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This study aims to investigate the relationship of employee motivation to team support, financial incentives and public sector motivation in various agencies under the Binh Dinh People's Committee in Vietnam. These agencies fulfil state management functions in many fields, such as investment, finance, construction, sports, culture and tourism.

This study applies the quantitative method to test team support, financial incentives and public service motivation (PSM) in relation to employee motivation in the public sector. The data are analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM), with a sample size of 263 employees who work at provincial government agencies.

The study results show that team support, financial incentives and PSM have a positive influence on employee motivation in the public sector.

The findings provide theoretical evidence that team support, financial incentives and PSM are key predictors of employee motivation in the public sector in the context of an emerging economy. Consequently, the authors propose that managers in the public sector should motivate employees by communicating with employees about the employees' roles in improving the local people's lives to stimulate the PSM of employees. In addition, managers should always provide constructive feedback that recognises employees' achievements and pay bonuses based on job performance and successful projects to improve public service.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of the relationship between work motivation and organisational performance in the extended public sector, by testing empirically common elements of existing theoretical frameworks.

A unique questionnaire‐based survey was carried out in three organisations/corporations where the state is the major stakeholder. Of the 1,000 questionnaires distributed, 454 were returned and included in the analysis. By using descriptive statistics the provision of extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motives in the extended public sector of Greece was identified.

Findings show that the public sector in Greece is more likely to provide extrinsic than intrinsic rewards, however the latter seems to be related to better organisational outcomes. Both individuals' ability and demographic characteristics are core determinants of employees' motivational preferences.

The core of this paper tests empirically the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with performance in a country of EU “periphery”. Caution should be exercised in generalizing the results for more advanced economies.

Organisational leaders and public management in Greece need to conceive work motivation as a complex system and recognize the importance of intrinsic incentives. Originality/value – There is currently limited evidence on the impact of motivation in the performance of the extended public sector. This research is one of the very few that has been made from the perspective of employees. To the extent of the author's knowledge, this is the first time that a detailed public sector level analysis on work motivation has been presented for Greece.

The paper aims to understand the different motivations / reasons for engaging in CSR initiatives by the organizations. In addition, the study also examines the relationship between CSR motivations and corporate social performance (CSP).

The data were collected from two power sector organizations: one was a private sector firm and the other was a public sector firm. A comparative analysis of the variables with respect to private and public sector organizations was conducted. A questionnaire survey was administered among 370 employees working in the power sector, with 199 executives from public sector and 171 from private sector.

“Philanthropic” motivation emerged as the most dominant CSR motivation among both the public and private sector firms. The private sector firm was found to be significantly higher with respect to “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest” and “normative” CSR motivations when compared with the public sector firms. Findings suggest that public and private sector firms differed significantly on four CSR motivations, namely, “philanthropic”, “enlightened self-interest”, “normative” and “coercive”. The CSP score was significantly different among the two power sector firms of public and private sectors. The private sector firm had a higher CSP level than the public sector undertaking.

Further studies in the domain need to address differences in CSR motivations and CSP across other sectors to understand the role of industry characteristics in influencing social development targets of organizations. Research also needs to focus on demonstrating the relationship between CSP and financial performance of the firms. Further, the HR outcomes of CSR initiatives and measurement of CSP indicators, such as attracting and retaining talent, employee commitment and organizational climate factors, need to be assessed.

The social issues are now directly linked with the business model to ensure consistency and community development. The results reveal a need for “enlightened self-interest” which is the second dominant CSR motivation among the organizations. The study makes a novel contribution by determining that competitive and coercive motivations are not functional as part of organizational CSR strategy. CSR can never be forced as the very idea is to do social good. Eventually, the CSR approach demands a commitment from within. The organizations need to emphasize more voluntary engagement of employees and go beyond statutory requirements for realizing the true CSR benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an up-to-date, comprehensive, independent and credible assessment of relevant academic and other literature since 2007, on the effectiveness and value for money of performance-related-pay (PRP) in the public sector.

PRP was studied using both economics-based literature and literature from the organisational and management field (including human resources, management sociology and psychology). An initial search of databases identified 7,401 documents regarding PRP in the public sector, which was reduced to 57 final papers included in the study (27 in the health sector, 16 in the education sector and 16 in the civil service) after abstract and full paper screening.

The review found some evidence that PRP schemes can be effective across the three domains of the public sector for which there was evidence available (health, education and the civil service), but findings within and between the sectors are mixed, with scheme effectiveness often dependent on scheme design and organisational context.

The research highlights the importance of considering both economics-based and organisational literature when discussing PRP in the public sector, and the implications for motivation and PRP design.

The results indicated that the design of PRP schemes could influence their effectiveness and outcomes, and the research suggests how the challenges of designing and implementing PRP schemes can be overcome in the public sector.

The review highlights that when implementing PRP schemes there may be gender differences in their overall effectiveness (especially in education) and there must be consideration for how fairly the PRP scheme is perceived.

The paper uses literature from economics and behavioural sciences when looking at the motivational implications for PRP in the public sector.

This chapter considers some of the key gaps in resilience research in the public sector, specifically: (1) the potential negative implications of organisational efforts to support resilient behaviour – i.e., ‘the dark side of resilience’; and (2) the relationship between resilience and value-based motivations specific to the sector, primarily public service motivation (PSM).

