Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design

Recent evidence shows public service motivation (PSM) may be unrelated to one’s consideration of a public service career. In places where civil service examinations prevail, even adverse selection (selecting low-PSM individuals) can occur. This leaves public sector managers with tough questions: “Ca...

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Main Authors: Chen, Chung-An, Hsieh, Chih-Wei, Chen, Don-Yun
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149992
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1499922023-03-05T15:34:45Z Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design Chen, Chung-An Hsieh, Chih-Wei Chen, Don-Yun School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Political science Public Service Training Pretest–posttest Design Recent evidence shows public service motivation (PSM) may be unrelated to one’s consideration of a public service career. In places where civil service examinations prevail, even adverse selection (selecting low-PSM individuals) can occur. This leaves public sector managers with tough questions: “Can we improve new recruits’ PSM? Does training matter?” The present study attempts to answer these questions by using a case of onboard training in Taiwan. We hypothesize that PSM, along with public service–related knowledge and a positive attitude toward public service work, improves after training, and that the improvement hinges on trainees’ satisfaction with training and perceived usefulness of training. Analytical results indicate that knowledge and attitudes are more “trainable” than PSM. Meanwhile, training satisfaction is associated with the growth of public service–related knowledge, while perceived training usefulness relates to a positive attitude toward public service work and PSM. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the effectiveness of public service training, its determinants, and the implications for public employees’ public service orientations. Ministry of Education (MOE) Accepted version The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors received the following financial support for this research: (1) Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology Research Grant: NSC-102-2410-H004-124-MY2; TGBSIII, and (2) Singapore Ministry of Education Tier-1 Grant: RG61/16. 2021-05-24T08:31:27Z 2021-05-24T08:31:27Z 2019 Journal Article Chen, C., Hsieh, C. & Chen, D. (2019). Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 41(1), 194-215. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734371X19872244 0734-371X 0000-0003-0702-813X 0000-0003-1775-4709 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149992 10.1177/0734371X19872244 2-s2.0-85073788605 1 41 194 215 en RG61/16 Review of Public Personnel Administration © 2019 The Author(s). All rights reserved. This paper was published by SAGE in Review of Public Personnel Administration and is made available with permission of The Author(s). application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Political science
Public Service Training
Pretest–posttest Design
spellingShingle Social sciences::Political science
Public Service Training
Pretest–posttest Design
Chen, Chung-An
Hsieh, Chih-Wei
Chen, Don-Yun
Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
description Recent evidence shows public service motivation (PSM) may be unrelated to one’s consideration of a public service career. In places where civil service examinations prevail, even adverse selection (selecting low-PSM individuals) can occur. This leaves public sector managers with tough questions: “Can we improve new recruits’ PSM? Does training matter?” The present study attempts to answer these questions by using a case of onboard training in Taiwan. We hypothesize that PSM, along with public service–related knowledge and a positive attitude toward public service work, improves after training, and that the improvement hinges on trainees’ satisfaction with training and perceived usefulness of training. Analytical results indicate that knowledge and attitudes are more “trainable” than PSM. Meanwhile, training satisfaction is associated with the growth of public service–related knowledge, while perceived training usefulness relates to a positive attitude toward public service work and PSM. Overall, these findings advance our understanding of the effectiveness of public service training, its determinants, and the implications for public employees’ public service orientations.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Chen, Chung-An
Hsieh, Chih-Wei
Chen, Don-Yun
format Article
author Chen, Chung-An
Hsieh, Chih-Wei
Chen, Don-Yun
author_sort Chen, Chung-An
title Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
title_short Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
title_full Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
title_fullStr Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
title_full_unstemmed Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design
title_sort can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? a pretest–posttest design
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/149992
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