public service motivation and job satisfaction in china

Public service motivation and jobsatisfaction in China

An investigation of generalisability andinstrumentality

Bangcheng LiuDepartment of Public Administration,

School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai, China

Ningyu TangSchool of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

Shanghai, China, and

Xiaomei ZhuSchool of Economics and Management, East China Jiao Tong University,

Jiangxi, China

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how generalisable the public servicemotivation (PSM) observed in Western society is to China and to examine the effects of public servicemotivation on job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysistechniques are applied to survey data of 191 public servants in China to investigate the generalisabilityof Western PSM. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the paper examines the effects of thedimensions of PSM on job satisfaction.

Findings – The results show that the public service motivation observed in the West exists in China,but the generalisability of the construct is limited. Three of the four dimensions of public servicemotivation (attraction to public policy making, commitment to the public interest, and self-sacrifice)exist in China, but the fourth dimension (compassion) is unconfirmed.

Originality/value – The paper is the first to examine the generalisability and instrumentality ofPSM as observed in Western society to China. The results indicate that the public service motivationobserved in the West also exists in China, but that the generalisability is limited. Public servicemotivation emerges from the results as a positively significant predictor of job satisfaction in thepublic sector of China. It enhances the applicability and meaningfulness of the concept of publicservice motivation across political and cultural environments.

Keywords China, Job satisfaction

Paper type Research paper

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-7720.htm

The authors are indebted to Editor Professor Adrian Ziderman, editorial assistantMichal Tal-Socher and two anonymous reviewers of International Journal of Manpower fortheir constructive comments and suggestions. They are also grateful to Dr Wensheng Yang forhis discussion on Chinese traditional culture.

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Received 9 June 2007Revised 10 June 2008Accepted 17 June 2008

International Journal of ManpowerVol. 29 No. 8, 2008pp. 684-699q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0143-7720DOI 10.1108/01437720810919297

IntroductionHuman resources are core organisational resources. Public administrations aresubjected to two types of pressures. The first, a financial one, comes from taxpayers,who expect public agencies to reduce their operational costs. The second type ofpressure comes from users of public services, who expect high-quality services frompublic agencies (Castaing, 2006). Administration and motivation of public employees iscrucial for practitioners, citizens and scholars (Perry and Wise, 1990).

The reward motivation of public sector employees is not representative of that ofthe general labor force (Shamir, 1991; Crewson, 1997; Perry, 1996, 2000). Shamir (1991)has criticised the shortcomings of traditional motivation theories when applied topublic and nonprofit organisations. Recently, the public service motivation constructhas been used to determine what motivates public servants in the West (Perry, 1996,1997, 2000; Taylor, 2007; Bright, 2007; Perry et al., 2008). The term “public servicemotivation” (PSM) originated in the 1970s in discussions of public service ethics(Buchanan, 1975). Rainey (1982, 1997), who investigated differences in rewardmotivations between public and private sector employees, concluded that publicemployees have a greater interest in altruistic or ideological goals. Rainey (1982) alsopointed out that PSM is a broad, multifaceted concept that may be conceived in manydifferent ways. Using Rainey’s findings, Perry and Wise (1990) defined and developeda measurement scale for PSM.

Despite increased attention to the study of public service motivation, scholars havefocused almost entirely on developed countries. There is little research on publicservice motivation in China. Social and cultural differences raise questions about howgeneralisable the PSM constructs are. Because of the differences between Western andChinese society, it is unclear whether or not it is possible for Western study methods tobe used in a meaningful way in China.. Little is known about the internal motivation ofChinese public servants. This study examined the extent to which public servicemotivation assessment can be applied to China and if so, which mechanisms would beinvolved.

Based on the literature review, the current study examines the construct of publicservice motivation in the Chinese public sector. This article evaluates how well theconstruct of PSM, observed in western societies, can be generalised to China. We alsoinvestigate the effects of PSM on public employees’ job satisfaction.

Public service motivationIn North America, the thorniest question confronted by the public sector is how toattract, retain and motivate talented employees (Alonso and Lewis, 2001). In China, it isalso urgent to attract, retain and motivate the “best person” in the public sector. Perryand Wise (1990) suggested that public sectors need to reframe the question ofmotivation and examine the unique motivational bases of public service. Although payand benefits might inspire some people to choose and excel in public sector jobs, Perryand Wise (1990 ascribed more weight to the excitement and drama of public policymaking and to the opportunity to serve a greater goal. They argued that people whorespond to such incentives have a higher public service motivation – the force thatinduces people to enter careers in the public service (Brewer and Selden, 1998, 2000).

