Organizational commitment in public servants through civic engagement
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| Author | Nathalie Mendez,Claudia N. Avellaneda |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12840 |
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Organizational commitment in public servants
through civic engagement
Nathalie Mendez
1
| Claudia N. Avellaneda
2
1
Escuela de Gobierno Alberto Lleras Camargo,
Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
2
Indiana University Bloomington,
Bloomington, Indiana, USA
Correspondence
Nathalie Mendez, Universidad de los Andes,
Escuela de Gobierno Alberto Lleras Camargo,
Carrera 1, N 19-27, Bloque AU, piso 3, Bogotá
111711, Colombia.
Email: n.mendez52@uniandes.edu.co
Abstract
The public service motivation (PSM) theory has emphasized
the distinctive motivational character of public employees in
serving public institutions. However, scarce research has
explored whether public service motivation extrapolates to
civic engagement as another way to participate in public
affairs. We contend that public employees' stronger sense
of public interest expands toward higher engagement levels
in social, economic, political, and civic organizations. Using
data from the most recent wave of the World Values Survey
from 2017 to 2020 in 77 countries—this study compares the
degree of civic engagement of public servants with general
citizens' level of engagement. Results across all world
regions, except Africa, support the hypotheses that public
servants are more willing to participatein civic organizations.
However, public employees' civic engagement is contingent
on organizational type (modern vs. traditional) and bureau-
cratic rank (top- vs. street-level), for street-level bureaucrats
participate more in traditional butnot modern organizations.
Resumen
La literatura sobre Motivaci
on hacia el Servicio Público
(“Public Service Motivation”en inglés) ha hecho énfasis en
que los empleados públicos tienen distintas motivaciones
cuando sirven a instituciones públicas. Sin embargo, existe
escasa investigaci
on sobre si la motivaci
on en el servicio
público se puede extrapolar al compromiso cívico como otra
forma de participar en asuntos públicos. El artículo sostiene
que el fuerte sentido de interés en lo público de los
empleados públicos se expande hacia niveles más altos de
Received: 16 August 2021 Revised: 19 February 2022 Accepted: 21 February 2022
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12840
Public Admin. 2023;101:1055–1071. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1055
participaci
on en organizaciones sociales, econ
omicas,
políticas y cívicas. Haciendo uso de los datos de la más
reciente ola de la Encuesta Mundial de Valores desde 2017
a 2020 en 77 países, este estudio compara el grado de com-
promiso cívico de los servidores públicos con el nivel de
compromiso de los ciudadanos en general. Los resultados
en todas las regiones del mundo, excepto
Africa, respaldan
la hip
otesis de que los servidores públicos están más dis-
puestos a participar en organizaciones cívicas. Sin embargo,
el compromiso cívico de los empleados públicos depende
del tipo de organizaci
on (moderna frente a tradicional) y el
rango en la organizaci
on (directivo frente a profesionales de
base), ya que los servidores públicos de base participan más
en las organizaciones tradicionales pero no en las modernas.
1|INTRODUCTION
The literature on public service motivation (PSM) has emphasized the distinctive motivational character of public
employees in serving public institutions (Perry & Wise, 1990). Under this framework and given their distinctive
values, individuals with strong desires to work in the public's best interest are more likely to seek careers in the pub-
lic sector. This desire to serve the public interest has driven abundant research about commitment to public organi-
zations, with some works supporting the PSM–organizational commitment relationship (Agarwal & Sajid, 2017;
Camilleri & Van Der Heijden, 2007; Christensen et al., 2017; Ertas, 2016) and others reporting inconsistent evidence
(Ward, 2014; see Ritz et al., 2016 for a systematic review).
Less attention has been dedicated to exploring whether public servants, through their assumed PSM, establish
more connectivity with civic organizations as another way to participate in public affairs. Because public employees
are expected to have a stronger sense of public interest (Perry, 1996; Perry & Wise, 1990; Riccucci, 2018), we
expect public servants to report higher levels of engagement in social, economic, political, and civic organizations.
Existing studies suggest that employees with high levels of PSM are more likely to show pro-social behavior if they
are grouped with others who also behave pro-socially (Esteve et al., 2016). However, this pro-social behavior may be
the result of an emulative action rather than the outcome of PSM. In addition, Piatak and Holt (2020) also find PSM
predicts pro-social behavior, such as volunteering with an organization (e.g., organizational commitment). However,
these studies assume public servants exhibit pro-social behavior or organizational commitment equally across all
types of civic organizations. The last two decades have experienced a proliferation of traditional and modern civic
organizations. Through civic engagement, citizens participate in community life to improve others' conditions and/or
to help shape a better future (Adler & Goggin, 2005, p. 236). However, public servants may favor civic engagement
through a commitment to certain organizations and not others. Consequently, it becomes important to explore
whether the expected civic engagement of public servants is contingent on organizational type (e.g., modern
vs. traditional organizations).
Like organizational type, public servants' expected civic engagement also may vary among public employees
(top- vs. street-level bureaucrats). For instance, for those with stronger chances of bureaucratic advancement, orga-
nizational commitment outside the public sector may be perceived as a channel for achieving professional goals by
socializing, networking, and becoming more visible. If so, engagement with certain organizations may be more
1056 MENDEZ and AVELLANEDA
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