IS PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION RELATED TO OVERALL AND DIMENSIONAL WORK-UNIT PERFORMANCE AS INDICATED BY SUPERVISORS?

摘要

Due to the use of self-reported data and mixed findings, doubts have been raised about the positive relationships found between public service motivation (PSM) and performance. This study aims to provide a robust test of the PSM-performance relationship by using work-unit supervisor ratings, thereby decreasing the risk of common-source bias. Further, this study provides a robustness test by analyzing the relationship between PSM and overall performance, as well as with various dimensions thereof (output, efficiency, service outcome, responsiveness, and resilience). Survey data on employees in 55 work-units of a healthcare organization were analyzed using multiple regression. The results indicate that PSM is significantly related to overall performance but, when regressed on the separate dimensions, PSM is not significantly related to efficiency and responsiveness. The results have implications for both theory and practice as they show that whether PSM relates to performance depends on how performance is conceptualized.