Exploratory Essay on Public Service Motivation and Morality

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Public Service Motivation and Police

Public Service Motivation (hereafter: PSM) is crucial to any governmental institution. (Borst & Lako, 2017; Leisink & Steijn, 2009; Schott, Neumann, Baertschi, & Ritz, 2019) According to Perry and Wise (Perry & Wise, 1990), PSM refers to public servants being motivated by their willingness to benefit others rather than their own when performing public services. This would distinguish them from private sector employees. As such, PSM is comprised of three dimensions. First, the rational component relates to the intrinsic motivation of public officials. Secondly, the affective element presumes that public servants have a high degree of compassion and willingness to self-sacrifice. Finally, the normative element of PSM finds that civil servants possess a high degree of morality; and upholding this motivates them. These three dimensions would make for the ideal type of public servant. They will serve as the theoretical blueprint to further assess PSM within the Dutch National Police.

There are both academic and societal reasons for delving into PSM in the Dutch National Police. First, despite often being one of the largest public agencies, the academic body of knowledge seldom discusses PSM in law enforcement. Secondly, the Dutch National Police had a strike in early 2019 due to labor shortage and heavy workload. Such a phenomenon makes researching PSM in the police force relevant to society (Brown, 2019)

This paper assesses PSM in the Dutch National Police in an empirical manner. The evidence consists of data gathered from an interview with a Dutch police officer in The Hague, Demas. While anecdotal in nature, the lack of empirical studies into PSM in law enforcement justifies this approach. It can enlighten the first steps on the path to new research. As such, this paper continues by separately discussing the rational, affective, and normative dimensions of PSM.

The rational aspect of PSM: intrinsic motivation and beyond

Initially, intrinsic motivation was an aspect considered to be innate to PSM. This means that public servants actively participate in performing daily job tasks and make contributions of any sort in the public sector (de Vries, 2016). Demas shows that this element is indeed present:

“I want to be there for the civilians, so my purpose is to make them feel protected. This is the main thing I want to accomplish.”

As such, he reveals to have an internal drive that motivates him to help civilians; without expecting anything in return. In this respect, he exemplifies the ideal type of public official.

However, during its gradual development, PSM theories went beyond the initial idea of the intrinsically motivated public servant. Namely, external factors also played a role in motivating and demotivating public officials; for example, Frederick Herzberg’s theory of motivators (public recognition, the content of work, career advancement possibilities), and hygiene factors (administrative burdens, interpersonal relations, and salary). Finally, Douglas McGregor ties both approaches together. His ‘’theory x’’ assesses external motivational elements such as continuous financial incentives. Additionally, his ‘’theory y’’ states that internally-motivated employees gain a sense of fulfillment merely by an excellent completion of job tasks (de Vries, 2016) The analysis below shows that such elements can also play a role in the motivations of a Dutch police officer.

First, the content of work is an important determinant of job satisfaction for Damas. He describes his experience of being a police officer after finishing one day’s job:

“Becoming a policeman is a different kind of thing to do. Like the feeling I get when I am done with the work. It is great.”

Thus, this shows that the content of the work plays a role in motivating him.

Secondly, career growth possibility is another determining factor in terms of job satisfaction. Demas regards the possibility of career advancement as a major motivator:

“Working in the police office means that I can grow a lot. There are different kinds of directions and I can start from being an officer and go through the process and later can become a detective. I can work for different divisions. This is important because I can grow in my career.”

As such, the sense of curiosity and constant freshness clearly motivates him to remain at service in the police bureau.

Thirdly, burdensome administrative rules function as a major hygiene factor (demotivator): discouraging employees from being engaged at work. Damas experiences this as well:

“Administration. I come from the office where I did a lot of administration before. I have to type a lot. I think administrative work is a lot.”

In this way, the fact that the respondent is concerned that he might miss the chance to track down criminals while he is occupied with report work, functions as a dissatisfier.

In sum, the above part shows that despite the initial major focus of PSM on the intrinsic motivation of public servants, both internal and external elements can play a role in the job motivation of a Dutch police officer.

