Research On The Influence Mechanism Of Societal Cultures On Public Service Motivation

Public service motivation(PSM)is an intrinsic driver of an individual’s preference to serve the public.Encouraging people to generate public service motivation is one of the key concepts in designing incentive systems in the public sector and what factors determine people’s public service motivation is a major concern in the field of public administration.Most previous research discussed the antecedents of PSM at both the individual and organizational levels,and the influence of societal culture on PSM has not been fully examined.Collectivism and cultural tightness-looseness,as two dimensions of culture,the former emphasizes the conceptual connotation of transcending self-interest to serve the interests of the group,which has similarities with PSM,and the latter describes the strength of norms,one of the motives foundations of PSM.Therefore,through a questionnaire survey(N = 812)and two experiments(N = 126 and N = 213),this study discussed the causal mechanisms of collectivism and cultural tightness-looseness on PSM.In addition,the present study also examined whether collectivism and cultural tightness-looseness could affect individual PSM in a given situation when individuals are faced with a conflict between their own interests and the public interest.The findings show that(1)collectivism has a significant positive effect on PSM,i.e.when individuals perceive a stronger collectivist culture,their PSM is also stronger.This effect is not constrained by the given contexts.(2)cultural tightness-looseness has a significant positive effect on PSM,i.e.when individuals perceive a tighter culture,their PSM is stronger,but this effect fails in contexts where an individual’s material interests conflict with the public interest.(3)Collectivism and cultural tightnesslooseness have both crowding-out and synergistic effects on PSM.This study reveals the relationship between culture(collectivism and cultural tightness-looseness)and PSM,provides an explanatory framework of cultural dynamics for the emergence and development of PSM,and expands the nomological network of PSM.This study also provides practical insights on handling public crisis events and developing public service education for the public sector.