Perry and Wise (1990) defined PSM as an individual’s predisposition to respond tomotives grounded primarily or uniquely in public institutions and organisations. Theyidentified three theoretical bases of PSM: rational, norm-based, and affective. Rational

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motives are grounded in maximising individual utility; norm-based motives involve adesire to serve the public interest; affective motives are grounded in human emotionand are characterized by a desire and willingness to help others (Perry and Wise, 1990).These provide a useful framework for understanding PSM (Brewer, Selden and Facer,2000). Defining the motivation base of public service, Perry (1996) translated the theoryof PSM into a measurement scale. Scale development began by crafting 35 surveyitems developed from a literature review and from focus groups with Master of PublicAdministration degree candidates on their conceptions of public service. The 35 surveyitems corresponded to six dimensions of public service motivation: attraction to policymaking, commitment to public interest, civic duty, social justice, compassion, andself-sacrifice. With the exception of self-sacrifice, these motivations corresponded tothe three categories of motivations which Perry and Wise (1990) identified: attraction topolicy making fell into the rational category; commitment to public interest, civic duty,and social justice fell into the norm-based category; and compassion fell into theaffective category. Self-sacrifice was retained because of its presence in the publicadministration literature (Perry, 1996). Perry tested the scale with confirmatory factoranalysis and derived four factors: public policymaking, public interest, compassion,and self-sacrifice. He then provided further evidence of construct validity byidentifying several antecedents of PSM and reporting their correlations to themeasurement scale (Perry, 1997). Perry’s approach is a significant improvement overprevious research that used proxy variables to measure PSM and sector comparisonsto test for its existence (Crewson, 1997; Brewer, Selden and Facer, 2000; Wright, 2007).

Considering individual perceptions of PSM, based on Q-sorting methodology,Brewer, Selden and Facer (2000) identified four types of individuals holding differentconceptions of PSM: Samaritans, Communitarians, Patriots, and Humanitarians.Bright (2005) found that public service motivation was significantly related to thegender, education, management level, and monetary preferences of public employees.In addition to the traits and characteristics of individual PSM, Houston (2006) foundthat those with higher PSM are more likely to volunteer and to donate blood. Moynihanand Pandey (2007a, 2007b) also found that PSM is strongly and positively related toeducation and membership in professional organisations. These results also underlinethe significant influence of organisational institutions, showing that red tape andlength of organisational membership are negatively related to PSM, while hierarchicalauthority and reform efforts are positively related to PSM.

Although many studies have confirmed the existence of the construct of publicservice motivation, these studies were only conducted in the USA (e.g., Perry, 1996,1997, 2000; Crewson, 1997; Houston, 2000, 2006; Camilleri, 2007), France (Castaing,2006), Korea (Choi, 2001; Kim, 2006), UK and Germany (Vandenabeele, Scheepers andHondeghem, 2006), and Australia (Taylor, 2007); PSM has not been examined inChinese contexts. China has a large public service sector, and the reforming andreengineering of public administration is making progress. Motivating andadministering the more than 6,000,000 public servants is an ambitious undertaking.If the hypothesis of Perry and Wise (1990) is confirmed, then PSM is positively relatedto individual performance, public organisations that attract members with high levelsof PSM are likely to be less dependent on utilitarian incentives to manage individualperformance effectively, and PSM would be a useful management tool for Chinesepublic administration. Given the differences in political system, culture and tradition,can the PSM construct observed and examined in Western societies be applied directlyto Chinese contexts?

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Job satisfactionDuring the past several decades, scholars have paid more attention to job satisfaction,which has been described as “the most intensively studied variable in organizationalresearch” (Rainey, 1997). Job satisfaction is often assumed to be a pleasurable orpositive emotional state resulting from the evaluation or appraisal of one’s job or jobexperience (Locke, 1976).

