Accountability and public service motivation in Korean government agencies

Abstract

This paper reports on a study in South Korea which looked at the relationship between public service motivation (PSM) and goal orientation in that country's public sector. Goal clarity and goal congruence explained variations in accountability. Affective PSM was especially important. When individuals were exposed to unstable and ambiguous organizational environments, the relationship between PSM (especially affective and norm-based) and accountability was more pronounced. The theoretical and practical implications and limitations of this research are explained.

Keywords:

• Accountability
• HRM
• P-O fit
• PSM
• public management

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant (NRF-2014S1A2A2028436).