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How has research regarding public service motivation evolved since James L. Perry and Lois Recascino Wise published their essay "The Motivational Bases of Public Service" 20 years ago? The authors assess subsequent studies in public administration and in social and behavioral sciences as well as evolving definitions of public service motivation. What have we learned about public service motivation during the last two decades? What gaps in our understanding and knowledge have appeared with respect to the three propositions offered by Perry and Wise? This essay charts new directions for public service motivation scholarship to help clarify current research questions, advance comparative research, and enhance our overall understanding of individuals' public service motives.
In 1990, American public service was beginning to exit more than a decade of intense criticism and personnel reform. Politicians and policy makers had been searching since the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 for formulas to change government service. It was at this juncture that Perry and Wise's essay "The Motivational Bases of Public Service" (1990) appeared in the fiftieth-anniversary volume ?? Public Administration Review. The article was grounded in thinking about motivational alternatives to merit pay, which had been introduced in the U.S. federal government in 1 979.
Since that essay appeared, more than 125 studies about public service motivation, covering more than a dozen countries, have been published, many of them since 2000. This article assesses three aspects of subsequent research. We begin by reviewing the evolving definitions of public service motivation (PSM), including operational definitions used to measure the construct. We next turn to answering the question, what have we learned from public service motivation research? The review is framed around three propositions offered by Perry and Wise and takes into account research in both public administration and the social and behavioral sciences. The article concludes by charting directions for future research that might clarify current research questions, advance comparative research on PSM, and enhance our understanding of individuals' public service motives and their relationship to other important aspects of engagement.
Construct Definitions and Measurement
A starting point for understanding PSM is the motivation construct, a key concern of modern social and behavioral science research. Motivation refers broadly to the forces that energize, direct, and sustain behavior...