When Knowing is Caring: Examining the Relationship Between Diversity Exposure and PSM

Abstract

While public service motivation (PSM) provides an important theory for understanding the motivations that underpin public sector worker behavior, theoretical connections to the institutional forces that produce and shape PSM remains underexamined. Given other-orientated motives that define part of PSM, exposure to peers from a variety of social backgrounds presents an input that may shape PSM earlier in life. Drawing on insights from intergroup contact theory, we use a nationally representative dataset of high school sophomores to examine the effect of school-level diversity along demographic and socioeconomic dimensions on students’ PSM-related values. Specifically, we use a fixed-effects approach to isolate the contribution of 10th grade exposure to students of a different race or socioeconomic background on 12th grade measures of PSM-related values. We find attending schools with a balanced mix of different-race students has a large and statistically significant impact on students’ PSM-related values by the end of secondary school.

Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools

“…Relatively expensive "elite" private schools cater to students from wealthy households. 9 These types of schools differ widely in affordability, school inputs, and acceptance rates. Public schools are free, and students are typically guaranteed admission to at least one public school in their neighborhood.…”

“…8 "Learning Curve," The Indian Express, April 13, 2012 (http://archive.is/YrjLu). 9 A loosely defined middle class typically sends its children to private schools intermediate in their price and exclusivity to public and elite private schools. elite private schools as I define them charge tuition fees in excess of Rs 2,000 per month (approximately $40, 25 percent of median monthly household consumption in 2010), and are vastly over-subscribed.…”

Prospects of Mortality Salience for Promoting Sustainable Public Sector Management: A Survey Experiment on Public Service Motivation

“…The second group includes organizational factors such as leadership characteristics and the work environment [22,23], involving leader relational behavior, servant leadership, empowering leadership, transformational leadership, mission valence, organizational goal clarity, extrinsic rewards, organizational support, and organization-based self-esteem [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. The third group comprises individual factors such as demographics, upbringing, and personal experiences, such as age, gender, personality traits, income, childhood experiences, parental education, and high school diversity [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. However, these studies have not provided actionable and immediate strategies to enhance public service motivation, as these factors are difficult to change or require significant costs.…”