Abstract

To date, public service motivation (PSM) has been investigated only as an individual-level phenomenon. We argue that, in order better to understand team effectiveness in public organizations, it is essential that team characteristics are also taken into consideration. This study provides a key contribution to public management research by exploring the relationship between PSM and team effectiveness at the group level. Specifically, we introduce the concepts of team-level PSM, which describes the average level of PSM within a team, and PSM differentiation, which refers to the variance in PSM that exists across different members of a team. The data used for this study are based on a two-wave survey of 122 teams of public sector employees in Switzerland. Findings show that team-level PSM is indirectly related to team effectiveness through the process of team identification and that this relationship is strengthened when there is less variability in PSM within the team. The implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed.

摘要

迄今为止，公共服务动机（PSM）仅作为个人层面的现象进行了调查。我们认为，为了更好地理解公共组织中的团队效率，还必须考虑团队特征。本研究通过探索 PSM 与团队层面的团队有效性之间的关系，为公共管理研究做出了重要贡献。具体来说，我们介绍了团队级 PSM 的概念，它描述了团队内 PSM 的平均水平，以及 PSM 差异化，它指的是团队中不同成员之间存在的 PSM 差异。本研究使用的数据基于对瑞士 122 个公共部门雇员团队的两波调查。研究结果表明，团队级别的 PSM 通过团队识别过程间接与团队效率相关，并且当团队内 PSM 的可变性较小时，这种关系会得到加强。讨论了我们的发现对理论和实践的影响。