Though studies have demonstrated that many factors affect job satisfaction, themost notable are “intrinsic job characteristics” (Saari and Judge, 2004). Research hasshowed that when employees were asked to evaluate the facets of their job, the natureof the work itself (which included job challenge, autonomy, variety, and scope)emerged as the most important (Saari and Judge, 2004). A meta-analysis has confirmeda significantly positive correlation between job satisfaction and performance, thoughthe relationship sometimes was weaker than expected (George and Jones, 1997).

Some measures of job satisfaction assessed certain dimensions of the job, whileothers measured a single overall perception of the job (Saari and Judge, 2004). Aqualitative approach suggested that research about job satisfaction should be based onthe evaluation of expectations, needs, motivations and work conditions (Bussing et al.,1999). Our research is following this trend and analyses the effects of public servicemotivation on job satisfaction in order to test the instrumentality of public servicemotivation in China.

Relationships between public service motivation and job satisfactionStudies show that PSM is linked to important work-related attitudes and behaviourssuch as job satisfaction (Rainey, 1982; Naff and Crum, 1999; Taylor, 2007),organisational commitment (Crewson, 1997; Camilleri, 2006; Taylor, 2007),organisation performance (Naff and Crum, 1999), extra-organisational attitudes andbehaviours such as altruism, trust in government, serving the public or one’s country,civic involvement, and political participation (Brewer and Selden, 1998, 2000; Breweret al., 2000). PSM has a positive impact on all of these variables. The level of PSM ishigher in public employees than in their counterparts in the private sector, and publicemployees with higher PSM scores are more satisfied with their jobs, more committedto their organisations, and more productive.

More importantly, although a few studies have tested the relationships betweenPSM and work outcomes, few have analysed the relationship between PSM and workoutcomes at the dimensional level (Taylor, 2007), though scholars have insisted thatPSM was a multidimensional construct. When PSM dimensions are analysedconcurrently, some dimensions are likely to play a more dominant role than others ininfluencing work outcomes. To explore these pressing questions, just as Taylor (2007)did, we analyse the relationships between the dimensions of PSM and individual workperformance. Job satisfaction is one of the main attitudes of public servants. Schneiderand Vaught (1993) found that public sector employees were more satisfied with theirjobs than private sector employees because of the intrinsic motivation aspects of theirwork.

If Perry and Wise (1990) are correct, the public sector should be able to attract andretain a sufficient number of high-quality employees with high PSM. Consequently, theapplicants with higher PSM should be selected for public positions. As Crewson (1997)has found, PSM would be an intrinsic motivation for public employees. However, astudy of 35,000 federal, white-collar employees has been inconclusive. Employees who


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expected to receive a material reward for exceptional performance did attain highergrades and performance ratings, and there was no evidence that the link betweenmaterial rewards and performance mattered any less to those with high PSM (Alonsoand Lewis, 2001). According to motivational theories, public employees with higherPSM would devote themselves to public causes and more easily find job satisfactionand enjoyment in the daily routine. Based on data from 10,000 federal employees in theUSA, Naff and Crum (1999) revealed that PSM significantly contributed to jobsatisfaction and discouraged them from wanting to leave their position.

As government work provides ample opportunities to serve the public interest,employees whose motives were anchored in the need to pursue the common good werelikely to be satisfied with their jobs (Taylor, 2007). Since an employee’s PSM wasattributed to a mix of motives, when examining their impact on work-related outcomes,it would be more useful to analyse all four PSM dimensions simultaneously (Taylor,2007). This research focused on the relationships among all the four dimensions ofpublic service motivation and job satisfaction. In addition, we hypothesise a strongpositive relationship between public servants’ job satisfaction and each dimension ofpublic service motivation. Specifically:

H1. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ jobsatisfaction and the public policymaking dimension of PSM.

H2. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ jobsatisfaction and the public interest dimension of PSM.

H3. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ jobsatisfaction and the compassion dimension of PSM.

H4. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ jobsatisfaction and the self-sacrifice dimension of PSM.

Historical and institutional context of Chinese public serviceThe historical and institutional context is important in understanding public servicemotivation (Vandenabeele, Scheepers and Hondeghem, 2006). To obtain a clearerimage of the content of public service motivation in China, we would like to trace theorigins of public service in China and describe the key characteristics of public ethosand ethics.

