Introduction

The extant literature around public service motivation is overwhelmingly empirical, and usually quantitative in nature. This is a positive of PSMT, and means that there is considerable evidence to support the view that public employees have other regarding motivations.

But there are also significant issues with this empirical evidence; with its areas of focus and with the methods used. This chapter will critically explore the empirical evidence around public service motivation. It starts by examining a cohort of 52 studies, published in 2020, which include ‘public service motivation’ in their title. As with the overall body of research in the field, the 2020 cohort is overwhelmingly empirical in nature, and mostly uses quantitative methods.

The second half of the chapter will draw out the key criticisms and proposals for developing the research agenda around public service motivation identified by PSMT scholars themselves. These criticisms will be explored, and the 2020 cohort assessed as to the extent to which it shows progress towards addressing these criticisms.

The analysis here will conclude that empirical evidence around public service motivation continues to demonstrate methodological weaknesses. In particular, the continuing use of cross-sectional surveys and self-reported measures limits significantly the conclusions that can be drawn from the research. To some extent, the criticism here is a little harsh – much social science research uses similar methods, which often leads to more robust methods becoming feasible. It is also worth stating again that motivation cannot be directly observed, but rather must be implied. But, it is hardly surprising that, when asked, civil servants do indeed state that they are motivated by the public interest. Research that goes further than this, that asks what this means and explores the consequences of this, is needed.

Recent literature

In 2020, 52 articles were published with ‘public service motivation’ in the title. Details of these articles are set out in the Appendix, and were identified through a search conducted via Web of Science in January 2021. These articles represent around a third of all of the PSMT articles published in 2020. They suggest little progress has been made within the field to address some of the substantive criticisms of its research design and methods.