Relationship between leadership style and public service motivation: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This study presents a meta-analysis of 59 separate samples sourced from 49 studies, pooling a sample size of 34,442 participants to examine the relationship between leadership style and public service motivation. We found that leader–member exchange leadership, charismatic leadership, and servant leadership had a strong positive correlation with public service motivation, while transactional leadership, ethical leadership, and transformational leadership had a moderate positive correlation with public service motivation. Moreover, cultural background, the measurement instrument used to assess public service motivation, and the source of participants moderated the correlation between leadership style and public service motivation. In contrast, the moderating effect of research design was nonsignificant. The results elucidate the relationship between leadership style and public service motivation and provide theoretical guidance for public sector management practice.