The Chinese public service sector is both the agent of state executive power and thesystem for performing and regulating executive functions (Lam and Chan, 1996).Strictly speaking, before 1993 China had no public service. In feudal times, the emperorclass represented national power; public administration mostly consisted of ruling,decision-making and controlling. For the general public, employees in the public sectorwere not only administrators but also decision makers. High power distance wastherefore acknowledged by and acceptable to the society (Hofstede, 1980).

Chinese leaders, especially Deng Xiaopeng, decided to change the situation. In 1993,the Chinese government issued the provisional regulation of state public servants toinstitute state public service. In 2005, the Law of Public Servants was approved,formally establishing the Chinese public service system.

With the establishment of Chinese public service system, Vice-president of thePeople’s Republic of China, Zeng Qinghong (Zeng, 2005) encapsulated this into 32Chinese characters (Re Ai Zu Guo, Zhong Yu Ren Min, Qiu Zhen Wu Shi, Kai Tuo

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Chuang Xin, Gu Quan Da Ju, Tuan Jie Xie Zuo, Ke Jin Zhi Shou, Lian Jie Feng Gong).Re Ai Zu Guo and Zhong Yu RenMin mean that for a public servant, the interests of thepeople and of the nation take the highest precedence. Qiu Zhen Wu Shi and Kai TuoChuang Xin indicate that public servants should objectively and creatively provideservice to the public. Gu Quan Da Ju and Tuan Jie Xie Zuo emphasize the importance ofcoordination and teamwork in relation to national, collective and individual interests.Ke Jin Zhi Shou and Lian Jie Feng Gong require public servants to be extremelyconscientious, committed, and attentive to public service and to act with integrity.

Methods: sample and procedureThe sample comprised 191 part-time Master of Public Administration (MPA) studentsfrom a university in eastern China. All students were employed full-time in the publicsectors. Sixty-three percent of the respondents were male and 36.7 per cent werefemale, with a mean age of 33.10 (SD ¼ 3.57). They were employed as social workers,professionals, administrative/clerical employees, technicians, police officers andfirefighters.

The author administered the PSM inventory in class. The students were informedthat while their participation was compulsory, they did not have to put their names onthe questionnaire. The English version of the PSM inventory was used aftertranslating it into Chinese and back into English to avoid misunderstandings ordeviations. Because the MPA students’ completion of the questionnaire was part oftheir final course score, the response rate was 100 per cent.

The items included in the PSM inventory were originally developed by Perry (1996).In the present study, we were especially interested in the cross-cultural generalisabilityof PSM to China. The inventory contained 24 items representing the four dimensions ofPSM. These questions asked the respondents to consider their public servicemotivation and to identify the extent to which these questions expressed their personalperceptions about themselves. We used a 5-point Likert scale of “1 ¼ Strongly disagreeand 5 ¼ Strongly agree”. The Likert scale is the most frequently used variation of thesummated rating scale and the Likert scale produced interval data (Cooper andSchindler, 2003). We combined items within the original construct of PSM to assesseach of the PSM dimensions in the Chinese context.

We also used Bono and Judge’s (2003) work on job satisfaction to evaluate theinstrumentality of public service motivation. The respondents were asked to evaluatetheir job satisfaction by rating the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with thefollowing five items: “Most days I am enthusiastic about my work”, “I feel fairlysatisfied with my present job”, “I find real enjoyment in my work”, “Each day at workseems like it will never end”, and “I consider my job rather unpleasant”. The last twoitems were reverse-scored.

Following Dehart-Davis et al. (2006) and Wright and Pandey (2005), we chose ageand gender (female as the reference group and female ¼ 0, male ¼ 1) as two controlvariables for greater specificity.

ResultsFirst, we confirmed the existence of the PSM in China by conducting an exploratoryfactor analysis with SPSS 12.0.

In exploratory factor analysis process, an exact quantitative basis for deciding thenumber of factors to be extracted has not been developed (Hair et al., 1998). There are


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several criteria for the number of factors to be extracted, such as latent root criterion(only the factors having latent roots or eigenvalues greater than 1 are consideredsignificant, and all factors with latent roots less than 1 are considered insignificant andare disregarded), percentage of variance criterion (no absolute threshold is adopted forall applications), and scree test criterion (the scree test is used to identify the optimumnumber of factors that could be extracted before the amount of unique variance beginsto dominate the common variance structure. The scree test is derived by plotting thelatent roots against the number of factors in their order of extraction, and the shape ofthe resulting curve is used to evaluate the cutoff point and the point at which the curvefirst begins straightening out is considered to the maximum number of factors toextract). In practice, most factor analysts seldom use a single criterion. Instead, theyuse a criterion such as the latent root as a guideline for the first attempt atinterpretation, and then employ another process and criterion (Hair et al., 1998).

