Doing good for others and/or for society?

The relationships between public service motivation, user orientation and university grading

Authors

  • Lotte Bøgh Andersen Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University & Danish Institute of Governmental Research
  • Thomas Pallesen Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University
  • Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen Department of Political Science, Aalborg University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v17i3.15727

Keywords:

Project management, Denmark, Civil service, Job advert, Role analysis

Abstract

Public service motivation (PSM) is a pro-social motivation to serve the public good and shape the wellbeing of society. Although the key relevance of PSM is its potential effect on behavior, much of the evidence of the impact of PSMrelies on subjective measures of behavior. Additionally, the literature has not investigated whether PSM clashes with other types of pro-social motivation. This paper addresses these limitations by investigating how PSM and user orientation (pro-social motivation oriented towards the individual user) affect university teachers’ grading behavior in two Danish political science departments. We find that individuals with high PSM behave in ways that can be interpreted as protecting the public good. In contrast, university teachers with high user orientation behave in ways that benefit the individual user. The effect of PSM is moderated by institutional rules and norms, and the results imply that different types of pro-social motivation can affect behavior differently, especially when institutions are weak.

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Author Biographies

Lotte Bøgh Andersen, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University & Danish Institute of Governmental Research

Lotte Bøgh Andersen is a professor at the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University and at the Danish Institute for Local and Regional Government Research. Her research interests include motivation, behavior and performance of public employees, leadership and use of economic incentives in the public sector and the relationship between professionals and service users.

Thomas Pallesen, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University

Thomas Pallesen is a professor in Public Administration, and his areas of research are the impact of public sector organization and public sector reform. Currently he is working with colleagues from psychology and business administration on an interdisciplinary project about public employee involvement in public organization decision making processes (see www.au.idil.dk for more information).

Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, Department of Political Science, Aalborg University

Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen, Ph.D. is an associate professor in Public Administration and Organization. Her research areas include relations between top civil servants, political advisers and ministers in a comparative perspective, government communication, and public management, as well as the politics of reputation management in the public sector, also in a comparative perspective.

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Published

2013-09-15

How to Cite

Bøgh Andersen, L., Pallesen, T., & Houlberg Salomonsen, H. (2013). Doing good for others and/or for society? The relationships between public service motivation, user orientation and university grading. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 17(3), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v17i3.15727

Issue

Section

Original Articles

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