Research on the role of public service motivation (PSM) relating to work performance has been a significant topic in recent years; however, the relationship between PSM and job performance remains mixed. To investigate whether job attitudes mediate the effect of PSM on public employees' turnover intention, this study integrated job satisfaction and organizational commitment into a single model. Based on a sample of 587 full-time Chinese public employees, our findings revealed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment, respectively, mediated the negative association between PSM and employees' turnover intention. Multiple mediation analysis indicated that job satisfaction and organizational commitment sequentially mediated the effects of PSM on turnover intention. As a result, our findings suggested that public employees with high PSM levels preferred to stay in the public organizations. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

PurposeThis study investigated the mediating role of job satisfaction and the moderating role of career growth opportunity in the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and public employees' turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachThe authors recruited 587 public employees from Yunnan Province, China to test moderation and mediation hypotheses. The authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis to determine the discriminant and convergent validity of the measures of PSM, turnover intention, job satisfaction and career growth opportunity. Finally, the authors carried out bootstrapping to ascertain direct, indirect and conditional indirect effects.FindingsPSM had a negative effect on public employees' turnover intention, but this relationship was partially mediated by job satisfaction. Career growth opportunity moderated the association between job satisfaction and turnover intention. In particular, the indirect effect of PSM on turnover intention through job satisfaction weakened under high career growth opportunities.Practical implicationsThe results highlighted the significance of PSM and career growth opportunity in shaping public employees' work-related attitudes and behaviors. Public organizations should consider PSM a key criterion in recruitment and selection and pay more attention to the significance of intervening in career growth to satisfy public employees' psychological needs related to individual career development.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on the disputed link between PSM and turnover intention and uncovered the underlying mechanism through which PSM affects public employees' turnover intention by proposing job satisfaction and career growth opportunity as a mediator and moderator, respectively.

This article proposes and tests a shortened instrument for public service motivation based on Perry's (1996) exploratory 24-item scale according to the investigation of Chinese civil servant in Kunming city. Results show good support for the shortened scale compared to Perry's original work through investigating the PSM of Chinese civil servant in Kunming city. We got a 14-item scale for three factors, but the CIP dimension has not been emerged in the present study. At the same time, the results show that the total level of PSM for Chinese civil servant who was drew from the basic level of city government in Kunming, Yunnan is higher. Of three dimensions, the Mean of compassion is highest with a M=4.0871, the Mean of self-sacrifice is relatively low with a M=3.7328.

Since American scholars Perry and Wise put forward the concept of public service motivation in 1990, the research on public service motivation have been concerned by a lot of scholars. Many Chinese scholars have promoted the study of public service motivation since the beginning of 21 century and a lot of writings have emerged.Through empirical investigation of Chinese civil servants in Lijiang city of Yunnan province, this paper draws some valuable conclusion. Based on the above research conclusion, the paper puts forward the following suggestions: (1) Strengthening the government civil servants public service awareness training and promoting the spirit of public service; (2) reforming existing incentive mechanism and enhancing the government's job satisfaction of civil servants; (3) strengthening the government civil servants occupation management and establishing the concept of occupation.

Based on empirical investigation of 69 villages of 32 towns in Kunming city, the article analyses the satisfaction and its influencing factors of rural public cultural service. The results show that the satisfaction of public cultural service is relative high in the rural area, but most rural residents have a little awareness and participation about public cultural service. The Education and occupation of rural residents as well as awareness and participation have significant impact on the satisfaction of public cultural service. The article puts forward some suggestions for the development of rural public cultural service, such as further increase the supply of rural public cultural services, promoting policy publicity and implementing effective assessment mechanism.