For the attraction to public policy making, commitment to public interest,compassion, and self-sacrifice, we used the latent root criterion and the scree testcriterion simultaneously to evaluate the number of factors, as demonstrated inFigures 1-4.

As can be seen in Figures 1, 2 and 4, all of the three scree tests indicate that twofactors may be appropriate for the three dimensions of PSM, but in the eigenvalue forthe second factor of each dimension, the low value (0.52, 0.83 and 0.8) is relative to thelatent root criterion value of 1.0. These results illustrate the need for multiple decisioncriteria in deciding the number of factors to be retained. In our analysis the twodecision criteria (scree test and latent root criterion) were considered simultaneously, sowe can conclude that the one-factor solution fits the data best for these threedimensions of PSM. Additionally, each factor represented 62.03 per cent, 53.73 per cent,

Figure 1.Scree test for attraction topublic policy making

Figure 2.Scree test for commitmentto public interest

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and 44.41 per cent of the variances (Table I). For the compassion dimension, a similarprocess was applied and the results indicate that it consists of four factors (Figure 3).Following the results of the exploratory factor analysis above, we can conclude that allof the dimensions of Perry’s original PSM are supported except for compassion.

In evaluating each item’s factor loadings, following Hair et al. (1998), we applied arelatively stringent rule of thumb, accepting an item only if it had a 0.40 or greaterloading on a factor that was also at least 0.20 greater than its loading on any otherfactor. The results are summarized in Table I. The results connected three items toattraction to public policy making, three of the five items to commitment to publicinterest, and four of the eight items to self-sacrifice (Table I). According to Table I, asingle factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explained 62.03 per cent of thevariance in the items for the “attraction to public policy making”; a single factor withan eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explained 53.73 per cent of the variance in the items forthe “commitment to the public interest”, and a single factor with an eigenvalue greaterthan 1.00 explained 44.41 per cent of the variance in the items for the “self-sacrifice”. Inaddition, the results shown in Table I indicate that these items of the three dimensionsof PSM formed three reliable subscales with a ¼ 0:69, 0.54, and 0.57.

To investigate the dimensionality of the PSM construct scale, we performed aconfirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 5.0. To create a data file for the CFA,

Figure 3.Scree test for compassion

Figure 4.Scree test for self-sacrifice


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we excluded cases with missing data. We retained a total of 152 cases. We used theincremental fit index IFI and the comparative fit index CFI as key indicators of overallmodel fit (Bollen, 1989). The CFA yielded acceptable fit indices, Chi-square ¼ 57:82,df ¼ 32, p ¼ 0:003 , 0.05, and Chi-square=df ¼ 1:81, CFI ¼ 0:91, IFI ¼ 0:92.

The same process was applied to job satisfaction. The results show that four of thefive items for job satisfaction have an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explaining 66.69 percent of the variance and ¼ 0:74, CFI ¼ 0:97, IFI ¼ 0:97, except the item “Each day atwork seems like it will never end”.

Table II shows the means, standard deviations and the correlated coefficientinformation of the overall variables.

Factors

Variables

Attraction topublic policy

making

Commitmentto the public

interest Self-sacrifice

Politics is a dirty worda 0.78The give and take of public policy making does notappeal to mea 0.75I do not care much for politiciansa 0.83It is hard to get me genuinely interested in what isgoing on in my communitya 0.71Meaningful public service is very important to me 0.68I would prefer seeing public officials do what is bestfor the community, even if it harmed my interests. 0.71Making a difference in society means more to methan personal achievements 0.49I feel people should give back to society more thanthey get from it 0.47I am one of those rare people who would riskpersonal loss to help someone else 0.80I am prepared to make enormous sacrifices for thegood of society 0.75Percentage of variance explained 62.03 53.73 44.41Eigenvalue 1.86 1.64 2.19Internal consistency reliabilities (Alpha coefficient) 0.69 0.54 0.57

