Explaining Public Service Motivation: The Role of Leadership and Basic Needs Satisfaction. (June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vandenabeele, Wouter
• Other Names: Vandenabeele Wouter guest-editor.; Leisink Peter guest-editor.; Andersen Lotte Bøgh guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Review of public personnel administration. Volume 34:Number 2(2014:Jun.)
• Page Start: 153
• Page End: 173
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Subjects: public service motivation -- supervisor -- basic psychological needs satisfaction -- self-determination theory -- public values; Civil service -- United States -- Personnel management -- Periodicals; Civil service -- United States -- States -- Personnel management -- Periodicals; 352.6
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X14521458
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0734-371X

Abstract

Both leadership and public service motivation (PSM) are important issues in contemporary public administration. By connecting these issues, the aim of this article is to assess the impact of one particular type of transformational leadership behavior—promoting public values—on PSM development. Two hypotheses were tested with a dataset of 3, 506 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 (autonomy and competence), whereby it demonstrates the validity of an institutional theory of PSM.