The Effectiveness of Monetary and Promotion Rewards in the Public Sector and the Moderating Effect of PSM (PSM-Reward Fit or PSM Crowding Out): A Survey Experiment

Abstract

To what extent does public service motivation (PSM) affect how monetary rewards and promotion opportunities motivate government officials? This study offers an answer to this question through a survey experiment conducted with a sample of city government officials in Florida. The experimental results demonstrate that both monetary and promotion reward treatments positively motivate officials with low PSM. However, as the level of PSM increases, the positive treatment effect of the monetary reward decreases and converges on 0. Conversely, the positive effect of the promotion opportunity treatment not only decreases but becomes negative, indicating that PSM crowding out is taking place.

Reward Expectancy and External Whistleblowing: Testing the Moderating Roles of Public Service Motivation, Seriousness of Wrongdoing, and Whistleblower Protection

“…Based on this view, individuals with low PSM need more extrinsic rewards to nudge them toward whistleblowing, whereas those with high PSM are already intrinsically motivated to blow the whistle, and therefore, they need fewer extrinsic motivators to motivate them to do so. This is confirmed in a recent experimental study by Ki (2022), which showed that both monetary and non-monetary rewards had a stronger effect on the willingness to learn among officials with low PSM.…”

“…First, this study draws attention to the role of public service motivation (PSM)-the desire to do good for society, even at personal costs (Perry et al, 2010). Despite evidence that extrinsic rewards may crowd out the virtuous influence of PSM (Ki, 2022) and intrinsic motivation (Cho & Perry, 2012;Feldman & Lobel, 2010;Weibel et al, 2010), this study draws from expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) to argue that, in the context of whistleblowing, individuals with high PSM may view extrinsic rewards as a crucial source of validation for their sacrifice, which may enhance the perceived value of extrinsic rewards. While PSM has been shown to lead to both whistleblowing intentions (e.g., Cho & Song, 2015;Dungan et al, 2019;Potipiroon & Wongpreedee, 2021) and actual whistleblowing behavior (e.g., Brewer & Selden, 1998;Caillier, 2017a;Dungan et al, 2019), we do not know how those with high PSM view the prospect of receiving whistleblower rewards.…”

“…Some argue that financial incentives may not significantly affect whistleblowing intentions (e.g., Feldman & Lobel, 2010; Lee et al, 2020). As argued by Howse and Daniels (1995, p. 532), “much of the action taken by the whistleblower might occur even without a payment or with a lesser inducement.” There are also concerns that offering extrinsic rewards may not be practical for addressing the wicked problems in the public sector (Perry et al, 2010) and may crowd out the altruistic motivation of public employees (e.g., Cho & Perry, 2012; Ki, 2022; Weibel et al, 2010). These mixed views and findings suggest that whistleblower rewards may or may not have positive motivational gains, depending on not only the reward design but also the motivational bases of individuals as well as situational factors (see also Perry et al, 2009).…”

Motivation crowding effects on the intention for continued use of gamified fitness apps: a mixed-methods approach

“…For example, Wollbrant et al (2022) find that efforts to enhance prosocial behavior through monetary rewards may have adverse effects. Likely, Ki (2022) indicate that the effect of monetary and promotion rewards on motivating government officials could be crowded out by public service motivation. Generally, these studies indicate that when utilizing external motivation to promote individual behavior, the crowding-out effect of motivation is present in various scenarios.…”

Untangling the Association Between Goal Clarity and Public Service Motivation With the Moderating Role of Value Congruence

“…Taking the latter perspective, studies have investigated various factors that may influence PSM, including demographic factors such as gender, age and education, as well as social institutions such as family, religion and profession (Pandey & Stazyk, 2008;Perry, 1997). Empirical evidence on these factors has been compiled in the literature (Bright, 2016;Ki, 2022;Kim, 2021;Kjeldsen, 2012;van Witteloostuijn et al, 2017). However, the impact of an organization's institutional settings on PSM has received less attention, with only a few exceptions (Grant, 2008;Kjeldsen & Jacobsen, 2013).…”