Notes: Figures in italic indicate primary factor loading; Items with a indicate they were reverse-scored from Perry’s original scale

Table I.Results of exploratoryfactor analysis of threedimensions of PSM

Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5

1. Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) 0.63 0.482. Age 33.10 3.57 0.18 *

3. Attraction to public policy making 3.43 0.82 0.09 0.024. Commitment to public interest 3.75 0.56 20.02 0.13 0.45 * *

5. Self-sacrifice 3.48 0.55 0.16 * 0.07 0.23 * * 0.39 * *

6. Job satisfaction 3.52 0.63 0.16 * 0.16 * 0.24 * * 0.14 0.27 * *

Notes: * p , 0.05; * * p , 0.01

Table II.Descriptive statistics andcorrelation

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As can be seen in Table II, we found that the three dimensions of PSM were correlatedwith each other significantly ( p, 0.01). Specifically, attraction to public policy makingcorrelated with commitment to public interest at 0.45, attraction to public policymaking correlated with self-sacrifice at 0.23, and commitment to public interestcorrelated with self-sacrifice at 0.39. Additionally, we found the correlations betweenjob satisfaction and two of the three dimensions of PSM to be significantly positive ( p, 0.01). An exception was the correlation between commitment to the public interestand job satisfaction.

To test H1, H2, H3, and H4, we ran hierarchical regression analyses. Beforeregression analysis, multicollinearity diagnostics were needed. The results showed alltolerance statistics were above 0.69, and therefore the significant multicollinearityproblem was ruled out.

Because our factor analysis of the PSM scale did not yield a factor analogous tocompassion, we were unable to test H3. Hence, we only tested H1, H2, and H4.

In Step 1, we entered Age and Gender as two control variables to examine howmuch variance in the dependent variables was accounted for by the control variables,then added the three dimensions of PSM into the regression equations to jointlyanalyse the effects of the independent variables and control variables on the dependentvariable (job satisfaction). Table III displays the regression results.

The results indicate that Age has a significant association with job satisfaction, afinding which implies that older employees are more satisfied with their jobs than areyounger ones.

The data in Table III also demonstrate the separate effects of the dimensions of PSMon job satisfaction. Two of the three dimensions of PSM (attraction to policy makingand self-sacrifice) were found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. AsTable III shows, when the three dimensions of PSM were added to the regressionmodel, the increases in the model multiple correlation square were significant ( p ,0.01), although the absolute magnitude was not large (D R 2 ¼ 0:11). Specifically,attractions to public policy making had a marginally significant and positive effect onpublic servants’ job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:16, p ¼ 0:06) as Naff and Crum (1999) andMoynihan and Pandey (2007b) found. Self-sacrifice was also found to have a stronglysignificant and positive effect on the respondents’ job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:28,p ¼ 0:001), while no significant effect was found between commitment to public

Model testedVariable Hypothesis tested Beta

Step one: control variablesAge 0.16 * * 0.16 *

Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) 0.12 0.08Step two: independent variablesAttractions to public policy making 1 0.16 *

Commitment to public interest 2 20.02Self-sacrifice 4 0.28 * * *

R 2 0.05 * * * 0.16 * * *

D R 2 0.11 * * *

F test 3.75 * * * 5.60 * * *

Notes: * p , 0.1; * * p , 0.05; * * * p , 0.01; Beta ¼ standardized regression coefficients

Table III.Results of hierarchical

regression analysis withjob satisfaction as

dependent variable(n ¼ 152)


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interest and job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 20:02, p ¼ 0:84). Therefore, we can conclude thatH1 and H4 are supported, while H2 is unconfirmed.

DiscussionThis study serves the following two purposes:

(1) it investigates the dimensionality and generalisability of PSM in China; and

(2) it examines the relationships between each dimension of PSM and publicservants’ job satisfaction.

One hundred and ninety-one respondents from the public sectors were surveyed, and thesurvey results suggest that the PSM observed in the West also exist in China, but thegeneralisability of the construct was limited: three of the four dimensions of publicservice motivation exist in China – attraction to public policy making, commitment tothe public interest, and self-sacrifice – but the compassion dimension was unconfirmed.

