A strategy for building public service motivation research internationally

Abstract

As the scholarly research on public service motivation (PSM) has grown and the geographic scope of the research has expanded, there is growing concern about whether the conceptual composition and dimensionalities of PSM are appropriate for explaining and predicting public service–related behavior in different countries and internationally. For doing cross-national research and comparison, we need to assure that the dimensionalities are stable and a measure of PSM can be used confidently. This article sets out a strategy for convergence internationally in research and measurement approaches. It will review research to assess commonalities in the content of PSM internationally, and revise the construct and operational definition of PSM to develop a more universal construct that can be used globally and is more likely to generate cumulative knowledge. There are three significant subjects that need to be analyzed in this study. They are to sharpen the concept of PSM by refining the conceptual components in Perry and Wise’s (1990) study, to clarify the dimensionalities of PSM by refining the four dimensions in Perry’s (1996) scale, and to specify the relationship between PSM and its dimensions by comparing a reflective measure with a formative one. After reviewing the previous studies, we propose that public service motives are based on self-sacrifice and can fall into three categories (instrumental, value-based, and identification motives) and that the dimensions of the PSM construct are refined as attraction to public participation, commitment to public values, compassion, and self-sacrifice. We also suggest that developing more appropriate items for better discriminant validity is essential for further research. The careful consideration of the relationships between PSM and its dimensions shows that it is more reasonable to define PSM as a formative construct: first-order reflective and second-order formative.