A Collaboration-Based Model of Work Motivation and Role Ambiguity in Public Organizations

ABSTRACT

Intra-organizational collaboration has long been recognized as a potential source of improved performance for public organizations. In collaborative organizations, frontline employees can leverage interpersonal networks to access a broad pool of expertise and experience, resources that can then be used to overcome obstacles or take advantage of emergent opportunities. Given this link to goals, information flow, and empowerment, this study examines how intra-organizational collaboration affects work motivation, and posits that reduced role ambiguity plays a key role in this relationship. Building on previous literature, three species of collaboration—vertical interpersonal, horizontal interpersonal, and inter–work unit collaboration—are discussed. Using data from a large survey of American federal employees, structural equation modeling is used to test the hypothesized model. The results of the analysis suggest that reduced role ambiguity functions as an important mediating mechanism linking intra-organizational collaboration to work motivation. The implications of these findings for public management are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• bureaucracy
• collaboration
• motivation
• role ambiguity

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Kaifeng Yang and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

At the same time, the evidence for a relationship between PSM, job performance, and relevant job attitudes is compelling (Alonso & Lewis, 2001; Bright, 2007; Campbell & Im, 2015b). Some scholars have suggested that PSM is itself the outcome of organizational phenomena (Moynihan & Pandey, 2007; Wright, Moynihan, & Pandey, 2012). In public organizations, work motivation may thus be closely linked with PSM, a possibility that is here noted, given that most of the public administration research on motivation has focused on PSM rather than work motivation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jesse W. Campbell

Jesse W. Campbell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Local Service at the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.