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Motivational Bases and Emotional Labor: Assessing the Impact of Public Service Motivation
Author(s) -
Hsieh ChihWei,
Yang Kaifeng,
Fu KaiJo
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02499.x
Subject(s) - public service motivation , compassion , emotional labor , affect (linguistics) , attraction , public service , psychology , social psychology , empirical research , service (business) , public relations , public sector , marketing , political science , business , law , linguistics , philosophy , communication , epistemology
Emotional labor has become an important topic in the study of organizational behavior, but no research has examined how it is affected in individuals’ motivational bases. Public administration scholars have started to study this concept, but empirical studies are still in their infancy. Focusing on a particular type of motivational base—public service motivation (PSM), this article assesses how PSM and its three dimensions (attraction to policy making, commitment to public interest, and compassion) affect two common emotional labor activities (surface acting and deep acting). Using data from a survey of certified public management students, the results show that PSM is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting. Among the PSM dimensions, attraction to policy making is positively associated with surface acting; compassion is negatively associated with surface acting and positively associated with deep acting; and commitment to public interest is not associated with surface acting or deep acting.