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IJM
29,8
684
Received 9 June 2007
Revised 10 June 2008
Accepted 17 June 2008
International Journal of Manpower
Vol. 29 No. 8, 2008
pp. 684-699
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0143-7720
DOI 10.1108/01437720810919297
Public service motivation and job
satisfaction in China
An investigation of generalisability and
instrumentality
Bangcheng Liu
Department of Public Administration,
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China
Ningyu Tang
School of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
Shanghai, China, and
Xiaomei Zhu
School of Economics and Management, East China Jiao Tong University,
Jiangxi, China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate how generalisable the public service
motivation (PSM) observed in Western society is to China and to examine the effects of public service
motivation on job satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis
techniques are applied to survey data of 191 public servants in China to investigate the generalisability
of Western PSM. Using hierarchical regression analysis, the paper examines the effects of the
dimensions of PSM on job satisfaction.
Findings – The results show that the public service motivation observed in the West exists in China,
but the generalisability of the construct is limited. Three of the four dimensions of public service
motivation (attraction to public policy making, commitment to the public interest, and self-sacrifice)
exist in China, but the fourth dimension (compassion) is unconfirmed.
Originality/value – The paper is the first to examine the generalisability and instrumentality of
PSM as observed in Western society to China. The results indicate that the public service motivation
observed in the West also exists in China, but that the generalisability is limited. Public service
motivation emerges from the results as a positively significant predictor of job satisfaction in the
public sector of China. It enhances the applicability and meaningfulness of the concept of public
service motivation across political and cultural environments.
Keywords China, Job satisfaction
Paper type Research paper
The authors are indebted to Editor Professor Adrian Ziderman, editorial assistant
Michal Tal-Socher and two anonymous reviewers of International Journal of Manpower for
their constructive comments and suggestions. They are also grateful to Dr Wensheng Yang for
his discussion on Chinese traditional culture.
Introduction Public service
Human resources are core organisational resources. Public administrations are
subjected to two types of pressures. The first, a financial one, comes from taxpayers,
motivation
who expect public agencies to reduce their operational costs. The second type of
pressure comes from users of public services, who expect high-quality services from
public agencies (Castaing, 2006). Administration and motivation of public employees is
crucial for practitioners, citizens and scholars (Perry and Wise, 1990). 685
The reward motivation of public sector employees is not representative of that of
the general labor force (Shamir, 1991; Crewson, 1997; Perry, 1996, 2000). Shamir (1991)
has criticised the shortcomings of traditional motivation theories when applied to
public and nonprofit organisations. Recently, the public service motivation construct
has been used to determine what motivates public servants in the West (Perry, 1996,
1997, 2000; Taylor, 2007; Bright, 2007; Perry et al., 2008). The term “public service
motivation” (PSM) originated in the 1970s in discussions of public service ethics
(Buchanan, 1975). Rainey (1982, 1997), who investigated differences in reward
motivations between public and private sector employees, concluded that public
employees have a greater interest in altruistic or ideological goals. Rainey (1982) also
pointed out that PSM is a broad, multifaceted concept that may be conceived in many
different ways. Using Rainey’s findings, Perry and Wise (1990) defined and developed
a measurement scale for PSM.
Despite increased attention to the study of public service motivation, scholars have
focused almost entirely on developed countries. There is little research on public
service motivation in China. Social and cultural differences raise questions about how
generalisable the PSM constructs are. Because of the differences between Western and
Chinese society, it is unclear whether or not it is possible for Western study methods to
be used in a meaningful way in China.. Little is known about the internal motivation of
Chinese public servants. This study examined the extent to which public service
motivation assessment can be applied to China and if so, which mechanisms would be
involved.
Based on the literature review, the current study examines the construct of public
service motivation in the Chinese public sector. This article evaluates how well the
construct of PSM, observed in western societies, can be generalised to China. We also
investigate the effects of PSM on public employees’ job satisfaction.

