INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION AND

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS ON NEPALI CIVIL SERVICE EMPLOYEES’

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Submitted by:
Alisha Shakya
Binu Bhattarai
Dharma Bahadur Bhujel
Keepa Shrestha
Samrat Pandey

Course Instructor:
Dyuti Baral
Jayanta Kayastha

SAIM College
Old Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal

MBA Global Business

January, 2019
Introduction
As high quality public service is vital, continuous effort have been made to find ways to improve
the performance of the public service. Despite these efforts, general public perceived that
government employees are less productive than private sectors. Several research has been made to
examine the effect of public service motivation and perception of organizational politics on the
organizational commitment of the government employees. Many researchers tried to explain
employee motivation in public sector and have made significant contribution in this field. One
such contribution was made by Perry and Wise (1990) who coined the term “Public Service
Motivation” (PSM). PSM assumes that bureaucrats are characterized by an ethic to serve the public
and act out of commitment to common good, rather than mere self-interest. In 1996, Perry
developed a scale to measure PSM of an individual. After the development of this scale, several
scholars have empirically examined the relationships between PSM and employee outcomes such
as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and individual performance. However, the results
of these studies do not provide consistent relationships between PSM and these outcomes.
The inconsistency could be moderated by some other variables. Among them, one of the important
variables that can have significant influence on the relationships between PSM and job attitudes
could be employees’ perceptions of organizational politics (POP) which have been empirically
found to have dysfunctional organizational outcomes such as turnover intentions and job stress
and reduced job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. As PSM scale
exists in non-Western context, but is not generalizable, it is imperative to know whether PSM
observed in the west exist in Nepal. This study first examines the generalizability of PSM construct
in Nepali context. It then investigates the relationships between different dimensions of PSM and
employees’ organizational commitment and examines the interactive effects of different
dimensions of PSM and POP on organizational commitment.

Literature Review and Hypothesis

Public Service Motivation: It is found that individuals choose private or public sector employment
primarily because of their motivational differences. Houston argues that public administrators are
characterized by an ethic to serve the public and are motivated by a concerned for the community
and a desire to serve the public interest. Perry and Wise proposed a construct PSM which they
define as “an individual’s predisposition to respond to motives grounded primarily or uniquely in
public organizations and institutions.” Perry and Wise argue that there are three specific motives-
rational, norm-based, and affective motives activated specifically by the features of public
institutions. Rational motives are grounded in individual utility maximization, norm-based are
grounded in a desire to serve the public interest, and the affective motives are grounded in human
emotion. Perry developed a measurement scale comprising four dimensions, namely, self-
sacrifice, compassion, commitment to public interest and attraction to policy making which
measures PSM in individuals.

Perceptions of Organizational Politics (POP)

Organizational politics is a subjective state in which organizational members perceive themselves
or others as intentionally seeking selfish ends in an organizational context when such ends are
opposed to those of others. POP involve an individual’s attribution to behaviors of self-serving
intent and is defined as an individual’s subjective evaluation about the extent to which the work
environment is characterized by coworkers and supervisors who demonstrate such self-serving
behavior. POP have negative impact on employee outcomes.

Organizational Commitment
Blau and Boal characterized it as a state in which an employee identifies with a particular
organization and its goals, and he/she wishes to maintain membership in the organization in order
to facilitate its goals. Organizational Commitment has three distinct components: i. Affective
commitment (emotional attachment), ii. Continuance commitment (perceived cost associated with
leaving the organization) and iii. Normative commitment (a feeling of obligation to remain in the
organization).

The relationship between PSM and Organizational Commitment

Scant studies carried out in different countries generally suggest a positive relationship between
PSM and organizational commitment. On the basis of the research evidences, some of the
hypothesis has been made:
Hypothesis 1a: There is a significant positive relationship between the self-sacrifice dimensions of
PSM and employees’ organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 1b: There is a significant positive relationship between the compassion dimensions of
PSM and employees’ organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 1c: There is a significant positive relationship between the commitments to public
interest dimension of PSM and employees’ organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 1d: There is a significant positive relationship between the public policymaking
dimension of PSM and employees’ organizational commitment.

The Relationship between POP and Organizational Commitment

Most of the studies suggest negative relationship between POP and Organizational Commitment.
Hypothesis 2: Employees POP are negatively related to their organizational commitment.

The Relationship between PSM, POP and Organizational Commitment

It argues that POP negatively affect employees’ PSM and organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 3: Employees’ POP moderate the relationships between four dimensions of PSM and
organizational commitment.

