Public service motivation: State of the art and conceptual cleanup

Abstract

Public service motivation is an increasingly researched and, at the same time, hotly debated concept in the field of public management and public administration. It refers to the motivation people have to contribute to society. This chapter provides an overview of what has happened so far in this field since the introduction of the concept in the 1980s and 1990s, with a particular focus on the role of the research community. In this overview, causes, consequences, and related theories are identified. The chapter also establishes gaps in the literature and issues that remain unresolved. In so doing, we carry out a conceptual cleanup by positioning the subject alongside related but different concepts such as intrinsic motivation, altruism, and prosocial motivation.