According to Perry (1996), attraction to public policy making could reinforce one’ssense of self-importance. Given government’s role in American society, this motive isunique to public institutions. This is also true in Chinese society. In Chinese traditionaland bureaucratic society, making public policy is an assertion of power. Chineseculture is characterised by traditionality (Farh et al., 1997). Traditionality, with itsemphasis on hierarchical relationship, is related to “power distance” (Hofstede, 1980).Staff members in the public sector are distinguished from workers, peasants, andothers by their leadership responsibilities. It is therefore logical for there to be the PSMdimension of “attraction to public policy making” in Chinese society.

The other two dimensions of the original PSM construct are supported in Chinesepublic servants. According to Perry (1996), commitment to the public interest was onlyone integral value in the construct of public service motivation. One hallmark of publicservice was its placement of the public interest above personal gain (Frederickon andHart, 1985). This is also true in China’s public sector. Commitment to the public interestand self-sacrifice in Chinese administrative attitudes, ethics and behaviours could betraced to the Confucian idea of self-discipline which stresses the importance ofindividual character for public servants, an idea which was compatible with thecommunist ideology calling on Party members to devote themselves to therevolutionary cause and the exclusion of personal interest. The sense ofself-discipline led to good behaviour and altruism (Zhu, 2000). In Mao Zedong’s era,serving and working for the interests of the people were the tenets for the public sector.The ethos and ethics of today’s Chinese civil servant place the interests of themotherland and the people higher than anything else (even individual life).

The “compassion” dimension of public service motivation was not confirmed in thissample of Chinese public servants, even though Frederickson and Hart (1985)suggested that compassion should be the central motive for civil servants. However,this does not mean that the Chinese public sector is devoid of compassion, benevolence,or sympathy; maybe these have merely been suppressed. In traditional Chineseadministration, upward orientation(the lower takes responsibility for the upper in thehierarchical administration system)is outstanding and benevolence, sympathy for thesuffering of others and the desire to help them might be restrained.

This study also examines the relationship between public service motivation andjob satisfaction. Attraction to public policy making was marginally significant anddirectly related to job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:16, p , 0.1), and self-sacrifice was

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strongly, significantly and directly related to job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:28, p , 0.05);however, there was no significant relationship between commitment to public interestand job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 20:02, no significance).

Our results support the literature on the importance of PSM in the public sector (e.g.Naff and Crum, 1999). As Taylor (2007) and Bright (2007) insisted, the theory ofperson-organisation (P-O) fit would be very useful to explain the effects of PSMdimensions on job satisfaction.

Let us consider the significantly positive effect of attraction to public policy makingon job satisfaction. According to Russell (1969), the needs for power and for honor werethe two fundamental human needs. In Chinese society, the worship of officialdom ispopular. To the public, one who makes public policy is seen as the representative ofgovernors who hold great authority. In China, public servants are both administratorsand decision makers (Lam and Chan, 1996). According to the P-O fit theory,complementary congruence is achieved when the salient unmet needs of people aresatisfied by the resources and tasks that are provided by organisations (Bright, 2007).

From a supplementary standpoint in the P-O fit paradigm, it is logical that theself-sacrifice dimension of PSM significantly contribute to job satisfaction.Supplementary congruence is achieved when organisations attract people whosegoals and values reflect their own (Bright, 2007). Public servants who are satisfied withtheir jobs will perceive that their job allows for the fulfillment of values that areimportant to them. In the Chinese language, the term “public servant” literally meansservants of the people who are taking risks, actively exploring, creatively changingand making enormous sacrifices for the good of the people. In short, self-sacrifice is oneof the core values of the Chinese public sector. Thus, respondents with a higherself-sacrifice value would be more satisfied with their jobs because their value iscongruent with the spirit of the Chinese public sector.

In contrast to Taylor’s (2007) hypothesis that “Normative motives (Commitment topublic interest) will have a greater influence on job satisfaction than self-sacrifice,rational (Attraction to public policy making) and affective motives (Compassion)”, thisresearch found that a normative motive (commitment to public interest) had arelatively weaker influence on job satisfaction than self-sacrifice and rational motives,even though Perry (1997) insisted on a strong correlation between self-sacrifice andcommitment to the public interest, as this research found. One of the possible reasons isthat there might be a vital and full mediator(s) between commitment to the publicinterest dimension and job satisfaction, as Bright (2007) found. In other words,commitment to the public interest dimension of PSM could have an indirect effect onjob satisfaction through a specific full mediator(s).

