Towards A Better Understanding of Public Service Motivation and Mission Valence in Public Agencies

Research has not fully considered how public service motivation (PSM) and mission valence may work together to influence job satisfaction, extra-role behaviours, and turnover intentions. As a result, a causal model was developed and tested on local, state, and federal government employees in the United States. The results indicate that PSM had a direct effect on mission valence and extra-role behaviours. They also revealed that mission valence fully mediated the relationship between PSM and job satisfaction and partially mediated the relationship between PSM and extra-role behaviours. On the other hand, mission valence did not mediate the relationship between PSM and turnover intentions. These findings are thoroughly discussed in this article.