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This study aims to explore whether an introductory undergraduate course in Public Administration might be an appropriate educational tool for enhancing public service motivation (PSM) among undergraduate students. A quasi-experimental design involves surveying participants both before and after the intervention (taking an Introduction to Public Administration course) to examine whether their levels of PSM increase as a result of the intervention. The hypotheses were tested by comparing 96 students exposed to an intervention (experimental group) with 166 students who were not exposed (control group). There was no significant change in the total score of PSM and its individual dimensions before and after the intervention in both groups, and so the Introduction to Public Administration course was not effective in enhancing the level of PSM. The implications and limitations of this quasi-experiment are also discussed.

Trust is fundamental to the proper functioning of society and to democratic governance. However, there has been insufficient research on how trust is related to public service motivation (PSM). This study examines the relationships among generalized trust, institutional trust, and PSM using two-wave panel data (n = 1,074) with a one-year interval from online surveys conducted in Korea. Results show that both generalized trust and institutional trust are positively related to PSM, with generalized trust being the stronger predictor of PSM. The implications of this study are discussed, and suggestions for future research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate whether individual differences in public service motivation (PSM) between the public and private sectors are a cause or a consequence of choosing a job, testing self‐selection and socialization hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset from a nationally representative cohort in Korea. The study uses two samples from the data of three successive waves (t − 2, t, t + 2) surveyed biennially, finding that "self‐selection" can more persuasively explain the state that employees in the public sector have higher levels of PSM than those in the private sector, with job seekers with high PSM levels being more likely to work in the public sector and with the magnitude of differences in PSM between the public and private sectors maintained through the early years after entry into the workplace, while the levels of PSM, however, decrease in all job sectors. Implications of our findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social norms are regarded as customary rules that govern behavior in society but little is known about how social norms affect PSM and prosocial behavior. The purpose of the current study is to figure out the role of social norms on PSM and prosocial behavior through testing two theoretical models: one hypothesizes that social norms moderate the relationship between PSM and prosocial behavior; another predicts that social norms directly affect both PSM and prosocial behavior. Using the two waves of online survey data from Korea (n = 1,519), it confirms only the direct effect model. We can say that social norms may influence PSM and prosocial behavior directly because members of a society have learned from social norms what attitudes and behaviors are expected of them in various situations. This study provides support for the institutional perspective on PSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kim et al. (2013) developed a four-dimensional 16-item measure of public service motivation (PSM), but it failed to achieve metric invariance across the 12 countries studied. When metric invariance is at least partially established, empirically tested antecedents and outcomes of PSM in one country can be compared with those in other countries. This study re-tests the cross-country equivalence of the international PSM measure, using the same dataset and the same processes as used in Kim et al. (2013). The result provides support for partial metric invariance of the international PSM measure across the countries when releasing only one item (APP7 or COM6) among the 16 items. It means that predictive relationships (i.e., the strength of the relationships between PSM and other variables) can be meaningfully compared among the countries: Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the extent to which social institutions play a role in the development of public service motivation (PSM). This study investigates institutional factors affecting first-year undergraduate students' PSM, focusing on family, religion, and high school education in Korea. It uses two-wave survey data collected from first-year undergraduate students at a public university in Korea (n = 202). The test results show that parental teaching and participation in extracurricular activities (creative experiential learning activities) are positively associated with overall PSM and most of its individual dimensions, and religion is positively associated with the dimension of commitment to public values. This study provides support for the process theory holding that PSM is influenced by social institutions throughout an individual's childhood and adolescence. The implications and limitations of this study are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to resolve two issues in social trust research: the negative or positive effect of particularized trust (PT) and the causality between institutional trust (IT) and generalized trust (GT). It analyzes two types of data from South Korea: pooled data of cross-sectional national probability surveys; and online experimental three-wave panel data. Analyses of cross-sectional data suggest new classifications of trust types, family trust (FT) qualitatively different from PT, and the covariates of GT. Panel data analyses bolster the findings from cross-sectional data analysis and confirm a causal antecedence and lagged effects of IT. These findings imply that keys to achieving a high trust society are overcoming intense FT, expanding the radius of PT, and enhancing IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies examined an individual's level of education as one of the antecedents of public service motivation (PSM). Despite having the same level of education, why are the levels of PSM different among individuals? This study investigates the various components of high school education that may influence graduates' levels of PSM by analyzing longitudinal data (3,592 cases in four waves) of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study. It shows that leadership experience, volunteering satisfaction, peer collaboration, and constructive self‐assessment on achievement in high school Social Studies courses have positive influences on graduates' PSM. This study provides support for the institutional perspective that PSM can be cultivated through processes of institutional socialization, and suggests that the self‐determination theory