We are pleased to announce that the International Public Management Journal (IPMJ) is launching an annual Best Article Award to recognize research of outstanding quality and with the potential to make an important contribution to public management research and practice. Four articles published in 2023 (Volume 26) were nominated as finalists by members of the IPMJ Editorial Board, and the winner was selected by the three of us as members of the editorial team. Thus, we are pleased to announce that the 2023 IPMJ Best Article Award goes to:
Guillem Ripoll and Carina Schott, “Does public service motivation foster justification of unethical behavior? Evidence from survey research among citizens“ (Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 1–22).
The article both contributes to the literature on public service motivation and gives us a better general understanding of behavior and motivation. It is noteworthy, though hardly surprising, that the paper is the most cited article published in 2023 (Volume 26) of IPMJ. The causal identification is strong, the interpretations are nuanced and interesting, and the article is extremely relevant for both practitioners and researchers. The focus is on justification of unethical behavior as a potential dark side of public service motivation. The article also increases our knowledge about the role of public service motivation among citizens. This type of motivation is not confined to the public sector, implying that it is very important to know that citizens’ ethical judgements involving public values can be influenced by public service motivation. Thus, the article combines innovative theorizing with rigorous methodology, and so we congratulate the authors for their excellent work.
We would also like to acknowledge and congratulate the other finalists for the 2023 IPMJ Best Article Award for their outstanding contributions to the journal. They are (in chronological order):
Obed Pasha, Alexander Kroll, and Michael Ash, “Assessing the equity and effectiveness of PerformanceStat systems” (Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 23–45).
Oliver Neumann and Carina Schott, “Behavioral effects of public service motivation among citizens: testing the case of digital co-production” (Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 175–198).
Nicola Belle, Paola Cantarelli, Chiara Barchielli, and Paul Battaglio, “Easier said than done. Do defaults and reminders affect public workers’ knowledge of guidelines?” (Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 785–806).
The winning article as well as the finalists will be set free access for a limited time with the goal of expanding their reach and impact. We congratulate all the authors for their fine work and thank them for their important contributions to IPMJ.
Aarhus University Havard University Rutgers University
Co-Editor and Award Chair Editor Editor
[email protected]