The Link Between Public Service Motivation and Volunteering: The Case of South Korean Civil Servants

Abstract

Despite the consensus on volunteering as a behavioral consequence of public service motivation (PSM), research has not yet empirically examined how various PSM constructs relate to an individual’s volunteering, and the underlying mechanism between PSM and volunteering remains a mystery. This study identifies common motivational grounds between PSM and volunteering and examines how the four PSM types—rational, normative, affective, and self-sacrifice—predict public service employees’ volunteering. The findings from the survey of employees in the Korean National Government suggest a connection between public employees’ volunteering and the rational dimension of PSM, i.e., their desire to influence public policy process.

Keywords:

• public service motivation
• government
• volunteering
• rational dimension

Notes

¹ The sample size was reduced to 302 due to missing observations.

² The classification system for general service includes nine grades, from 1 (the highest) to 9 (the lowest). Grade levels in the sample are inversely coded for better interpretation, originally from 9 (lowest grade level, new employees, coded as 1 in the analysis) to 4 (senior managers, coded as 6 in the analysis).