The impact of customer service orientation on public service motives

The purpose of this thesis is two-fold. This study investigates the effects new public management (NPM) reforms have on public servants in one particular agency. The results of this investigation suggest that one of the reform programs, customer service orientation, appeared to be of concern to public servants affecting their motivation and morale. This led to further research with the aim to explore a likely relationship between customer service orientation and motivation. Therefore, the two research problems investigated in this thesis are: 1. What, if any, effects do new public management reforms have on public servants? 2. Does an organisation’s customer service orientation have an impact on public service motives and if so, how? Answers to these questions are important for the implementation and management of reform programs and for the effective and efficient performance of public service organisations. Motivation in particular is a critical component for job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and good citizenship behaviour, and as such has important ramifications for the organisation’s performance, culture, and ultimately its customers. The study starts with in-depth interviews with employees from one public service agency that experienced major reform processes. The findings of this first part of the investigation indicate that public servants were indeed affected by the reform process and although they had high expectations of the reforms at the onset, they were quickly disillusioned. The main areas of concern were found to be customer service, morale, and motivation. To explain the interview data two existing constructs are used. The customer service construct includes information-based, culture and philosophy-based, and service and interaction-based interpretations of customer service orientation (CSO), whereas the motivation construct is based on public service motives (PSM) and explains rational, normative, affective, and self-sacrifice motives. T