What Drives Personnel Out of Public Organizations?

In this article, including a state of the art on Public Service Motivation (PSM) and its relationships to Affective Organizational Commitment (AOC), the interface of PSM with Organizational Behavior constructs is analyzed. Longitudinal data has been collected in the context of French local authorities at two points in time within 1 year ( N = 1,152, N = 81). AOC and Intention to Quit Employer (IQE) at T are related to several antecedent variables at T (Intrinsic Motivation, Perceived Superior Support, Latent Conflicts and Exhaustion) but not to PSM. The hypothesis of a causal relation between PSM and positive effects is not validated. The data does not support the idea that PSM influences commitment to, or turnover in, the organization. The influence of Age and civil service grade levels (Class) in IQE is confirmed. The analysis indicates that Exhaustion and Perceived Superior Support are strongly related to IQE, which should encourage scholars and HRM professionals to enable superiors to provide support to their employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]