Public service motivation

In North America, the thorniest question confronted by the public sector is how to
attract, retain and motivate talented employees (Alonso and Lewis, 2001). In China, it is
also urgent to attract, retain and motivate the “best person” in the public sector. Perry
and Wise (1990) suggested that public sectors need to reframe the question of
motivation and examine the unique motivational bases of public service. Although pay
and benefits might inspire some people to choose and excel in public sector jobs, Perry
and Wise (1990 ascribed more weight to the excitement and drama of public policy
making and to the opportunity to serve a greater goal. They argued that people who
respond to such incentives have a higher public service motivation – the force that
induces people to enter careers in the public service (Brewer and Selden, 1998, 2000).
Perry and Wise (1990) defined PSM as an individual’s predisposition to respond to
motives grounded primarily or uniquely in public institutions and organisations. They
identified three theoretical bases of PSM: rational, norm-based, and affective. Rational
IJM motives are grounded in maximising individual utility; norm-based motives involve a
desire to serve the public interest; affective motives are grounded in human emotion
29,8 and are characterized by a desire and willingness to help others (Perry and Wise, 1990).
These provide a useful framework for understanding PSM (Brewer, Selden and Facer,
2000). Defining the motivation base of public service, Perry (1996) translated the theory
of PSM into a measurement scale. Scale development began by crafting 35 survey
686 items developed from a literature review and from focus groups with Master of Public
Administration degree candidates on their conceptions of public service. The 35 survey
items corresponded to six dimensions of public service motivation: attraction to policy
making, commitment to public interest, civic duty, social justice, compassion, and
self-sacrifice. With the exception of self-sacrifice, these motivations corresponded to
the three categories of motivations which Perry and Wise (1990) identified: attraction to
policy making fell into the rational category; commitment to public interest, civic duty,
and social justice fell into the norm-based category; and compassion fell into the
affective category. Self-sacrifice was retained because of its presence in the public
administration literature (Perry, 1996). Perry tested the scale with confirmatory factor
analysis and derived four factors: public policymaking, public interest, compassion,
and self-sacrifice. He then provided further evidence of construct validity by
identifying several antecedents of PSM and reporting their correlations to the
measurement scale (Perry, 1997). Perry’s approach is a significant improvement over
previous research that used proxy variables to measure PSM and sector comparisons
to test for its existence (Crewson, 1997; Brewer, Selden and Facer, 2000; Wright, 2007).
Considering individual perceptions of PSM, based on Q-sorting methodology,
Brewer, Selden and Facer (2000) identified four types of individuals holding different
conceptions of PSM: Samaritans, Communitarians, Patriots, and Humanitarians.
Bright (2005) found that public service motivation was significantly related to the
gender, education, management level, and monetary preferences of public employees.
In addition to the traits and characteristics of individual PSM, Houston (2006) found
that those with higher PSM are more likely to volunteer and to donate blood. Moynihan
and Pandey (2007a, 2007b) also found that PSM is strongly and positively related to
education and membership in professional organisations. These results also underline
the significant influence of organisational institutions, showing that red tape and
length of organisational membership are negatively related to PSM, while hierarchical
authority and reform efforts are positively related to PSM.
Although many studies have confirmed the existence of the construct of public
service motivation, these studies were only conducted in the USA (e.g., Perry, 1996,
1997, 2000; Crewson, 1997; Houston, 2000, 2006; Camilleri, 2007), France (Castaing,
2006), Korea (Choi, 2001; Kim, 2006), UK and Germany (Vandenabeele, Scheepers and
Hondeghem, 2006), and Australia (Taylor, 2007); PSM has not been examined in
Chinese contexts. China has a large public service sector, and the reforming and
reengineering of public administration is making progress. Motivating and
administering the more than 6,000,000 public servants is an ambitious undertaking.
If the hypothesis of Perry and Wise (1990) is confirmed, then PSM is positively related
to individual performance, public organisations that attract members with high levels
of PSM are likely to be less dependent on utilitarian incentives to manage individual
performance effectively, and PSM would be a useful management tool for Chinese
public administration. Given the differences in political system, culture and tradition,
can the PSM construct observed and examined in Western societies be applied directly
to Chinese contexts?
Job satisfaction Public service
During the past several decades, scholars have paid more attention to job satisfaction,
which has been described as “the most intensively studied variable in organizational
motivation
research” (Rainey, 1997). Job satisfaction is often assumed to be a pleasurable or
positive emotional state resulting from the evaluation or appraisal of one’s job or job
experience (Locke, 1976).
Though studies have demonstrated that many factors affect job satisfaction, the 687
most notable are “intrinsic job characteristics” (Saari and Judge, 2004). Research has
showed that when employees were asked to evaluate the facets of their job, the nature
of the work itself (which included job challenge, autonomy, variety, and scope)
emerged as the most important (Saari and Judge, 2004). A meta-analysis has confirmed
a significantly positive correlation between job satisfaction and performance, though
the relationship sometimes was weaker than expected (George and Jones, 1997).
Some measures of job satisfaction assessed certain dimensions of the job, while
others measured a single overall perception of the job (Saari and Judge, 2004). A
qualitative approach suggested that research about job satisfaction should be based on
the evaluation of expectations, needs, motivations and work conditions (Bussing et al.,
1999). Our research is following this trend and analyses the effects of public service
motivation on job satisfaction in order to test the instrumentality of public service
motivation in China.

