Demographic determinants of public service motivation: a meta-analysis of PSM-age and -gender relationships

ABSTRACT

Although age and gender are among the most analysed determinants of public service motivation (PSM), their effects on PSM development remain unclear due to contradictory findings among studies. To address this issue, we carried out a meta-analysis of PSM-age and -gender correlations, synthesizing findings from 30 independent samples, with pooled sample sizes as large as N = 86,958. Moreover, we considered the role of cultural context as a moderator of these relationships. Overall, we found that age and gender are indeed antecedents of PSM, but importantly, that these effects differ across cultural contexts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Public service motivation
• age
• gender
• meta-analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Although other cultural contexts were represented in our database and these studies were included in the overall analyses, sufficient representation was not available to carry out subgroup analyses within these cultures (i.e. Latin Europe, Nordic Europe, South Asia).

2. Note that, though moderator analysis following this approach is preferable to meta-regression in general (Schmidt 2017), it is particularly true in this case because our moderators are categorical versus continuous. Thus, our methods are appropriate for this case versus those offered in Ringquist (2013).

3. As a meta-analysis, we can only reflect what exists in the literature. Although we recognize alternative ways of measuring gender beyond binary, the current studies in our review captured gender as a dichotomous variable thus limiting our analysis to a binary measure. Future research can consider alternative conceptualizations of gender.

4. Note, however, that reduced sample sizes do not necessarily correspond to lower statistical power in a meta-analysis, because power is affected by both sample size and heterogeneity and the subgroup analyses should be less heterogeneous than the overall analyses (Cohn and Becker 2003).

5. As an additional test, for both sets of analyses, we also carried out moderator analyses by publication status (i.e. published vs. unpublished). Relationships between PSM and age were not significantly different (judging by overlap in 95% confidence intervals) between published (ρ = .14) and unpublished (ρ = .17) studies. Further, relationships between PSM and gender were not significantly different between published (ρ = .03) and unpublished (ρ = .02) studies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Heather R. Parola

Heather R. Parola (PhD, Florida International University) is an Assistant Professor of Management at Florida Atlantic University. His research focuses on motivation, job performance, personnel selection, overqualification, and individual differences.

Michael B. Harari

Michael B. Harari, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Management at the Schroeder School of Business at the University of Evansville. She earned her PhD in Business Administration from Florida Atlantic University. Her primary research interests include mergers and acquisitions and strategic leadership.

David E. L. Herst

David E. L. Herst, PhD, is a Senior Instructor of Management at Florida Atlantic University. His research focuses on leadership and work/non-work interference.

Palina Prysmakova

Palina Prysmakova (PhD, Florida International University) is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Florida Atlantic University. Her interests lie in the fields of public and nonprofit human resource management, financial management, and international development.