Does Public Service Motivation Always Lead to Organizational Commitment? Examining the Moderating Roles of Intrinsic Motivation and Ethical Leadership

Much of the work in public management indicates that public service motivation (PSM) generally leads to higher levels of organizational commitment. We argue that this relationship is more complex than generally assumed. First, drawing from self-determination theory, we propose that intrinsic motivation is conceptually distinct from PSM and that the two variables could interact. Second, drawing from the fit perspective, we further propose that ethical leadership is a contextual variable that will enhance the effect of PSM. A field study of public employees in Thailand provides support for this contingency perspective. We found that intrinsic motivation moderated the effect of PSM, such that the effect was positive only for individuals with high-intrinsic motivation but negative for those with low-intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, our analysis revealed a three-way interaction, which indicated that PSM was most positively related to organizational commitment when accompanied by high-intrinsic motivation and ethical leadership.