Search

The study of Public Service Motivation (PSM) has achieved considerable academic momentum with increasingly subtle research appearing each year. It is now opportune to look back at decades of work to see whether the concerns that initiated this area of study have been addressed. This article uses seminal articles that have shaped the field to find three main topics of interest: a concern about the way that theories of public choice characterized human nature, an ambition to crystallize and measure long-held understandings about a public service ethos, and a wish to promote a practical basis for incentivizing staff in the public sector. The application of PSM to these goals is examined, with the conclusion that PSM studies have made little progress in addressing any of those concerns. The implications of that conclusion are briefly considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]