What Drives Citizen Extra-Role Behaviour? Leadership Perceptions and the Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation in Local Government

Why do some citizens willingly contribute to local governance beyond what is formally expected of them? Extra-role behaviour has been widely studied in employee settings. But similar voluntary actions among citizens have got much less attention. This study looks at whether perceptions of leadership in local ward offices affect such discretionary civic engagement. And also whether public service motivation explains this link. Survey data came from 458 residents of a municipality in Kathmandu District, Nepal. All of them knew their elected ward representatives. Using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the results show that both servant and ethical leadership perceptions are positively linked with citizen extra-role behaviour. Public service motivation acts as important mediating mechanism. Our findings suggest that leadership behaviours are associated with voluntary civic actions through the way they strengthen citizens' commitment to public values. The model demonstrated strong explanatory power. This underscores the role of leadership signals in helping to build cooperative and participatory governance environments. Extending research on extra-role behaviour to the citizen level provides fresh theoretical insights for studies on leadership and motivation. It also offers practical implications that could benefit public sector management.