extremely cautious and as a result, you avoided making the wrong judgment.”) (Brockner and Higgins, 2001). Moreover, the moderating role of public service motivation in the effects of transformational leadership on work engagement through a promotion focus mechanism suggests that managers should not assume all employees would engage in their work similarly to their transformational leadership behaviors. Managers may find that followers who have values that are consistent with public service are more inclined to their promotion focus frame and thus are likely to internalize both motivations, which ultimately leads to more work engagement. As a result, managers should help employees, for example, feel a sense of accomplishment and recognize that they are contributing to society as an intrinsic reward. Finally, human resource managers must be mindful of their selection and placement decisions. Ensure that members are highly motivated to serve in the public sector and have the desired regulatory focus.
Details
Keywords
Reetta Oksa, Henri Pirkkalainen, Markus Salo, Nina Savela and Atte Oksanen
Social media platforms are increasingly used at work to facilitate work-related activities and can either challenge or make people feel more productive at jobs. This study drew…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media platforms are increasingly used at work to facilitate work-related activities and can either challenge or make people feel more productive at jobs. This study drew from technostress and employee well-being literature and analyzed longitudinal effects of professional social media (PSM) invasion, work engagement and work exhaustion on PSM-enabled productivity.
Design/methodology/approach
Nationally representative five-wave survey data of Finnish employees were analyzed with hybrid multilevel linear regression analysis. Outcome measure was PSM-enabled productivity and the predictors included PSM invasion, work exhaustion and work engagement. Age, gender, education, occupational sector, managerial position, remote work and personality traits were used as control variables.
Findings
PSM invasion and work engagement had both within-person and between-person effects on PSM-enabled productivity. Higher educated and individuals with open personality reported higher PSM-enabled productivity. No association between work exhaustion and PSM-enabled productivity was found.
Originality/value
The findings are central considering the increasing use of social media and other technologies for work purposes. The authors challenge the dominant view in the literature that has often seen PSM invasion as a negative factor. Instead, PSM invasion's positive association with PSM-enabled productivity and the association of work engagement and PSM-enabled productivity should be recognized in work life.
Details
Keywords
First, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the public service motivation (PSM) literature by increasing the limited knowledge of organizational antecedents of PSM…
Abstract
Purpose
First, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the public service motivation (PSM) literature by increasing the limited knowledge of organizational antecedents of PSM. Second, by combining PSM with insights from self-determination theory (SDT), the paper aims to elucidate the link through which high-performance work systems (HPWS) relate to PSM.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a survey, the authors investigated nurses’ perceptions of HPWS, PSM, and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs in four different German hospitals.
Findings
The results of this study provide empirical evidence that PSM is influenced by several HR practices and the three basic psychological needs autonomy, relatedness, and competence, which in turn are influenced by certain HR practices as well. Basic psychological needs do not fully mediate the relationship between HPWS and PSM.
Research limitations/implications
Four dimensions of HPWS are measured by a single item and the results are based on a German sample. They therefore might not apply to other countries. Future research will benefit from using a more corroborated measurement instrument of HPWS in different countries.
Practical implications
This study offers useful insights for HR managers in the nursing sector on the question how PSM can be fostered effectively.
Originality/value
This study adds to the limited knowledge of organizational antecedents of PSM by including ideas from HRM into the study of PSM. Second, by combining PSM with insights from psychology (SDT), this study sheds light on the mediating mechanisms which help to explain how HPWS relate to PSM; a conceptual model explaining the HPWS-PSM relationship is developed and tested.
Details
Keywords
Kai Foerstl, Evi Hartmann, Finn Wynstra and Roger Moser
The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of nine hypotheses linking four purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices directly to purchasing performance and indirectly to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a set of nine hypotheses linking four purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices directly to purchasing performance and indirectly to financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data in a global cross‐industry survey of 148 companies, combining primary interview and survey data with secondary data on firm performance, in order to minimize the impact of common method variance.
Findings
Support was found for eight of the nine hypotheses. In particular, a positive impact was found of cross‐functional integration and functional coordination on purchasing performance, and of purchasing performance on firm performance. Both talent management and performance management have a positive impact on cross‐functional integration and functional coordination. Talent management also has a direct impact on purchasing performance, in contrast to performance management.
Originality/value
The association of enhanced PSM maturity levels with financial performance metrics collected from secondary data sources provides robust empirical support for the stated but to this point largely untested positive impact of PSMmaturity on the firm's competitive position.
Details
Keywords
Rajneesh Gupta, Sanket Dash, Shiva Kakkar and Ramashankar Yadav
Public service motivation (PSM) is a universal construct, but indigenous traditions and culture of a country are known to influence its measurement. Currently, no research on PSM…
Abstract
Purpose
Public service motivation (PSM) is a universal construct, but indigenous traditions and culture of a country are known to influence its measurement. Currently, no research on PSM in India is available. To facilitate PSM research in India, this article compares the two most used measures of PSM (PSM-14 and PSM-16) to identify the most suitable scale for further exploration.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a cross-sectional survey research design. Data were collected from 387 employees working in the public sector. ADANCO, a PLS-SEM package, was used to analyze the data.
Findings
Contrary to expectations, it was found that the older PSM-14 exhibited better psychometric properties than the newer PSM-16. The PSM-14 also exhibited greater predictive validity than PSM-16.
Practical implications
The study demonstrates that PSM is a valid construct in India and can be measured adequately by existing instruments. However, certain sub-dimensions of the scale (such as compassion) may be reworded/changed to reflect Indian cultural ethos better.
Originality/value
The findings will be tremendously helpful to researchers interested in examining the correlates of PSM in the Indian context by making it easier to select the appropriate measurement instrument. The study also provides a careful examination of each of the sub-dimensions of the construct to enable the development of more robust PSM measures in the future.
Details
Keywords
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
Details