Public Service Motivation in State Civil Service

Abstract

The problem of public service motivation remains in Russian state service, and it has an impact on working efficiency and professional level of its staff. This research is aimed at studying the problem of public service motivation of civil servants. Methodological base includes the concept of the bureaucracy by M. Weber, the concept of motivation for public service by D. Perry and L. Wise, as well as the works of leading Russian and foreign scientists in this field. A blanket canvassing of state civil servants was used as a method of collecting source information, while methods of system analysis and general scientific methods were used for its analyzing. Scientists and practitioners give ambiguous assessments of the role of public service motivation in the structure of officials’ motivation. Therefore, the aim of this work is to answer the question: does public service motivation have a significant impact on the motivation of officials to perform state civil service. And also, to establish which motivating factors that, according to D. Perry, form the motivation for public service (he mentioned: desire to participate in the development of public policy; commitment to public interest and public debt; self-denial; compassion) are the most important for Russian civil servants? Empirical base of this study included state civil servants of the executive authorities of the Sverdlovsk and Kurgan Regions, in total – more than 250 officials. Analysis of motivational preferences showed that the most part of public servants among the respondents did not consider public service motivation as the leading motivation for their service, and the leading importance in generating public service motivation are such motivating factors as ―commitment to public interest and public debt‖ and ―the opportunity to participate in the development of public policy‖. Obtained results can be used to improve the institution of staff management in the public civil service. Keywords—state civil service, public service motivation, commitment to public interest.