Understanding relationships between public service motivation and involvement in socio-political organizations: Perspectives of organizational field theory

The study provides insights about public service motivation values and participation in socio-political organizations. It applies organizational field theory to a sample of similar public and nonprofit service providers in a border region of two independent states. The results reveal that socio-political activities bear different meanings for individuals from different sectors and countries. Thus, from an institutional perspective, despite offering similar services, the organizations studied belong to different organizational fields. This validates a recent shift from defining an organizational field as a group of organizations that share products, services, or markets to those that share common meanings. A broader context being a sector of economy or an administrative realm defines the types of socio-political activities that share institutional infrastructures with public service organizations. Specifically, mutually exclusive associations are found for churches, political parties, and professional and volunteering groups. The study also indicates no value overlap with labour unions.