and the social interdependence theory are useful for understanding the effects of extracurricular activities and peer collaboration on PSM, and that collaborative learning and service‐learning will be valuable in cultivating PSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service motivation (PSM) research heavily relies on self-report measures that are often susceptible to social desirability bias (SDB). Cultural orientation is also correlated with SDB. This study explores the ethnic differences in socially desirable responding when measuring PSM and job satisfaction in a multicultural but individualistic society like the United States. It tests the magnitude and pattern of SDB in measurements of PSM in this society as a whole, as well as the influence of ethnicity on SDB. The results of our experimental survey research show that SDB is significantly correlated with PSM measures, as well as job satisfaction. We therefore expect a spurious effect to occur in the correlational analysis. This implies that the correlation between job satisfaction and PSM is at least partly spurious due to measurement artifacts. Alternative ways to measure PSM need to be explored to control SDB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant research has been conducted to understand public service motivation (PSM) in the past decades using either multidimensional or unidimensional measures. This creates uncertainty in the review process about whether findings using one approach hold when other measures are used. PSM research faces the challenge of developing a better understanding of different PSM measures and the relationships between them. This paper compares a multidimensional to a unidimensional measure of PSM, assessing the predictive validity of PSM on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and person–organization fit. The empirical test shows that there is no significant difference in the predictive capacities of PSM on the work attitudes within the data set when using the different PSM measures. It provides some evidence that unidimensional and multidimensional measures of PSM are of comparable utility, at least within the data set used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has focused on finding and explaining the antecedents, correlates, and outcomes of public service motivation (PSM), but little is known about the influence of national context on individuals’ PSM. Previous research suggests that national culture may exert an independent influence on individuals’ PSM. This article examines PSM as an individual-level variable that is related to national culture, which is represented by Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme (2005), I investigate the relationship between cultural dimensions and individuals’ PSM. This article demonstrates that masculinity and indulgence are positively related to individuals’ PSM, whereas individualism is negatively associated with individuals’ PSM. However, power distance and uncertainty avoidance have a non-significant relationship with PSM. This article provides partial support for the thesis that national culture is associated with individuals’ PSM, but future research is required to explicate the relationship of cultural characteristics to individuals’ PSM. Points for practitioners Culture influences certain types of behavior both directly and indirectly. The article suggests that cultural tendencies such as masculinity, indulgence, and collectivism have a significant positive influence on individuals’ PSM. Organizational education and socialization enhancing these cultural values are likely to foster employees’ PSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service motivation (PSM) is usually measured using self-report data, which suggests that PSM measures can be influenced by social desirability bias. This study investigates whether respondents tend to report an inflated view of their attitudes and orientations during surveys on PSM. Experimental survey research (list experiment) is conducted to analyze the magnitude of social desirability bias in PSM measurements and to examine the relationship between socio-demographic factors and social desirability bias in Korea. The results show evidence of social desirability responding bias, although the pattern of bias varies across socio-demographic subgroups. Respondents in their forties or fifties, conservatives, Protestants, and those without a religious affiliation show more bias than other subgroups. This finding implies that correlational analysis in PSM research may be prone to the moderating effect of social desirability bias. Research that does not recognize and compensate for this bias may produce unwarranted theoretical or practical conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of what we know about public service motivation comes from self-report measures. However, self-report questionnaires are vulnerable to social desirability bias due to respondents’ tendencies to answer in a more socially acceptable way. This is a problem as social desirability bias threatens the validity of the measure. This study investigates whether characteristics of national culture influence social desirability bias during surveys on public service motivation. In particular, the impact of social desirability bias is analyzed with two concerns in mind: construct validity and inference validity of public service motivation measures. Experimental survey research (list experiment) is conducted to examine the magnitude of social desirability bias and its associations with national cultures in four countries: Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States. The results show that respondents in both collectivistic countries (Japan and Korea) and individualistic countries (the Netherlands and the United States) are likely to over-report answers on items of public service motivation, although the magnitude and pattern of this bias is stronger and more consistent in collectivistic countries. This study also finds a strong possibility of a moderator effect in correlational analyses in collectivistic countries, but it is doubtful this effect is present in individualistic countries. Overall, we suggest that the effects of social desirability bias should be investigated in public service motivation research, and social desirability bias should be controlled for in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Korea's way of controlling the bureaucracy through budgetary process. This paper emphasizes the budgetary process and bureaucratic control by which budgets are formulated and executed. It aims to analyze the process adapted in Korea concentrating on the role of the Korean National Assembly legislature. The legislature has been changed from assistant to executive to a powerful representative of the public. Previous models of bureaucratic politics and alternative designs are discussed along with specific look on the access to information and routinization of budget control in Korean context.