Relationships between public service motivation and job satisfaction

Studies show that PSM is linked to important work-related attitudes and behaviours
such as job satisfaction (Rainey, 1982; Naff and Crum, 1999; Taylor, 2007),
organisational commitment (Crewson, 1997; Camilleri, 2006; Taylor, 2007),
organisation performance (Naff and Crum, 1999), extra-organisational attitudes and
behaviours such as altruism, trust in government, serving the public or one’s country,
civic involvement, and political participation (Brewer and Selden, 1998, 2000; Brewer
et al., 2000). PSM has a positive impact on all of these variables. The level of PSM is
higher in public employees than in their counterparts in the private sector, and public
employees with higher PSM scores are more satisfied with their jobs, more committed
to their organisations, and more productive.
More importantly, although a few studies have tested the relationships between
PSM and work outcomes, few have analysed the relationship between PSM and work
outcomes at the dimensional level (Taylor, 2007), though scholars have insisted that
PSM was a multidimensional construct. When PSM dimensions are analysed
concurrently, some dimensions are likely to play a more dominant role than others in
influencing work outcomes. To explore these pressing questions, just as Taylor (2007)
did, we analyse the relationships between the dimensions of PSM and individual work
performance. Job satisfaction is one of the main attitudes of public servants. Schneider
and Vaught (1993) found that public sector employees were more satisfied with their
jobs than private sector employees because of the intrinsic motivation aspects of their
work.
If Perry and Wise (1990) are correct, the public sector should be able to attract and
retain a sufficient number of high-quality employees with high PSM. Consequently, the
applicants with higher PSM should be selected for public positions. As Crewson (1997)
has found, PSM would be an intrinsic motivation for public employees. However, a
study of 35,000 federal, white-collar employees has been inconclusive. Employees who
IJM expected to receive a material reward for exceptional performance did attain higher
grades and performance ratings, and there was no evidence that the link between
29,8 material rewards and performance mattered any less to those with high PSM (Alonso
and Lewis, 2001). According to motivational theories, public employees with higher
PSM would devote themselves to public causes and more easily find job satisfaction
and enjoyment in the daily routine. Based on data from 10,000 federal employees in the
688 USA, Naff and Crum (1999) revealed that PSM significantly contributed to job
satisfaction and discouraged them from wanting to leave their position.
As government work provides ample opportunities to serve the public interest,
employees whose motives were anchored in the need to pursue the common good were
likely to be satisfied with their jobs (Taylor, 2007). Since an employee’s PSM was
attributed to a mix of motives, when examining their impact on work-related outcomes,
it would be more useful to analyse all four PSM dimensions simultaneously (Taylor,
2007). This research focused on the relationships among all the four dimensions of
public service motivation and job satisfaction. In addition, we hypothesise a strong
positive relationship between public servants’ job satisfaction and each dimension of
public service motivation. Specifically:
H1. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ job
satisfaction and the public policymaking dimension of PSM.
H2. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ job
satisfaction and the public interest dimension of PSM.
H3. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ job
satisfaction and the compassion dimension of PSM.
H4. There are significantly positive relationships between public employees’ job
satisfaction and the self-sacrifice dimension of PSM.