Methods
Population and Sample
The population of this study included employees working in Nepali civil service. The sample were
randomly selected from different categories like i. development sector, ii. Social sector, iii. Finance
and economic sector, iv. Energy and science and technology sector. Out of 1000 employees
selected, 443 responded to the questionnaire with 396 usable responses.

Measure:
PSM was assessed by using Perry’s (1996) 24-item scale. POP were assessed using nine items of
perceptions of organizational politics scale (POPS) developed by Kacmar and Carlson (1997).
Organizational commitment was measured by using 6-item revised affective commitment scale
developed by Meyer and Allen (1997). Responses for the items were captured in a 7-point Likert
type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).

Results:
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
EFA is a technique within factor analysis whose overarching goal is to identify the underlying
relationships between measured variables. To confirm the existence of PSM in the present sample,
EFAs were conducted on each dimension of PSM. Latent root criterion as well as screen test
criterion was employed to determine the number of factors to be extracted. While evaluating each
dimension on latent root criterion, it was found that except in the case of compassion dimension
which had three factors with eigen value greater than one, all other dimensions had only one factor
that had eigen value greater than one.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and reliability Analysis

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a special form of factor analysis, most commonly used in
social research. It is used to test whether measures of a construct are consistent with a researcher's
understanding of the nature of that construct. To make decision on whether to retain or remove the
item, first, CFA was conducted for all the instruments used in the study. Reliabilities of all
instruments were also assessed by calculating Cranach alpha. If any item(s) of the instrument did
not load on the intended factor (factor loading below 0.30), then the item(s) were dropped and
again CFA were conducted and reliabilities were assessed. If the fit indices of any instrument after
deleting the item(s) improved and reliability increased, then the item(s) were dropped from the
instrument.

Descriptive Statistics and Correlation Matrix

A chi-squared test, also written as χ² test, is any statistical hypothesis test where the sampling
distribution of the test statistic is a chi-squared distribution when the null hypothesis is true.
Without other qualification, 'chi-squared test' often is used as short for Pearson's chi-squared test.
Descriptive Statistics
A descriptive statistic is a summary statistic that quantitatively describes or summarizes features
of a collection of information, while descriptive statistics in the mass noun sense is the process of
using and analyzing those statistics

Correlation Matrix
A correlation matrix is a table showing correlation coefficients between variables. Each cell in the
table shows the correlation between two variables. A correlation matrix is used as a way to
summarize data, as and input into a more advanced analysis, and as a diagnostic for advanced
analyses.

Hypotheses Testing
Hypotheses 1a, 1b, 1c, and 1d stated that four dimensions of PSM are positively related to
employees’ organizational commitment. Regression results revealed that self-sacrifice,
commitment to public interest, and attraction to policymaking dimensions are significantly
positively related to organizational commitment supporting Hypotheses 1a, 1c, and 1d. Hypothesis
1b was not tested since the data did not support the existence of compassion dimension.
Hypothesis 2 stated that POP are negatively related with organizational commitment
Hypothesis 3 stated that POP moderate the relationship between individual dimensions of PSM
and organizational commitment.

Discussion:
While investigating the interactive effects of different dimensions of PSM and POP on
organizational commitment, only the interactive effect of self-sacrifice dimension of PSM and
POP could be confirmed. This finding suggests that even though employees are high on self-
sacrifice dimension, if they perceive higher level of organizational politics prevailing in their
organization, they will be less committed to their organizations.
Studies examining the interactive effects of different dimensions of PSM and POP on employees’
organizational commitment could not be found. But, it can be argued that self-sacrifice might be
more susceptible to be influenced by an individual’s perceptions of prevalence of politics in his/her
work environment.

Implications and Directions for Future Research

Employees’ commitment has significant positive influence on their performance which in turn
results in increased organizational performance. Since employees who perceive less politics in
their organizations and those with high level of PSM have been found to be more committed to
their organizations.

The government organizations can have committed employees if: (i) the government organizations
create an organizational environment in which employees perceive prevalence of less politics; (ii)
the agencies responsible for recruiting and selecting civil service employees use PSM score for
selection decision; and (iii) the government organizations introduce some interventions that help
in fostering employees’ level of PSM.

Apart from the practical implications explained above, this study has opened up avenues for further
research in different frontiers. Compassion dimensions could not be found in the present sample.
However, from this finding, it cannot be concluded that Nepali civil services employees lack
compassion. There could be several reasons for the suppression of this dimension in the present
context. One of the important reasons for this could be that the items developed for capturing
compassion in the US context may not be applicable to capture it in Nepali context. Further inquiry
with rewording of the items and/or addition or deletion of items will confirm the presence or
absence of this dimension in Nepali context.