Public-Sector Work Motivation: A Review of the Current Literature and a Revised Conceptual Model

This article reviews the literature on work motivation in the public sector, with careful attention to the underlying theoretical assumptions of this body of work and the empirical evidence it has generated. The topic of work motivation has received relatively little attention in the public sector; the research that does exist has been largely data driven, guided at best by theories that have not incorporated more contemporary research. In this article I will draw on current psychological research on work motivation, as well as the theory and empirical evidence regarding the unique characteristics of public organizations and employees, and develop a revised public-sector model of work motivation that emphasizes variables such as procedural constraints, goal content, and goal commitment. J-PART 11(2001):4:559-586 In a recent article, Behn (1995) urged scholars to focus their research on the big questions in public management. One of the most important of these questions, according to Behn, concerns motivation. Specifically, the field needs to learn how "public managers [can] motivate public employees (and citizens too) to pursue important public purposes with intelligence and energy" (p. 319). This observation, however, is not new. Perry and Porter (1982, 97) noted nearly two decades ago that "the literature on motivation tends to concentrate too heavily on employees within industrial and business organizations." Perry and Porter proposed, as did Behn, a research agenda to improve the understanding of the motivational context in public-sector organizations. Unfortunately, very little research has fulfilled this agenda. While work motivation has been a prominent area of interest in organizational behavior (Cooper and Robertson 1986) and continues to be one of the most frequently discussed topics in psychology (Rousseau 1997), it has been (Balk 1974) and continues to be (Behn 1995) largely ignored by public-sector scholars. 559/Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory This content downloaded from 157.55.39.181 on Thu, 29 Sep 2016 05:54:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Public-Sector Work Motivation: Literature Review Admittedly, work motivation is a difficult concept to define or study (Rainey 1993). While numerous definitions of work motivation have been developed over the years, some consensus can be found around Jones's (1955, vii) assertion that work motivation concerns "how behavior gets started, is energized, is sustained, is directed, is stopped, and what kind of subjective reaction is present in the organism while all this is going on." Such a broad definition is slightly misleading, suggesting that motivation is studied as an end in itself. In actuality the primary objective of work motivation research has not been to learn why employees act as they do but, instead, to learn how to motivate employees to perform the duties and responsibilities assigned by the organization. Consistent with this emphasis, work performance often has been used as a proxy for work motivation, ignoring other determinants of performance such as employee (e.g., ability or task comprehension) and environmental (e.g., situational constraints or task demands) characteristics (Kanfer 1990). In recognition of a primary concern with performance and the limited role of motivation in determining that performance, however, work motivation is considered here as inclusive of such aspects as the direction, intensity, and persistence of work-related behaviors desired by the organization or its representatives (Mitchell 1997). Although this definition emphasizes the determinants and processes that underlie behavior, such constructs cannot be measured directly but must be inferred from a larger theory in which the antecedents of motivation are linked to purported behavioral consequences. Even though there has been some agreement on a definition there has been little agreement on how to operationalize or measure work motivation, and there are a number of competing theories of work motivation. While no single, dominant theory exists, many recent attempts to develop a unified theory of work motivation have emphasized the importance of goal structures as the immediate regulator of behavior (Kanfer 1990; Katzell and Thompson 1990; Mitchell 1997). As I have noted, however, work motivation has failed to achieve similar interest among public-sector scholars. This lack of attention to work motivation in the public sector is surprising. Public-sector organizations are under constant pressure to improve their productivity and reduce their costs. Because publicsector employees frequently are stereotyped as lazy, self-serving, and misguided (Baldwin 1984; Newstrom, Reif, and Monczka 1976), a better understanding of work motivation is essential to any efforts to describe, defend, or improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations. 560/J-PART, October 2001 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.181 on Thu, 29 Sep 2016 05:54:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Public-Sector Work Motivation: Literature Review Furthermore, recent research on motivation has emphasized how the interaction of environmental and personal forces influences individual motivation, but little effort has been made to identify or discuss the potential implications these theories hold for public-sector organizations. Although there is a great deal of debate on whether fundamental differences should exist between the public and private sectors in the characteristics of employees and work environment, there is agreement that differences do exist (Fottler 1981; Meyer 1982; Osborne and Gaebler 1992; Perry and Porter 1982; Perry and Rainey 1988; Rainey, Backoff, and Levine 1976; Whorton and Worthley 1981). Unfortunately, research generally has failed to address whether the differences between the two sectors have a significant impact on the variables relevant to organizational effectiveness in the public sector (Baldwin and Farley 1991). The study of work motivation can provide valuable insight into any effect these sector differences might have on a critical antecedent of public-sector productivity. My objective in this article is to advance understanding of work motivation in the public sector. In the first section of the article, the current research on work motivation in the public sector will be reviewed, with a careful examination of the current theoretical approaches and the empirical evidence that they have generated. Previous reviews of this literature have been conducted, but they are either dated (Gibson and Teasley 1973; Perry and Porter 1982) or they were intended to compare the attributes of publicand private-sector organizations (Baldwin 1984; 1987; 1991; Baldwin and Farley 1991; Rainey, Backoff, and Levine 1976; Rainey 1989; Rainey, Traut, and Blunt 1986). I will conclude the article by combining theory and empirical evidence regarding the unique characteristics of public organizations and employees with contemporary psychological theories of work motivation in order to develop a revised public-sector model of work motivation. The resulting model will provide a theoretical framework for future public-sector research on work motivation that may be able to identify specific leverage points that can increase work motivation and, therefore, productivity in the public sector. CURRENT CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Although insufficient attention has been given to work motivation within the context of the public sector, relevant research does exist. To facilitate an understanding of the existing work motivation literature, some attempt must be made to place these studies within a theoretical framework. One such framework is 561/J-PART, October 2001 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.181 on Thu, 29 Sep 2016 05:54:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Public-Sector Work Motivation: Literature Review Exhibit 1 Public-Sector Model of Work Motivation