Public Sector Motivation and Performance. Observations in the Finnish Municipal Sector: The City of Helsinki
Garza, Olga Yvette (2014)
Kuvaus
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Tiivistelmä
For the past two decades, political leaders have started to search new ways for improving the public service ethic, particularly, regarding the Public Sector Motivation (PSM). Reasons are varied: an evident decline in public trust in government, bureaucracy and its bad reputation, and a crisis in government service. The role of Public Sector Motivation (PSM), especially in Human Resource Management, is crucial to understand what motivates public servants and how it can influence performance.
This research seeks to shed some light on the persistent dilemma on how human resource managers can take advantage of motivation for purposes of recruiting and selecting better employees in the aim to hopefully benefit the government in terms of confidence, efficacy, efficiency, and fairness. Also, this study will explore current constructs and measures of PSM and Performance supported by traditional theories and research studies in the hope to better understand the motives of public servants, and thus, help managers link these motives to strategies to cultivate PSM and enhance its impact.
Although this study is closer to a qualitative research, a triangulation method has been approached to check, validate, and analyze research questions. Using a survey, 41 questionnaires (quantitative) were verified by analyzing a case study: The Finnish Municipal Public Sector, focusing particularly in The City of Helsinki (qualitative)- delimitating the sample in one of its Departments, in this case: the Procurement Center. The results portrayed a particular outcome: on the one hand, there were indeed patterns showing the existence of PSM factors within the respondents, on the other hand, however, there were some unexpected discrepancies with main theories when it came to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Added to this, even though results showed evidence linking PSM to a higher level on performance, there was a persistent neutral view from the respondents towards this particular topic. This could lead to the possibility that there are other external factors at play, or that PSM might be the consequence of an efficient performance, not the cause.
This research seeks to shed some light on the persistent dilemma on how human resource managers can take advantage of motivation for purposes of recruiting and selecting better employees in the aim to hopefully benefit the government in terms of confidence, efficacy, efficiency, and fairness. Also, this study will explore current constructs and measures of PSM and Performance supported by traditional theories and research studies in the hope to better understand the motives of public servants, and thus, help managers link these motives to strategies to cultivate PSM and enhance its impact.
Although this study is closer to a qualitative research, a triangulation method has been approached to check, validate, and analyze research questions. Using a survey, 41 questionnaires (quantitative) were verified by analyzing a case study: The Finnish Municipal Public Sector, focusing particularly in The City of Helsinki (qualitative)- delimitating the sample in one of its Departments, in this case: the Procurement Center. The results portrayed a particular outcome: on the one hand, there were indeed patterns showing the existence of PSM factors within the respondents, on the other hand, however, there were some unexpected discrepancies with main theories when it came to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Added to this, even though results showed evidence linking PSM to a higher level on performance, there was a persistent neutral view from the respondents towards this particular topic. This could lead to the possibility that there are other external factors at play, or that PSM might be the consequence of an efficient performance, not the cause.