Looking at a Job's Social Impact Through Psm‐tinted Lenses: Probing the Motivation–perception Relationship

Abstract

We explore here the relationship between employees' public service motives and the way they perceive the social impact of their work. Our purpose is twofold. First, while past researchers have examined part of this relationship, largely from the opposite causal direction, we seek to supplement the field's current understanding of the organizational consequences of public service motivation (PSM), especially its potential impact on an employee's perceived social impact. Together with a cross‐sectional study, we assess several theoretical frameworks that support the possibility of an additional causal link between PSM and perceived social impact. Second, we seek to begin identifying moderators that potentially condition PSM's relationship with employee perceptions of social impact. Using a sample of municipal employees from a large city in the United States, we focus on organization identity. We find that PSM strongly predicts employees' perceptions of the social impact of their jobs, and that PSM's influence is conditioned by an employee's organization identity.

How Leadership and Public Service Motivation Enhance Innovative Behavior

“…In a quasi-experiment with fundraisers serving a public university, Grant (2008 ) showed that employees ' motivation could be increased by connecting them to the prosocial impact of their work. Moreover, Stritch and Christensen (2014 ) found that PSM strongly predicted employees ' perceptions of the social impact of their jobs.…”

International Comparison of Public and Private Employees’ Work Motives, Attitudes, and Perceived Rewards

“…We hypothesize differences among sectors in employees’ perceptions of the social impact of their work. Individuals with strong public‐service‐oriented motives might be more likely to emphasize the prosocial aspects of their work (Stritch and Christensen ). In addition, public organizations provide public goods and services to a community, whereas private sector employees are more likely to be involved in market‐driven exchanges of goods and services with individual customers.…”

“…We hypothesize diff erences among sectors in employees' perceptions of the social impact of their work. Individuals with strong public-service-oriented motives might be more likely to emphasize the prosocial aspects of their work (Stritch and Christensen 2014).…”

Targets for Honesty: How Performance Indicators Shape Integrity in Dutch Higher Education

“…It is somewhat related to intrinsic motivation, in the sense that there is no direct (future pecuniary) reward needed for motivation, even though the locus of control remains outside the self (Deci and Ryan ; Vandenabeele ). Individuals with high levels of PSM also tend to be more perceptive of the societal impact of their work (Stritch and Christensen ).…”

“…It is somewhat related to intrinsic motivation, in the sense that there is no direct (future pecuniary) reward needed for motivation, even though the locus of control remains outside the self (Deci and Ryan 1985;Vandenabeele 2007). Individuals with high levels of PSM also tend to be more perceptive of the societal impact of their work (Stritch and Christensen 2014). PSM consists of three dimensions: attraction to public policy making, commitment to the public interest, and compassion (Perry 1996;Vandenabeele and Van de Walle 2008).…”