Essays on Work Motivation and the Workplace
Headnote
This study advances our understanding of employee work motivation and performance in the public sector by reinterpreting the literature on public service motivation within the psychological framework of goal theory. An empirical test of this new framework suggests that goal theory provides a strong theoretical foundation for understanding the independent contributions of task, mission, and public service to employee work motivation and performance. The importance of an organizations mission increases employee work motivation in the public sector by making the job more important, even after controlling for the effect of performance-related extrinsic rewards.
It is commonly assumed that public sector organizations are more likely to employ individuals whose values and needs are consistent with the public service mission of the organization (Baldwin 1984; Balfour and Wechsler 1990; Crewson 1997; Perry and Wise 1990; Rainey and Steinbauer 1999). Charged with promoting the general social welfare, as well as the protection of society and its citizens, public organizations often have missions with broader scope and more profound impact than those typically found in the private sector (Baldwin 1984). Consequently, the composition of the public workforce is expected to reflect the nature of public sector work by attracting employees who desire opportunities to fulfill higher-order needs and altruistic impulses by performing public service. In fact, considerable empirical support exists for the assertion that employee reward preferences coincide with the function served by the sector in which they are employed. Public sector employees have repeatedly been found to place a lower value on financial rewards and a higher value on helping others (public service) than their private sector counterparts (Boyne 2002; Wright 2001).'
The existence of sectoral differences in reward preferences is not just a matter of purely academic interest; rather, it is assumed that these differences have a practical influence on the performance of public sector organizations. Studies that have found similar levels of work motivation among public and private employees suggest that the importance employees place on contributing to the public service mission of their organizations