Historical and institutional context of Chinese public service

The historical and institutional context is important in understanding public service
motivation (Vandenabeele, Scheepers and Hondeghem, 2006). To obtain a clearer
image of the content of public service motivation in China, we would like to trace the
origins of public service in China and describe the key characteristics of public ethos
and ethics.
The Chinese public service sector is both the agent of state executive power and the
system for performing and regulating executive functions (Lam and Chan, 1996).
Strictly speaking, before 1993 China had no public service. In feudal times, the emperor
class represented national power; public administration mostly consisted of ruling,
decision-making and controlling. For the general public, employees in the public sector
were not only administrators but also decision makers. High power distance was
therefore acknowledged by and acceptable to the society (Hofstede, 1980).
Chinese leaders, especially Deng Xiaopeng, decided to change the situation. In 1993,
the Chinese government issued the provisional regulation of state public servants to
institute state public service. In 2005, the Law of Public Servants was approved,
formally establishing the Chinese public service system.
With the establishment of Chinese public service system, Vice-president of the
People’s Republic of China, Zeng Qinghong (Zeng, 2005) encapsulated this into 32
Chinese characters (Re Ai Zu Guo, Zhong Yu Ren Min, Qiu Zhen Wu Shi, Kai Tuo
Chuang Xin, Gu Quan Da Ju, Tuan Jie Xie Zuo, Ke Jin Zhi Shou, Lian Jie Feng Gong). Public service
Re Ai Zu Guo and Zhong Yu Ren Min mean that for a public servant, the interests of the
people and of the nation take the highest precedence. Qiu Zhen Wu Shi and Kai Tuo
motivation
Chuang Xin indicate that public servants should objectively and creatively provide
service to the public. Gu Quan Da Ju and Tuan Jie Xie Zuo emphasize the importance of
coordination and teamwork in relation to national, collective and individual interests.
Ke Jin Zhi Shou and Lian Jie Feng Gong require public servants to be extremely 689
conscientious, committed, and attentive to public service and to act with integrity.

Methods: sample and procedure

The sample comprised 191 part-time Master of Public Administration (MPA) students
from a university in eastern China. All students were employed full-time in the public
sectors. Sixty-three percent of the respondents were male and 36.7 per cent were
female, with a mean age of 33.10 (SD ¼ 3.57). They were employed as social workers,
professionals, administrative/clerical employees, technicians, police officers and
firefighters.
The author administered the PSM inventory in class. The students were informed
that while their participation was compulsory, they did not have to put their names on
the questionnaire. The English version of the PSM inventory was used after
translating it into Chinese and back into English to avoid misunderstandings or
deviations. Because the MPA students’ completion of the questionnaire was part of
their final course score, the response rate was 100 per cent.
The items included in the PSM inventory were originally developed by Perry (1996).
In the present study, we were especially interested in the cross-cultural generalisability
of PSM to China. The inventory contained 24 items representing the four dimensions of
PSM. These questions asked the respondents to consider their public service
motivation and to identify the extent to which these questions expressed their personal
perceptions about themselves. We used a 5-point Likert scale of “1 ¼ Strongly disagree
and 5 ¼ Strongly agree”. The Likert scale is the most frequently used variation of the
summated rating scale and the Likert scale produced interval data (Cooper and
Schindler, 2003). We combined items within the original construct of PSM to assess
each of the PSM dimensions in the Chinese context.
We also used Bono and Judge’s (2003) work on job satisfaction to evaluate the
instrumentality of public service motivation. The respondents were asked to evaluate
their job satisfaction by rating the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the
following five items: “Most days I am enthusiastic about my work”, “I feel fairly
satisfied with my present job”, “I find real enjoyment in my work”, “Each day at work
seems like it will never end”, and “I consider my job rather unpleasant”. The last two
items were reverse-scored.
Following Dehart-Davis et al. (2006) and Wright and Pandey (2005), we chose age
and gender (female as the reference group and female ¼ 0, male ¼ 1) as two control
variables for greater specificity.

