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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.

Co-production with citizens brings about the challenge to orchestrate public values which might be in conflict with each other. However, little is known about what types of value tensions occur in co-production and how actors cope with them. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap.

The paper is based on three case studies of co-production in Germany. In total, 24 semi-structured interviews with public managers, citizens, and third parties were conducted.

The analysis identified three major public value tensions occurring in co-production: the inclusiveness-accountability-tension, the flexibility-accountability-tension, and the productivity-diversity-tension. Furthermore, six strategies of coping with these tensions are examined.

As the paper is based on case studies, further research is required to explore possible other public value tensions emerging from different manifestations of co-production.

This paper bridges the fields of public values and co-production. By including perceptions of all actor groups, a more comprehensive understanding of public values in co-production and how they are in conflict is provided. A novel coping strategy is revealed, which has previously not been mentioned in the literature.

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.

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 explore the relationships of public service motivation (PSM) with leadership style (transformational and transactional) in two different sectors: nonprofit and public research.

The authors have investigated the effects of leadership styles on the level of PSM, assuming that transformational leadership has a positive and higher relation to PSM than transactional one. The analysis is based on data collected in two different investigations: a group of nonprofit volunteers, sitting in the NPs boards of directors, and a group of employees working for a National Research Institute.

Transformational leaders in the nonprofit organisation have higher scores on PSM than transactional leaders. For the employees of the research institution a charismatic leadership is not necessary, and even demotivating; autonomy is a central factor for researcher, and the intervention of the leader seems to be playing a motivation role only in moments of impasse.

Some more work should be done in refining the measures used in the scales. The perception of the leader attitude as controlling or supportive can be the key to better understand some controversial results: this can be object of further studies.

The results offers some preliminary results indicating that, in research institutions, a charismatic leadership should not be considered a generalised management solution. The transformational style reach better results in those research contexts in which research programmes are carried out via team work.

Not so much work in this field has been done yet in Italy, even less focusing on leadership in the research institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how approaches to human resource management may contribute to the development of public service motivation (PSM). Three different approaches to managing people are outlined, namely, the “high performance”, “high commitment” and “high involvement”. Relevant theories are then used to predict the outcomes and relevance of the different approaches when promoting PSM in public sector organisations.

This is a theoretical paper.

This paper provides the first theoretical explanations for the relationships between human resource (HR) practices and PSM in public sector organisations.

This paper explains how the same HR practices may have different employee outcomes depending on managers’ motivations for implementing them.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of non-profit service motivation (NPSM) as a cognitive dimension in the enhancement of managerial accountability of Korean NGO employees. Hypotheses and a research model were designed to determine the antecedent and consequence factors of NPSM from the perspective of the self-determinants theory, social learning theory, and social exchange theory.

This study relies on quantitative data obtained from Korean NGO survey questionnaires. The sample consists of 400 employees working for NGOs. The performance evaluations were conducted within a one-year period.

Results of the study demonstrate that training and development are the keys to leading employees’ value congruence and motivation. The authors also confirmed that person-organizational (P-O) fit is directly associated with NPSM. Finally, intrinsically motivated NGO employees would boost the level of managerial accountability among the Korean NGO employees through organization and socialization.

Through applying Perry’s original public service motivation (PSM) scale including rational, normative, and affective values, the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis results confirmed that the constructs of NPSM were valid and reliable in the Korean NGOs. Additionally, it might also explain the locus of causality of self-determination theory, and how it changes people’s motivation. Finally, the authors confirmed that organizational systems are notable in terms of increasing P-O fit, strengthening intrinsic motivation, and increasing organizational consequences.

This study confirms that human resource development (HRD) practices and performance management system (PMS) act as very effective managerial tools for nurturing positive and constructive social exchange relationships between organizational constituents, and for developing human resources in the NGOs. This is evident in cases of individuals being given extensive participation rights when it comes to decision making (Leana et al., 1992; Mayer and Schoorman, 1998). The benefit of this reality is twofold: it strengthens individuals’ perceptions of self, fostering intrinsic motivation, and it also acts as a buffer of sorts between individuals and external pressures, weakening extrinsic motivation.

