“All quiet on the non-Western front?” A review of public service motivation scholarship in non-Western contexts

Abstract

While public service motivation (PSM) research has recently become more internationalised, over 80% of all scholarship is still being conducted in Europe and the United States. In this article, the focus is on recent PSM scholarship in non-Western contexts, involving 36 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2014. Of particular interest are the origins of scholarship, the theories, samples and methodologies used, and the empirical findings on the relation between PSM and key antecedents and outcomes. The findings show that the use of theoretical and methodological approaches with a Western signature is sometimes problematic in explaining motivational and organisational dynamics in non-Western contexts. In response, the discussion concludes by proposing a research agenda for non-Western PSM research with three key interest areas: cultural values and societal disposition, different types of motivators and their relation with PSM, and links between public service ethos, institutions, and PSM.

Keywords:

• Public service motivation
• public management
• public service ethos
• developing countries
• Asia

Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the National University of Singapore for a Startup Grant which supported the conduct of the analysis for this article.

Notes

1. The seven journals are: Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Review of Public Personnel Administration, The International Public Management Journal, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, and International Review of Public Administration. These journals were selected because they are some of the leading journals in the field of Public Administration. In addition, (other) journals based in Asia were included to ensure that studies of PSM in non-Western settings would be identified.

2. Following Ritz, Brewer and Neumann (2013), a “new author” was defined as the first time an individual’s name appears in the chronologically arranged dataset. Subsequent publications by the same author were ignored.

3. In some studies, two separate surveys were conducted.

4. These studies included more than one country in the empirical analyses to draw lessons on differences in the PSM construct or measurement in different national or local settings.