Public service motivation, prosocial behaviours, and career ambitions
Purpose The purpose of this study 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. Design/methodology/approach 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 programs. Findings 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. Originality/value This paper answers calls to examine the dimensions of public service motivation 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.