Public Service Motivation and Institutional-Occupational Motivations Among Undergraduate Students and ROTC Cadets. (December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ngaruiya, Katherine M.; Velez, Anne-Lise Knox; Clerkin, Richard M.; Taylor, Jami Kathleen
• Is Part Of: Public personnel management. Volume 43:Number 4(2014:Dec.)
• Page Start: 442
• Page End: 458
• Publication Date: 2014-12
• Subjects: public service motivation -- motivation theory -- workplace attitudes and behaviors -- public management; Personnel management -- Periodicals; 658.3
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026014530270
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0091-0260

Abstract

Given the current fiscal climate, budgetary pressures may have important implications for recruitment and retention of military personnel. In response to this issue, we join two literatures to study motivational differences in undergraduate college students and Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) cadets: Moskos' Institutional and Occupational (I-O) enlistment motivation model and Kim et al.'s revised Public Service Motivation (PSM) scale. We survey ROTC cadets and undergraduates at a mid-size public university and find that PSM is higher for ROTC cadets than regular undergraduates. We also find that for ROTC cadets, the institutional motivators for enlistment correlate positively with the rational, normative, and affective dimensions of PSM. In addition, we find increases in the Occupational motivator and the compassion PSM dimension reduce the likelihood of being an ROTC cadet whereas the Institutional motivator and the self-sacrifice PSM dimension are positively related with being an ROTC cadet.