Public Service Motivation, Civic Attitudes and Actions of Public, Nonprofit and Private Sector Employees

Using the 2005 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes dataset, this study compares the public service motivation (PSM), and civic attitudes and actions of public, nonprofit and private sector employees in Australia. Sectoral similarities and differences were noted. This research also analyses the relationships between PSM and civic attitudes and behaviours of these groups of employees. High PSM employees were found to have higher confidence in key national public and private institutions, place more importance on citizens' rights, and engage in more non-electoral political and prosocial acts than low PSM employees.