This piece argues that current studies on resilience have adopted an overly positive tone that may not reflect the full range of consequences associated with building a resilient organisation, especially in the public sector. Issues related to burnout, fatigue and feelings of inadequacy resulting from the ‘need’ to be resilient have not been sufficiently explored, and furthermore, we currently know very little of the link between these issues and employees' desire to have a meaningful contribution to people's lives, i.e., one of the key motivational drivers in the public sector.

This chapter highlights several unanswered questions in the extant literature, and proposes several avenues for further research, aiming to bridge these knowledge gaps and identify new ways to effectively manage future crises and developments in the sector.

Job characteristics can potentially influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors. However, their impact on employees’ innovative behaviors, particularly in public sector organizations, has received little scholarly attention. Based on relational job design theory and the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, this study aims to examine the effect of job contact on public sector employees’ innovative work behavior through the mediator of happiness at work. It also assesses whether prosocial motivation strengthens the influence of job contact on innovative work behavior (via happiness at work).

The model was examined on a sample of 180 employee-supervisor dyads (90 supervisors and 180 employees) recruited from various government departments in the United Arab Emirates.

The findings support the proposed moderated mediation model in which job contact positively and significantly impacts innovative work behavior. The association between job contact and innovative behavior via happiness at work is found to be stronger for employees who are highly prosocially motivated.

The findings offer prescriptive insights into public sector employee happiness and prosocial motivation by illustrating when and how job contact influences innovative work behavior. The authors also present relevant managerial recommendations for promoting public sector employees’ innovative behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations behind public sector spin outs, focusing on the Right to Request policy, which enabled NHS staff to set up their own social enterprises to deliver healthcare services.

The paper draws on empirical data gathered from 16 in‐depth interviews with individuals who had led a Right to Request proposal.

Motivations to spin out of the NHS into a social enterprise were often “empathetic” in nature, built around the good of the service for staff and users. Alongside this, some felt “pushed” out of the NHS as a result of government restructuring policy, with social enterprise offering the only hope to survive as an organisation.

The study captures a particular point in time and there may be other perspectives that have not been included.

The paper is of use to academics, policy makers and practitioners. It provides an important contribution in thinking about how to motivate public sector staff, especially those from a health profession, to consider spinning out into social enterprises.

The paper is the first to look at the motivations of healthcare spin outs through the Right to Request programme. The findings are related to previous literature on social entrepreneurship within public sector settings.

Based on motivation theories, such as self-determination theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether intrinsic and extrinsic motivations significantly influence burnout and turnover intention in the public sector. Furthermore, the authors assessed the mediating effect of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and public service motivation (PSM) on the relationship between intrinsic/extrinsic motivation and burnout/turnover intention.

Based on a survey of 203 public employees from local governments in South Korea, this study conducted ordinary least squares regression analysis to investigate the relationships among intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, OCB, PSM, and burnout/turnover intention.

The authors found that intrinsic motivation had a significantly negative effect on both burnout and turnover intention. Extrinsic motivation had a significantly positive effect only on burnout. Lastly, OCB and PSM had a mediating effect on the relationships between intrinsic motivation and burnout.

These results provide some insights into the effects of job motivation on burnout and turnover intention in the public sector. Particularly, this research highlights the importance of intrinsic motivation, OCB, and PSM in decreasing burnout and the importance of intrinsic motivation in decreasing turnover intention of public employees.

In the past few years, the public–private partnership (PPP) model has become increasingly popular in the infrastructure projects of developing countries, especially in the power sector. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the motivations for engaging in PPP power projects in Ghana by comparing the public and private sectors.

Questionnaires were used to elicit responses from respondents using a two-round Delphi survey. Mean score ranking was used to rank the motivation factors, while reliability analysis was conducted using Cronbach alpha coefficient, and level of agreement was tested using Kendall’s concordance. One-sample t-test assessed the relative significance of these motivation factors.

For the public sector, the topmost motivations were achieving improved value for money; access to additional capital; increased certainty of projects; greater efficiency of project delivery services; and improved ability to deliver new infrastructure. For the private sector, the topmost motivations were obtaining of investment support; improvement in private sector’s international image; synergy with public sector; sharing of risks; and gaining of profits.

The findings of this study will lead to increased knowledge on the motivation factors for the public and private sectors engaging in PPP power projects in Ghana.

The output of this research contributes to the checklist of motivation factors for engaging in PPP power projects and contributes to the development of PPP practice.

Governmental agencies are interested in improving the quality of their service delivery. One tool that has been used to manage their performance is performance based reward schemes (PBRS). The aim of this paper is to examine the degree to which a sample of these plans, used within the Botswana public sector, is customer-focused. Being more customer-focused should deliver improved public sector service quality.

This study carried out an evaluation of a sample of Botswana PBRS plans, using multidimensional content analysis undertaken by four expert “evaluators”, to identify the degree to which the PBRS were customer-focused.

Classifying PBRS plans as being customer-focused was difficult, as the plans had few objectives related to customer experiences or outcomes. Those that did had poorly defined performance objectives, their targets were not specific, or there was limited explicit role responsibility. Thus, PBRS plans seemed not to focus on improving customer outcomes.

The PBRS evaluated do not appear to be customer-focused and, thus, would have limited ability to improve customer experiences (i.e. public sector quality). Further research is needed in other countries to see whether these results are generalisable, and whether service levels vary with more customer-focused PBRS plans.

The results suggest improvements that could be adopted by organisations seeking to make their PBRS schemes customer-focused.

Extensive research suggests that PBRS plans can be used to improve service quality. Most of the studies have focused on the employees' perspectives and have not looked at the degree of customer orientation within the plans.