Results
First, we confirmed the existence of the PSM in China by conducting an exploratory
factor analysis with SPSS 12.0.
In exploratory factor analysis process, an exact quantitative basis for deciding the
number of factors to be extracted has not been developed (Hair et al., 1998). There are
IJM several criteria for the number of factors to be extracted, such as latent root criterion
29,8 (only the factors having latent roots or eigenvalues greater than 1 are considered
significant, and all factors with latent roots less than 1 are considered insignificant and
are disregarded), percentage of variance criterion (no absolute threshold is adopted for
all applications), and scree test criterion (the scree test is used to identify the optimum
number of factors that could be extracted before the amount of unique variance begins
690 to dominate the common variance structure. The scree test is derived by plotting the
latent roots against the number of factors in their order of extraction, and the shape of
the resulting curve is used to evaluate the cutoff point and the point at which the curve
first begins straightening out is considered to the maximum number of factors to
extract). In practice, most factor analysts seldom use a single criterion. Instead, they
use a criterion such as the latent root as a guideline for the first attempt at
interpretation, and then employ another process and criterion (Hair et al., 1998).
For the attraction to public policy making, commitment to public interest,
compassion, and self-sacrifice, we used the latent root criterion and the scree test
criterion simultaneously to evaluate the number of factors, as demonstrated in
Figures 1-4.
As can be seen in Figures 1, 2 and 4, all of the three scree tests indicate that two
factors may be appropriate for the three dimensions of PSM, but in the eigenvalue for
the second factor of each dimension, the low value (0.52, 0.83 and 0.8) is relative to the
latent root criterion value of 1.0. These results illustrate the need for multiple decision
criteria in deciding the number of factors to be retained. In our analysis the two
decision criteria (scree test and latent root criterion) were considered simultaneously, so
we can conclude that the one-factor solution fits the data best for these three
dimensions of PSM. Additionally, each factor represented 62.03 per cent, 53.73 per cent,

Figure 1.
Scree test for attraction to
public policy making

Figure 2.
Scree test for commitment
to public interest
 Public service
motivation

691

Figure 3.
Scree test for compassion

Figure 4.
Scree test for self-sacrifice

and 44.41 per cent of the variances (Table I). For the compassion dimension, a similar
process was applied and the results indicate that it consists of four factors (Figure 3).
Following the results of the exploratory factor analysis above, we can conclude that all
of the dimensions of Perry’s original PSM are supported except for compassion.
In evaluating each item’s factor loadings, following Hair et al. (1998), we applied a
relatively stringent rule of thumb, accepting an item only if it had a 0.40 or greater
loading on a factor that was also at least 0.20 greater than its loading on any other
factor. The results are summarized in Table I. The results connected three items to
attraction to public policy making, three of the five items to commitment to public
interest, and four of the eight items to self-sacrifice (Table I). According to Table I, a
single factor with an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explained 62.03 per cent of the
variance in the items for the “attraction to public policy making”; a single factor with
an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explained 53.73 per cent of the variance in the items for
the “commitment to the public interest”, and a single factor with an eigenvalue greater
than 1.00 explained 44.41 per cent of the variance in the items for the “self-sacrifice”. In
addition, the results shown in Table I indicate that these items of the three dimensions
of PSM formed three reliable subscales with a ¼ 0:69, 0.54, and 0.57.
To investigate the dimensionality of the PSM construct scale, we performed a
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS 5.0. To create a data file for the CFA,
IJM
Factors
29,8 Attraction to Commitment
public policy to the public
Variables making interest Self-sacrifice

Politics is a dirty worda 0.78

692 The give and take of public policy making does not
appeal to mea 0.75
I do not care much for politiciansa 0.83
It is hard to get me genuinely interested in what is
going on in my communitya 0.71
Meaningful public service is very important to me 0.68
I would prefer seeing public officials do what is best
for the community, even if it harmed my interests. 0.71
Making a difference in society means more to me
than personal achievements 0.49
I feel people should give back to society more than
they get from it 0.47
I am one of those rare people who would risk
personal loss to help someone else 0.80
I am prepared to make enormous sacrifices for the
good of society 0.75
Percentage of variance explained 62.03 53.73 44.41
Eigenvalue 1.86 1.64 2.19
Table I. Internal consistency reliabilities (Alpha coefficient) 0.69 0.54 0.57
Results of exploratory
a
factor analysis of three Notes: Figures in italic indicate primary factor loading; Items with indicate they were reverse-
dimensions of PSM scored from Perry’s original scale

we excluded cases with missing data. We retained a total of 152 cases. We used the
incremental fit index IFI and the comparative fit index CFI as key indicators of overall
model fit (Bollen, 1989). The CFA yielded acceptable fit indices, Chi-square ¼ 57:82,
df ¼ 32, p ¼ 0:003 , 0.05, and Chi-square=df ¼ 1:81, CFI ¼ 0:91, IFI ¼ 0:92.
The same process was applied to job satisfaction. The results show that four of the
five items for job satisfaction have an eigenvalue greater than 1.00 explaining 66.69 per
cent of the variance and ¼ 0:74, CFI ¼ 0:97, IFI ¼ 0:97, except the item “Each day at
work seems like it will never end”.
Table II shows the means, standard deviations and the correlated coefficient
information of the overall variables.