The affective aspect of PSM

A second hallmark of PSM is ‘’effectiveness’’. Employees with this attribute tend to show a degree of compassion towards others especially sufferers or socially vulnerable groups (de Vries, 2016) The following quote shows that such a mentality can also be present in police officers:

“I have to be patient and be communicative with people, such as the victims. Because I have to give victims support and have conversations with them. This requires a lot of empathy to spend time with people and talk with them nicely.”

In short, this indicates that Damas identifies his behavior as a way of showing empathy and lending support to victims; thereby exemplifying the ‘’effectiveness’’ of the public servant ideal-type.

The role of morality

Morality, as de Vries explains in his book, has both intangible and tangible components. First of all, it refers to values and beliefs(2016). Police officers are often requested to uphold these when combating crimes and illegal practices (Blok & Police Department The Netherlands, 2004). This was also mentioned by the respondent:

“What the police force asks is the integrity of the co-worker and the civilian outside and the loyalty for the job because police officers have a lot of rights that the civilians do not have. So I need to be trustworthy for the civilians and for my colleagues. I should not take advantage of these things. Loyalty is a big part.”

As such, this shows that Demas strongly upholds the value of ‘’loyalty’’. He strongly believes that he is given authority and power which in turn requires him to be loyal to both colleagues and civilians (de Vries, 2016).

Secondly, morality refers to specific rules and habits that are distilled from the more abstract principles. Public institutions namely attempt to turn abstract moral values into visible elements. By doing so, public servants can set themselves as an example of obeying the law to the public. For instance, this can be swearing an oath of office or adopting a code of conduct (de Vries, 2016). Demas mentioned that he experiences such practices as well:

“We had to swear an oath of office when we started this job. This is a standard procedure to bind us with the ministry because we stand for certain things; we need to listen to it and be honest about it.”

In sum, the respondent’s internal value of loyalty is a factor that ties him to the police force and the civilians he has to protect; according to PSM theory, this enhances his motivation. Additionally, the oath of office, being an externally induced element of morality also ties him to moral standards and can subsequently function as a motivating factor. Therefore, the normative part of PSM theory contains—similarly to the rational aspect—both an internal and external component.

Conclusion

This exploratory paper focused on the ‘’public service motivation’’ in the Dutch National Police. First, it has distinguished between the core of PSM theory, in which a rational, affective, and normative element play a role. Subsequently, these have been applied to the case of a Dutch police officer. This leads to the following findings. First, both intrinsic and external factors played a role in motivating the officer. Secondly, due to the nature of the work, compassion towards others seems to be a motivating factor as well. Thirdly, morality has also been identified as a factor that influences the officer’s motivation as well. Like the first element, this also has an internal and external dimension. As such, all main elements of PSM theory have been found in the case presented. This leads to a preliminary conclusion that a police officer possesses a significant degree of PSM. However, since this paper is exploratory in nature, it has not been able to accurately assess the precise weight of intrinsic and external motivating factors. More detailed and systematic research into this element could be done to provide more insight into the application of public service motivation and morality, especially in the law enforcement body.

Bibliography

Blok, C., & Police Department The Netherlands, Ministry of Interior. (2004). Policing in the Netherlands.
Borst, R. T., & Lako, C. J. (2017). Proud to Be a Public Servant? An Analysis of the Work-Related Determinants of Professional Pride among Dutch Public Servants. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(10), 875–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2017.1289390
Brown, E. (2019). Strike in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and the Hague: No public transport during the morning rush hour on Monday. Dutch Review. Retrieved from https://dutchreview.com/news/traffic/strike-in-amsterdam-no-public-transport-during-the-morning-rush-hour-on-monday/
de Vries, M. S. (2016). Understanding Public Administration. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Leisink, P., & Steijn, B. (2009). Public service motivation and job performance of public sector employees in the Netherlands. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 75(1), 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852308099505
Perry, J., & Wise, L. (1990). The Motivation Base of Public Service. Public Administration Review, 367–373.
Schott, C., Neumann, O., Baertschi, M., & Ritz, A. (2019). Public Service Motivation, Prosocial Motivation, and Altruism: Towards Disentanglement and Conceptual Clarity. International Journal of Public Administration, (March). https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2019.1588302
Studio Dumbar. (1993). Dutch National Police — Identity and Vehicle Striping. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from https://studiodumbar.com/work/dutch-police

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