The context-dependency of Public Service Motivation

This study examines and compares the effect of Public Service Motivation (PSM) and PSM-fit on the intention to leave, affective commitment and satisfaction between the employees of three major parts of the Dutch public sector. The insights from this study contribute to our understanding of PSM and PSM-fit and bridges a lacuna in theory: a research to sectoral differences and thereby the context-dependency of PSM within a public sector as a whole has not been conducted before. The results show multiple significant differences between sectors in the strength of the effects of PSM and (to a lesser extent) PSM-fit: especially the effects in the public administration sector tend to be stronger in comparison with the education sector and the safety sector. The degree of Public Service (dPS), which was not considered to be a main effect, also showed to be a strong predictor with significant differences in strength between the sectors. The results indicate that the context-dependency of PSM is important, but should not be overestimated. The overall findings of this study are an addition to previous research in this field (e.g. Leisink and Steijn, 2009) and add on to our understanding of PSM and its antecedents.