Enjoying Police Duties: Public Service Motivation and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Public service motivation briefly described as the motivation to contribute to society well-being is a continuously growing topic in the field of public administration. This concept, however, has not been widely applied to the distinct work environment of police forces. Addressing the gap, two studies look at the relationship between public service motivation and job satisfaction and the way this relationship is mediated by person-job and person-organization fits. The data comes from Warsaw (Poland) city police officers (N = 305) and from Belgian police officers (N = 207). The results indicate that in both cases, officers with higher levels of public service motivation also have higher levels of job satisfaction, even when different measures of public service motivation are used, which adds to the robustness of the findings. In both studies, this relationship is also mediated by person-job and person-organization fits.

Influence of engagement, work-environment, motivation, organizational learning, and supportive culture on job satisfaction.

“…The result is consistent with Vorina et al, (2017) who found that engagement has significantly influenced job satisfaction. The result agrees with the results from Prysmakova & Vandenabeele (2019) who reported that employees with higher levels of motivation have higher levels of job satisfaction.…”

“…The research was conducted among employees of telecommunication companies in Pakistan. Prysmakova & Vandenabeele (2019) confirmed that employees with higher level of motivation have higher levels of job satisfaction. The data was obtained from Polish and Belgian police officers.…”

Does Perceptions of Organizational Prestige Mediate the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation, Job Satisfaction, and the Turnover Intentions of Federal Employees?

“…Similar to POP theory, PO fit theory suggests that employees will have more beneficial work attitudes and behaviors when there is congruence between their personal characteristics and those of their organization (Kristof, 1996). Interestingly, in the field of public management, there is also evidence that PSM is positively related to PO fit and that PO fit fully mediates the effects of PSM on self-reported performance (Bright, 2007; Van Loon et al, 2017), job satisfaction (Bright, 2008; Prysmakova & Vandenabeele, 2020; Teo et al, 2016), and turnover intentions (Bright, 2008; Gould-Williams et al, 2015). In many ways, POP can be considered to be another dimension of congruence that reflects the alignment between public employees’ own beliefs and their understanding of citizens’ beliefs about their employment organizations.…”

The Relationship of Public Service Motivation to Job Satisfaction and Job Performance of Emergency Medical Services Professionals

“…Research with nurses in Italy has demonstrated that PSM has a positive relationship with job satisfaction and performance and that this relationship is amplified in the presence of transformative leadership strategies that highlight for the nurse the prosocial impact they have had on those they serve (Belle, 2013). Research with police has demonstrated that PSM is positively correlated with job satisfaction, particularly when there is a good fit between the person with the job tasks and with organizational culture (Prysmakova & Vandenabeele, 2019). Qualitative research with police officers in Switzerland (Neumann et al, 2019) has found that PSM and prosocial motivation are distinct among police officers and can vary independently.…”