Gender and public sector careers: The motivations of Master of Public Administration students

Abstract

Why are graduate school applicants interested in public service? Who are these individuals and how do they convey their preference for a career in the public sector? We present an exploratory qualitative study on gender differences in deciding to undertake a master’s degree in public administration with the intent of seeking public sector employment. Our findings reveal that female applicants are particularly interested in influencing policy changes around social justice causes, while male applicants exhibit a strong desire to understand how the public policy process and government bureaucracies work. This research has important practical implications because understanding graduate students’ motivations for pursuing a career in public administration is critical for human resources recruitment, retention, and employee management.

Staying Motivated: The Study Protocol for a Life-Course Analysis of the Career Paths of Canadian Public Servants

“…The point of departure will be each participant’s graduate admissions letter. This will build on our recent pilot study (DeRiviere et al, 2021) in which we analyzed the motivations of applicants to two MPA programs using their graduate admissions letters. A phenomenological study focuses on exploring the understandings and sense-makings of participants as they experience a specific phenomenon (Eller et al, 2018; Van Thiel, 2014).…”

“…Recruitment and sample size – Recruitment will take place using each School’s alumni contacts, following a similar process as in our pilot study (DeRiviere et al, 2021).…”

“…Public service motivation (PSM) theory identifies the drivers behind individuals’ choices to work in public service careers, primarily the public sector. In our previous qualitative pilot study (DeRiviere et al, 2021), we used the PSM framework in Table 1 based on the PSM tradition advanced by Perry and Wise (1990) and refined over the past three decades (Perry & Wise, 1990; Perry & Hondeghem, 2008; Perry et al, 2010). PSM is organized into three categories: (i) rational motivations such as an attraction to public policy making to reinforce one’s anticipated contributions to public service; (ii) normative motivations such as a commitment to civic duty and the public interest, driven by cultural or societal mores; and (iii) affective motivations based on compassion in response to social situations.…”

“…Furthermore, we propose that the path of PSM over the life course, the dependence of PSM on contextual factors, and the interdependencies with others are experienced differently women, men, and non-binary individuals. Life course analysis is necessarily gendered, given that how femininities, masculinities, and non-binary experiences shape lives differently (Acker, 2012; Calderone et al, 2020; DeRiviere et al, 2021).…”

“…Empirical research on PSM has seen rapid growth over the last three decades (Perry et al, 2010; Ritz et al, 2016; Korac et al, 2019), mostly in the context of public institutions and public sector employment. Some studies have focused on motivations of graduate students pursuing public sector-related degrees (Chetkowich, 2003; Vanderbeele, 2008; Carpenter et al, 2012; Lee & Choi, 2016; Van Der Wal & Oosterbaan, 2013), a small subset of which have studied graduate programs in Canada (DeRiviere et al, 2021; Henstra & McGowan, 2016; Ng & Gossett, 2013).…”