Personality traits and public service motivation as psychological antecedents of managerial networking

Several studies report that managerial networking helps improve public service provision, so understanding and predicting why some public managers engage more in networking than others is critical. Psychological antecedents of managerial networking have not been examined previously, though from a personnel management perspective, identifying predispositions and motivations that drive networking is of utmost interest. Therefore, our study investigates the influences of personality traits and public service motivation (PSM) on managerial networking. Survey data from 207 high-ranking public managers reveal that PSM mediates the influence of extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness on networking.