This empirical study also found that respondents’ age was a critical control variablewhen evaluating public employees’ job satisfaction. This finding might be explainedby the socialisation or adaptation difference between younger and older publicservants. One explanation is that the older employees are generally more experienced,and hence handle the negative and positive features of their jobs better. They couldalso be more satisfied with longer service because they are likely to hold more desirablepositions, have more close friends, and make fewer demands (Perry, 1997; Naff andCrum, 1999; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007b; Taylor, 2007). This finding is especiallyeasily understood in the Chinese contest, in which older employees have higherpositions and more authority.


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ConclusionInterest in public service motivation has increased significantly among practitionersand scholars (Bright, 2007). Unfortunately, most of these efforts focused on Westernsociety. There is little research on the nature of public service motivation in China. Thehistorical and institutional context is important in understanding public servicemotivation (Vandenabeele, Scheepers and Hondeghem, 2006). Considering thetraditional, cultural and political differences between the West and China, the needto understand public service motivation in Chinese public sector takes on greaturgency. As Tsui (2006, p. 9) has pointed out, “To further Chinese managementresearch and develop valid knowledge, contextualization in measurement is not onlydesirable, but essential”.

Based on 191 respondents from the Chinese public sector, the survey results suggestthat the PSM observed in the West also exist in China, but that the generalisability ofthe construct is limited. Our empirical study demonstrate that PSM is a universal oretic concept, but that the construct dimensions of PMS are affected by the cultural andinstitutional context (emic). In addition, this research analyse the effects of the threedimensions of PSM and the respondents’ demographic variables on job satisfaction.The empirical results demonstrate that attraction to public policy making andself-sacrifice (of the PSM dimensions) as well as the age variable significantlycontribute to respondents’ job satisfaction, while commitment to the public interestunexpectedly had no significant effect on job satisfaction.

Despite these findings, this research has some limitations. We used 191 Master ofPublic Administration students as the sample for cross-cultural validation, but sincethis cross-sectional design raises some statistical questions, a longitudinal researchdesign is needed in future studies. Although we simultaneously provided English andChinese versions of the PSM, a language barrier does exist. More importantly, becausethis study was based on only 191 respondents for exploratory factor analysis andconfirmatory factor analysis, the stability of the construct of PSM needs furthertesting. Although this study supports the generalisability of the PSM to China, thegeneralisability of its findings cannot be established without replication; particularly,the compassion sub-dimension could not be observed, so we speculate that PSM wouldhave some differential or particular contents in the Chinese context.

PSM is still a nascent theory (Choi, 2001). Future studies should extend the originalPSM constructs and contents observed in Western society. If confirmed in a differentpolitical and administrative environment, PSM could be more strongly supported as ageneral theory. In addition, the practical implication of PSM theory for managing andmotivating public employees is another critical field to be explored. Even though PSMdoes contribute to job attitudes, how does PSM affect the attitudes of the publicemployees? Do PSM levels remain constant? If not, what factors affect PSM ingovernment organizations?

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Further reading

Coursey, D.H. and Pandey, S.K. (2007), “Public service motivation measurement: testing anabridged version of Perry’s proposed scale”, Administration and Society, Vol. 39 No. 5,pp. 547-68.

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About the authorsDr Bangcheng Liu is an assistant professor in the department of public administration, School ofInternational and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses onmotivation, attitude, and knowledge management. Bangcheng Liu is the corresponding authorand can be contacted at: [email protected]

Dr Ningyu Tang is an associate professor at the School of Management at Shanghai JiaotongUniversity. Her current research focuses on culture’s influence on HRM, cultural adaptability andvirtual team learning. She has published papers in both organizational behaviour and HRMareas and she is author of several books, including Human Resource Management and PersonnelAssessment: Theories and Practices (in Chinese).

Xiaomei Zhu is an associate professor at the Department of Management, School ofEconomics and Management, East China Jiaotong University. She received her PhD degree inManagement from the Center for Human Resource Study, Antai School of Management,Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in 2005. Her research interests focus on psychological contractmanagement, employability management, compensation and incentives management, andemployment relationship management.


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