Public Service Motivation of local government employees in the Netherlands and Belgium: The effect of national value-systems on PSM

Abstract

This article attempts to unfold the origins of international differences in public service motivation (PSM) by focusing on the effect of macro-level institutions on PSM. To explain the country differences levels of PSM and normative institutions measured as value-systems were studied in the Netherlands and Belgium. Analysis showed that although Dutch respondents were more likely to have post-materialistic values and post-materialists scored higher on PSM, values as they were measured in this study could not explain the country differences. It appears that value-systems do not form part of the effect of macro-level institutions. Nonetheless, valuesystems did have an independent effect on PSM, giving support for an institutional approach to PSM.