Putting public service motivation into context: a balance between universalism and particularism
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852311399232 |
| Author | Simon Anderfuhren-Biget,Christian Waldner,David Giauque,Adrian Ritz,Frédéric Varone |
| Published date | 01 June 2011 |
| Date | 01 June 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
International Review of
Administrative Sciences
77(2) 227–253
!The Author(s) 2011
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020852311399232
ras.sagepub.com
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Article
Putting public service motivation
into context: a balance between
universalism and particularism
1
David Giauque
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Adrian Ritz
University of Bern, Switzerland
Fre
´de
´ric Varone
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Simon Anderfuhren-Biget
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Christian Waldner
University of Bern, Switzerland
Abstract
Research on Public Service Motivation (PSM) has increased enormously in the last 20
years. Besides the analysis of the antecedents of PSM and its impact on organizations
and individuals, many open questions about the nature of PSM itself still remain. This
article argues that the theoretical construct of PSM should be contextualized by inte-
grating the political and administrative contexts of public servants when investigating
their specific attitudes towards working in a public environment. It also challenges the
efficacy of the classic four-dimensional structure of PSM when it is applied to a specific
context. The findings of a confirmatory factor analysis from a dataset of 3754 employees
of 279 Swiss municipalities support the appropriateness of contextualizing parts of the
PSM construct. They also support the addition of an extra dimension called, according
to previous research, Swiss democratic governance. With regard to our results, there is a
need for further PSM research to set a definite measure of PSM, particularly in regard to
the international diffusion of empirical research on PSM.
Points for practitioners
This study shows that public service motivation is a relevant construct for practitioners
and may be used to better assess whether public agents are motivated by values or not.
Corresponding author:
David Giauque, University of Lausanne, Bureau 202, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
Email: david.giauque@unil
Nevertheless, it stresses also that the measurement of PSM must be adapted to the
institutional context as well. Public managers interested in understanding better the
degree to which their employees are motivated by public values must be aware that
the measurement of this PSM construct has to be contextualized. In other words, PSM
is also a function of the institutional environment in which organizations operate.
Keywords
contextualization, democratic governance, public service motivation, scale analysis
Introduction
The popularity of research on Public Service Motivation (PSM) among American
public management academics (Perry and Hondeghem, 2008) has spread all over
the world (Vandenabeele and Van de Walle, 2008). Nowadays, PSM research proj-
ects are at a turning point with the international diffusion of the approach on the
motivations of public servants. Consequently, the original US PSM construct,
along with its measurement, continues to be applied in Europe and in other con-
tinents. However, like most management theories and empirical studies (Clark and
Pugh, 1999), the PSM perspective mainly stems from an understanding of the
Anglo-Saxon context and culture. As a result, European scholars might find that
PSM studies are under an ethnocentric influence that leads to a standardized use of
its measurement. The measure developed by Perry (1996) is considered to be uni-
versally applicable, even if most research teams face problems when operationaliz-
ing PSM outside of the US.
This study, conducted in the wake of the cross-cultural perspective, aims at
questioning how the definition and operationalization of the PSM construct can
be adapted to particular cultural settings. On the basis of an empirical study done
in Switzerland using the four original PSM dimensions as a baseline model, we
found strong evidence for the necessity of adapting the measure of PSM to fit with
the cultural and institutional context of interest. This process is twofold. First, at
the item level, researchers have to deal with translation and interpretation issues to
create relevant and understandable items for the population under study. Second,
at the dimensional level, we follow Vandenabeele’s advice to explore the comple-
mentary dimension of PSM that focuses on administrative values (Vandenabeele,
2008). National culture shapes public institutions (content and values of the public
service) as well as individuals’ perceptions (cognitive understanding of concepts
and desirable values). Therefore, we argue that the content of additional dimen-
sions should be culturally contingent in order to reflect the relevant values of the
particular public service under scrutiny. Hence, the translation of items must be
rigorous in reinterpreting the original content and meaning so as to be fully com-
prehensible to the population that is under study.
228 International Review of Administrative Sciences 77(2)
To continue reading
Request your trial