Making public service motivation count for increasing organizational fit: The role of followership behavior and leader support as a causal mechanism
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Author | Jaehee Park,Bruce D. McDonald,Myung H. Jin,Kang Yang Trevor Yu |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852316684008 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Review of
Administrative
Article
Sciences
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
2019, Vol. 85(1) 98–115
Making public service
! The Author(s) 2017
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motivation count for
DOI: 10.1177/0020852316684008
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increasing organizational fit:
The role of followership
behavior and leader support
as a causal mechanism
Myung H. Jin
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Bruce D. McDonald III
North Carolina State University, USA
Jaehee Park
Sungkyunkwan University, Korea
Kang Yang Trevor Yu
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Many studies in public administration have modeled employees’ person–organization fit
perceptions as a function of public service motivation, but previous work has not ade-
quately addressed the causal relationship between these concepts. This article represents
the first attempt to explain the ‘‘black box’’ that links public service motivation to person–
organization fit. Given the various positive benefits associated with person–organization fit
in the literature, an understanding of the mechanisms that underpin its relationship with
public service motivation has important managerial implications for leaders regarding their
interactions with individual employees. Extending the work-based affect model designed by
Yu, we explore how PSM increases person–organization fit perceptions through employee
followership and leader support as a potential causal chain. The results from a survey of 692
faculty members at a public university are consistent with the predicted three-path medi-
ation model. Among these respondents, higher levels of public service motivation were
Corresponding author:
Myung H. Jin, L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University,
921 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, Virginia 23284, USA.
Email: mhjin@vcu.edu
Jin et al.
99
associated with greater followership behavior, which, in turn, increased positive percep-
tions of person–organization fit through greater leader support.
Points for practitioners
This study suggests that having high levels of motivation to serve the public (i.e. public
service motivation) does not directly influence how one perceives his or her fit with the
organization. Instead, high public service motivation was associated with person–organ-
ization fit indirectly through its influence on active followership behaviors. Managerial
actors are thus encouraged to pursue open communications with their subordinates to
maintain high levels of public service motivation.
Keywords
leadership, person–organization fit, public service motivation
Introduction
At present, the factors that influence employees’ person–organization (P–O) fit
perceptions are not well understood. The lack of research in this area is particularly
apparent in contrast with the rich empirical literature dedicated to establishing the
positive correlation of P–O fit with employees’ job performance (Bright, 2007;
Gould-Williams et al., 2015), job satisfaction, and organizational commitment
(Kim, 2012), and with reductions in work-related stress and quit intentions
(Gould-Williams et al., 2015). The majority of relevant studies pay substantially
less attention to factors that foster high P–O fit, and they tend to take the perspec-
tive of the job applicant rather than the job incumbent (Kristof-Brown, 2000).
While we acknowledge the merits of previous work, understanding of the fit pro-
cesses is limited because this literature only offers clear documentation of the
importance of fit after hiring (Gabriel et al., 2014; Yu, 2009). By examining the
P–O fit of job incumbents, rather than job applicants, and doing so directly (i.e. by
documenting their own perceptions), our work stands to provide a more accurate
picture of the relationships in the antecedent–fit models.
Here, we draw attention to one specific construct in the public administration lit-
erature, namely, public service motivation (PSM), and its effect on P–O fit. More
importantly, and in keeping with the call by Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, and
Johnson (2005: 321) to ‘‘understand the mechanisms that stimulate fit,’’ we propose
and test a three-step mediation model according to which PSM indirectly affects P–O
fit through its influence on employee followership and perceived leader support in
serial. In this model, followership is approached as a function of perceived leader
support, which, in turn, increases employees’ fit perceptions within their organizations.
Our model contributes to the P–O fit literature in three key ways. First, it extends the
conceptual work of Yu (2009) that identifies individual and organizational motivational
factors as the antecedents of fit; our primary contribution is to test a mechanism that
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International Review of Administrative Sciences 85(1)
seeks to explain the relationship between PSM and P–O fit. Despite the growing number
of empirical studies that have established positive associations between these quantities
(e.g. Gould-Williams et al., 2015; Jin et al., 2016; Kim, 2012; Leisink and Steijn, 2009),
several scholars have warned against the tendency to associate them automatically and
directly (Bright, 2008; Wright and Pandey, 2008), pointing to the absence of a causal
link. Given the many positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes associated with high
P–O fit (Cable and DeRue, 2002; Gould-Williams et al., 2015), research into the mech-
anisms that underpin the causal process is important because it may offer a fuller
explanation of both individual and organizational factors that stimulate fit.
The second main contribution of this study is to draw attention to the concept of
followership developed by Kelley (1992) as a potential causal mechanism that, along
with leader support, links PSM to P–O fit. Drawing again on several earlier motivation
theories in social and organizational psychology, we test empirically the conceptual
framework of Yu (2009) by hypothesizing that individuals with high levels of PSM are
likely to demonstrate active followership, and thereby to attract greater support from
leaders. In a complementary fashion, we expect increased positive perceptions of
leader support to have a positive impact on employees’ assessment of P–O fit.
Lastly, the findings presented here contribute to the literature on P–O fit by
examining the effects of PSM in the context of faculty at urban public universities.
There is a widely recognized difference between academic and traditional public
organizations in terms of such factors as tenure, and practitioners and scholars
have raised specific concerns about stress, workload, and burnout among urban
university faculty (Fuhrmann, 1994; Spaights, 1980). Daly and Dee (2006) suggest
that heavy teaching loads, community-based research, and professional service
responsibilities may present faculty with an overwhelming set of role expectations.
Under these circumstances, it stands to reason that the motivation to serve may
play an even more important role in attitudes regarding fit. Given claims that PSM
may not apply equally to all employees even within individual public sector organ-
izations (Christensen and Wright, 2011), and given the scarcity of available know-
ledge regarding the work environments of faculty at urban public universities, we
hope to advance understanding of the PSM–fit relationship by testing the three-
step mediation model in the context of the public higher education sector.
Theoretical framework
We build on Yu’s (2009) work-based affect model of P–O fit, which serves as the
starting point for our theoretical framework. Drawing on theories of emotional
processes, Yu highlights two perspectives, namely, affective consistency (e.g. ‘‘I feel
good, thus, I must be experiencing fit on the job’’) and hedonism (e.g. ‘‘I feel good,
so I do not need to change myself or the environment in order to improve fit’’; cf.
Diener, 2000), to describe how affective experience might shape fit. Yu posits that
perceptions of congruence between oneself and an environment or organization
vary over time, owing to natural fluctuations in the work environment, as well as
individuals’ active attempts to alter the environment or themselves in order to
Jin et al.
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improve fit. This reasoning has empirical support. For example, in their study
assessing the longitudinal relationship between perceived fit and affect-based vari-
ables (i.e. job satisfaction and positive affect), Gabriel et al. (2014) found both that
fit perceptions influence job satisfaction and that affect is an antecedent of fit
perceptions.
Two key issues need to be addressed in order to advance the theory of P–O fit
(Yu, 2009). First, several scholars argue that behavioral and cognitive processes in
organizational contexts often take place under significant affective influence (e.g.
under the influence of emotions, affective attitude, or intrinsic motivation) (Brief,
2001). However, the idea that one’s attitude (e.g. PSM) can help bring about
behavioral changes in oneself and in the work environment through shaping per-
ceptions of fit has attracted relatively little attention (Yu, 2009).
A second key issue, related to the first, is the lack of clarity regarding the indivi-
dual-level antecedents to P–O fit. It is certainly the case that the majority of ante-
cedent–fit models thus far have focused on how such organization-level human
resource policies as those regarding recruitment,...
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