Variable Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5

1. Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) 0.63 0.48

2. Age 33.10 3.57 0.18 *
3. Attraction to public policy making 3.43 0.82 0.09 0.02
4. Commitment to public interest 3.75 0.56 2 0.02 0.13 0.45 * *
5. Self-sacrifice 3.48 0.55 0.16 * 0.07 0.23 * * 0.39 * *
Table II. 6. Job satisfaction 3.52 0.63 0.16 * 0.16 * 0.24 * * 0.14 0.27 * *
Descriptive statistics and
correlation Notes: * p , 0.05; * * p , 0.01
As can be seen in Table II, we found that the three dimensions of PSM were correlated Public service
with each other significantly ( p , 0.01). Specifically, attraction to public policy making
correlated with commitment to public interest at 0.45, attraction to public policy
motivation
making correlated with self-sacrifice at 0.23, and commitment to public interest
correlated with self-sacrifice at 0.39. Additionally, we found the correlations between
job satisfaction and two of the three dimensions of PSM to be significantly positive ( p
, 0.01). An exception was the correlation between commitment to the public interest 693
and job satisfaction.
To test H1, H2, H3, and H4, we ran hierarchical regression analyses. Before
regression analysis, multicollinearity diagnostics were needed. The results showed all
tolerance statistics were above 0.69, and therefore the significant multicollinearity
problem was ruled out.
Because our factor analysis of the PSM scale did not yield a factor analogous to
compassion, we were unable to test H3. Hence, we only tested H1, H2, and H4.
In Step 1, we entered Age and Gender as two control variables to examine how
much variance in the dependent variables was accounted for by the control variables,
then added the three dimensions of PSM into the regression equations to jointly
analyse the effects of the independent variables and control variables on the dependent
variable (job satisfaction). Table III displays the regression results.
The results indicate that Age has a significant association with job satisfaction, a
finding which implies that older employees are more satisfied with their jobs than are
younger ones.
The data in Table III also demonstrate the separate effects of the dimensions of PSM
on job satisfaction. Two of the three dimensions of PSM (attraction to policy making
and self-sacrifice) were found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. As
Table III shows, when the three dimensions of PSM were added to the regression
model, the increases in the model multiple correlation square were significant ( p ,
0.01), although the absolute magnitude was not large (D R 2 ¼ 0:11). Specifically,
attractions to public policy making had a marginally significant and positive effect on
public servants’ job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:16, p ¼ 0:06) as Naff and Crum (1999) and
Moynihan and Pandey (2007b) found. Self-sacrifice was also found to have a strongly
significant and positive effect on the respondents’ job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:28,
p ¼ 0:001), while no significant effect was found between commitment to public

