Public Service Motivation and Employment Sector: Attraction or Socialization?

Abstract

Within the public service motivation (PSM) literature, several studies have shown that PSM is positively associated with public sector employment. However, the question of whether PSM influences or is influenced by employment decisions remains open, since these studies mostly rely on samples with current employees. This paper investigates the relationship between PSM and employment sector in a pre-entry as well as entry and post-entry setting using data from two panels with Danish physiotherapists: one with students entering their first job in the public or private sector and one with current employees among whom some have made a sector switch. The analyses show that while different dimensions of PSM are relevant for attraction effects in both sectors, PSM does only to a limited extent predict actual job choices and sector switches. Furthermore, once employed, public organizational membership does not foster PSM; it rather prevents PSM from declining as much as in the private sector. This suggests that PSM acts both as an antecedent and as a consequence of sector employment but in a more complex way than previously assumed.

Where Does the Good Shepherd Go? Civic Virtue and Sorting into Public Sector Employment

“…We secondly contribute to the question of selection before the career versus socialization during the career (Dur and Zoutenbier, 2015;Kjeldsen and Jacobsen, 2013).…”

“…This weakness is perhaps compensated by the fact that the SOEP allows a detailed analysis of both selection and socialization effects, as individuals are observed before and after labor market entry. One of the few exceptions of studies that consider selection effects of prosocial motivation is Kjeldsen and Jacobsen (2013).…”

“…The jobs that are compared, such as service jobs in the public sector with service jobs in the private sector, are perhaps still so different that they may not have the same target group of applicants. Future studies can focus on branches that are more specific and that nevertheless have both public and private sector positions (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen, 2013).…”

“…However, this phenomenon is not unique for the public sector (Blau, 1960;Van Maanen, 1975), but has been found to occur in the private sector as well (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen, 2013). There is evidence that the decline in prosocial motivation is stronger in the private sector (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen, 2013) or -when a behavioral measure is used and a longer time span is considered -in the public sector (Buurman et al, 2012).…”

“…There is evidence that the decline in prosocial motivation is stronger in the private sector (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen, 2013) or -when a behavioral measure is used and a longer time span is considered -in the public sector (Buurman et al, 2012). Overall, the evidence is not clear with regard to differences in socialization.…”