There exists a notion that well-made organizational systems and policies should be regarded as more important because certain informal or relational social interactions and communications (e.g. HRD programs) or PMS policies (e.g. service monitoring systems, finance monitoring systems, and HR and organizational monitoring systems) prevail in the cultural characteristics of NGOs. Based on this notion, allowing P-O fit, intrinsic motives, and accountable behaviors to function as invisible but very persuasive norms, rules, and informal regulations for leaders and subordinates will help make NGOs successful.

Given that most Korean non-profit organizations are very small and lack formal HR departments or functions, it is possible that this lack of formality has been somewhat responsible for the shortage of research on the outstanding aspects and issues surrounding non-profit HR management and the motivation of non-profit employees. However, as the non-profit sector has become more professionalized and specialized in terms of training, development, and identity, the need to understand HR issues and employee motivation is vital to improve both employee management and organizational strategies. The aim of this research is to further the understanding of what makes the non-profit workforce distinct. The authors believe that the similarities in terms of motivation for public and non-profit employees allowed us to use a modified version of Perry’s (1996) scale in the study to examine NPSM. However, drawing on these various and diverse perspectives on PSM and NPSM, especially in the Korean context, the authors define NPSM as “intrinsically and voluntarily driven attitudes and dispositions that lead to more service delivery, fundraising, and volunteering activities in the non-profit agencies.”

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 paper is to examine the behavioural consequences of public service motivation (PSM) and how motivation relates to an individual’s call to serve both inside and outside of the workplace. More specifically, this study examines whether and how PSM relates to prosocial behaviours – volunteering and giving – and career ambitions to work in the government or non-profit sector among public affair graduate students.

Logistic regression is used to examine the PSM link using a composite of the 40-item scale, each of the six dimensions – commitment to the public interest, civic duty, social justice, attraction to policymaking, compassion, and self-sacrifice – and the five-item scale from the Merit Principles Survey. The analyses draw upon data from a unique online survey of 122 graduate students in Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programmes.

The results indicate that people with higher levels of PSM are more likely to want to work in public service and volunteer. However, mixed results were found for the relationship between PSM and giving charitable donations and career ambitions to work in government and no link was found for career ambitions to work in the non-profit sector.

This paper answers calls to examine the dimensions of PSM and examines Perry’s (1996) original conception. The results provide practical implications for human resource managers as well as non-profit and public managers in recruiting and retaining employees and volunteers.

In light of the challenge to attract skilled employees in times of dwindling labour supply, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how motivational person-job fit influences the preference for a job. Using a model based on prospect theory, person-job fit is operationalised on three motivational dimensions: extrinsic, enjoyment-based intrinsic, and prosocial intrinsic motivation. Public service motivation (PSM) is theoretically integrated into the model’s dimensions and conceptualised as a fuzzy subset thereof. Within the model, job seekers evaluate their fit with various jobs by comparing their personal motives to the jobs’ motivational incentives, compiling a preference order.

The model was tested using a completely randomised vignette experiment. In all, 102 master’s students had to indicate their preference among various randomly selected job vignettes. Certain vignettes presented to experimental group (EG) subjects were individually manipulated to provide either very good or very poor person-job fit. The manipulation’s effect on vignette preference was analysed using logistic regression.

EG subjects significantly preferred both well-fitting and random vignettes over misfitting ones. No significant preference was found comparing well-fitting and random vignettes. Coherent with prospect theory, the deterring effect of misfit appears to be stronger than the attraction effect of good fit, supporting the model.

Most previous research on motivational person-job fit focused on a single factor (e.g. PSM) when predicting job preference. This study, in contrast, incorporates multiple motivational dimensions, capturing that individuals usually pursue mixed motives.