Model tested
Variable Hypothesis tested Beta

Step one: control variables

Age 0.16 * * 0.16 *
Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) 0.12 0.08
Step two: independent variables
Attractions to public policy making 1 0.16 *
Commitment to public interest 2 2 0.02
Self-sacrifice 4 0.28 * * * Table III.
R2 0.05 * * * 0.16 * * * Results of hierarchical
D R2 0.11 * * * regression analysis with
F test 3.75 * * * 5.60 * * * job satisfaction as
dependent variable
Notes: * p , 0.1; * * p , 0.05; * * * p , 0.01; Beta ¼ standardized regression coefficients (n ¼ 152)
IJM interest and job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 20:02, p ¼ 0:84). Therefore, we can conclude that
H1 and H4 are supported, while H2 is unconfirmed.
29,8
Discussion
This study serves the following two purposes:
(1) it investigates the dimensionality and generalisability of PSM in China; and
694
(2) it examines the relationships between each dimension of PSM and public
servants’ job satisfaction.
One hundred and ninety-one respondents from the public sectors were surveyed, and the
survey results suggest that the PSM observed in the West also exist in China, but the
generalisability of the construct was limited: three of the four dimensions of public
service motivation exist in China – attraction to public policy making, commitment to
the public interest, and self-sacrifice – but the compassion dimension was unconfirmed.
According to Perry (1996), attraction to public policy making could reinforce one’s
sense of self-importance. Given government’s role in American society, this motive is
unique to public institutions. This is also true in Chinese society. In Chinese traditional
and bureaucratic society, making public policy is an assertion of power. Chinese
culture is characterised by traditionality (Farh et al., 1997). Traditionality, with its
emphasis on hierarchical relationship, is related to “power distance” (Hofstede, 1980).
Staff members in the public sector are distinguished from workers, peasants, and
others by their leadership responsibilities. It is therefore logical for there to be the PSM
dimension of “attraction to public policy making” in Chinese society.
The other two dimensions of the original PSM construct are supported in Chinese
public servants. According to Perry (1996), commitment to the public interest was only
one integral value in the construct of public service motivation. One hallmark of public
service was its placement of the public interest above personal gain (Frederickon and
Hart, 1985). This is also true in China’s public sector. Commitment to the public interest
and self-sacrifice in Chinese administrative attitudes, ethics and behaviours could be
traced to the Confucian idea of self-discipline which stresses the importance of
individual character for public servants, an idea which was compatible with the
communist ideology calling on Party members to devote themselves to the
revolutionary cause and the exclusion of personal interest. The sense of
self-discipline led to good behaviour and altruism (Zhu, 2000). In Mao Zedong’s era,
serving and working for the interests of the people were the tenets for the public sector.
The ethos and ethics of today’s Chinese civil servant place the interests of the
motherland and the people higher than anything else (even individual life).
The “compassion” dimension of public service motivation was not confirmed in this
sample of Chinese public servants, even though Frederickson and Hart (1985)
suggested that compassion should be the central motive for civil servants. However,
this does not mean that the Chinese public sector is devoid of compassion, benevolence,
or sympathy; maybe these have merely been suppressed. In traditional Chinese
administration, upward orientation(the lower takes responsibility for the upper in the
hierarchical administration system)is outstanding and benevolence, sympathy for the
suffering of others and the desire to help them might be restrained.
This study also examines the relationship between public service motivation and
job satisfaction. Attraction to public policy making was marginally significant and
directly related to job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:16, p , 0.1), and self-sacrifice was
strongly, significantly and directly related to job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 0:28, p , 0.05); Public service
however, there was no significant relationship between commitment to public interest motivation
and job satisfaction (Beta ¼ 20:02, no significance).
Our results support the literature on the importance of PSM in the public sector (e.g.
Naff and Crum, 1999). As Taylor (2007) and Bright (2007) insisted, the theory of
person-organisation (P-O) fit would be very useful to explain the effects of PSM
dimensions on job satisfaction. 695
Let us consider the significantly positive effect of attraction to public policy making
on job satisfaction. According to Russell (1969), the needs for power and for honor were
the two fundamental human needs. In Chinese society, the worship of officialdom is
popular. To the public, one who makes public policy is seen as the representative of
governors who hold great authority. In China, public servants are both administrators
and decision makers (Lam and Chan, 1996). According to the P-O fit theory,
complementary congruence is achieved when the salient unmet needs of people are
satisfied by the resources and tasks that are provided by organisations (Bright, 2007).
From a supplementary standpoint in the P-O fit paradigm, it is logical that the
self-sacrifice dimension of PSM significantly contribute to job satisfaction.
Supplementary congruence is achieved when organisations attract people whose
goals and values reflect their own (Bright, 2007). Public servants who are satisfied with
their jobs will perceive that their job allows for the fulfillment of values that are
important to them. In the Chinese language, the term “public servant” literally means
servants of the people who are taking risks, actively exploring, creatively changing
and making enormous sacrifices for the good of the people. In short, self-sacrifice is one
of the core values of the Chinese public sector. Thus, respondents with a higher
