Explaining public service motivation : the role of leadership and basic needs satisfaction. Paper

Abstract

Both leadership and public service motivation are important issues in contemporary public administration. By connecting these issues, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of transformational leadership behavior (promoting public values) on public service motivation development. Two hypotheses were tested with a dataset of 3506 state civil servants in Belgium. The analysis shows that a positive relation exists, and that it is moderated by a set of basic psychological needs (security, autonomy, competence and relatedness). The results demonstrate the validity of an institutional theory of public service motivation.