The public administration literature makes many assertions
that the motivations of individuals who pursue public service
careers differ in important ways from other members of American
society. This research advances the study of these assertions by
This is a revised version of a paper
delivered at the Berkeley Symposium on
Public Management Research, sponsored
by the American Society for Public
Administration Section on Public Administration
Research, July 19, 1993. The
author would like to thank Ramon Aldag,
Gary Brumback, Allen Cassady, Danny
Lam, Lany Lane, Ted Miller, Frank
Although the theory is not well developed, several scholars
contend that the public service ethic, which is defined more
formally in the present study as public service motivation (PSM),
has significant behavioral implications. The level and type of an
individual's public service motivation and the motivational composition of a public organization's workforce have been posited
to influence individual job choice, job performance, and organizational
effectiveness (Perry and Wise 1990; Rainey 1982;
Rornzek 1990).