self-sacrifice value would be more satisfied with their jobs because their value is
congruent with the spirit of the Chinese public sector.
In contrast to Taylor’s (2007) hypothesis that “Normative motives (Commitment to
public interest) will have a greater influence on job satisfaction than self-sacrifice,
rational (Attraction to public policy making) and affective motives (Compassion)”, this
research found that a normative motive (commitment to public interest) had a
relatively weaker influence on job satisfaction than self-sacrifice and rational motives,
even though Perry (1997) insisted on a strong correlation between self-sacrifice and
commitment to the public interest, as this research found. One of the possible reasons is
that there might be a vital and full mediator(s) between commitment to the public
interest dimension and job satisfaction, as Bright (2007) found. In other words,
commitment to the public interest dimension of PSM could have an indirect effect on
job satisfaction through a specific full mediator(s).
This empirical study also found that respondents’ age was a critical control variable
when evaluating public employees’ job satisfaction. This finding might be explained
by the socialisation or adaptation difference between younger and older public
servants. One explanation is that the older employees are generally more experienced,
and hence handle the negative and positive features of their jobs better. They could
also be more satisfied with longer service because they are likely to hold more desirable
positions, have more close friends, and make fewer demands (Perry, 1997; Naff and
Crum, 1999; Moynihan and Pandey, 2007b; Taylor, 2007). This finding is especially
easily understood in the Chinese contest, in which older employees have higher
positions and more authority.
IJM Conclusion
29,8 Interest in public service motivation has increased significantly among practitioners
and scholars (Bright, 2007). Unfortunately, most of these efforts focused on Western
society. There is little research on the nature of public service motivation in China. The
historical and institutional context is important in understanding public service
motivation (Vandenabeele, Scheepers and Hondeghem, 2006). Considering the
696 traditional, cultural and political differences between the West and China, the need
to understand public service motivation in Chinese public sector takes on great
urgency. As Tsui (2006, p. 9) has pointed out, “To further Chinese management
research and develop valid knowledge, contextualization in measurement is not only
desirable, but essential”.
Based on 191 respondents from the Chinese public sector, the survey results suggest
that the PSM observed in the West also exist in China, but that the generalisability of
the construct is limited. Our empirical study demonstrate that PSM is a universal or
etic concept, but that the construct dimensions of PMS are affected by the cultural and
institutional context (emic). In addition, this research analyse the effects of the three
dimensions of PSM and the respondents’ demographic variables on job satisfaction.
The empirical results demonstrate that attraction to public policy making and
self-sacrifice (of the PSM dimensions) as well as the age variable significantly
contribute to respondents’ job satisfaction, while commitment to the public interest
unexpectedly had no significant effect on job satisfaction.
Despite these findings, this research has some limitations. We used 191 Master of
Public Administration students as the sample for cross-cultural validation, but since
this cross-sectional design raises some statistical questions, a longitudinal research
design is needed in future studies. Although we simultaneously provided English and
Chinese versions of the PSM, a language barrier does exist. More importantly, because
this study was based on only 191 respondents for exploratory factor analysis and
confirmatory factor analysis, the stability of the construct of PSM needs further
testing. Although this study supports the generalisability of the PSM to China, the
generalisability of its findings cannot be established without replication; particularly,
the compassion sub-dimension could not be observed, so we speculate that PSM would
have some differential or particular contents in the Chinese context.
PSM is still a nascent theory (Choi, 2001). Future studies should extend the original
PSM constructs and contents observed in Western society. If confirmed in a different
political and administrative environment, PSM could be more strongly supported as a
general theory. In addition, the practical implication of PSM theory for managing and
motivating public employees is another critical field to be explored. Even though PSM
does contribute to job attitudes, how does PSM affect the attitudes of the public
employees? Do PSM levels remain constant? If not, what factors affect PSM in
government organizations?

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About the authors

Dr Bangcheng Liu is an assistant professor in the department of public administration, School of
International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on
motivation, attitude, and knowledge management. Bangcheng Liu is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: liubangcheng@sjtu.edu.cn
Dr Ningyu Tang is an associate professor at the School of Management at Shanghai Jiaotong
University. Her current research focuses on culture’s influence on HRM, cultural adaptability and
virtual team learning. She has published papers in both organizational behaviour and HRM
areas and she is author of several books, including Human Resource Management and Personnel
Assessment: Theories and Practices (in Chinese).
Xiaomei Zhu is an associate professor at the Department of Management, School of
Economics and Management, East China Jiaotong University. She received her PhD degree in
Management from the Center for Human Resource Study, Antai School of Management,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in 2005. Her research interests focus on psychological contract
management, employability management, compensation and incentives management, and
employment relationship management.

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