‘It’s a match!’: a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobs

Guillem Ripoll; Xavier Ballart; Enrique Hernández; Wouter Vandenabeele

doi:10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256

‘It’s a match!’: a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobs

Guillem Ripoll^*
, Xavier Ballart
, Enrique Hernández
, Wouter Vandenabeele

^*Corresponding author for this work

UU LEG Research USG Public Matters

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

What makes public service jobs attractive to citizens? We address this question by studying several attributes simultaneously, categorizing the signals sent by each attribute as instrumental or symbolic, and clarifying the role of PSM. Using a conjoint experiment on a sample of citizens in Catalonia (Spain), the results show that citizens prefer stable, well-paid and public sector jobs in organizations pursuing public values. The influence of public values, a symbolic attribute, strengthens as PSM increases, but citizens with high PSM are equally responsive to the appeal of other attributes. The discussion addresses the findings and provides directions for future research.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	183-217
Number of pages	35
Journal	Public Management Review
Volume	27
Issue number	1
Early online date	24 Jul 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256
Publication status	Published - 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

This article was funded by a project of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness on Public Service Motivation, Objective Performance and Citizen Satisfaction (CSO2017-86653-P).

Funders	Funder number
Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness on Public Service Motivation, Objective Performance and Citizen Satisfaction	CSO2017-86653-P

Keywords

human resource management
Job attractiveness
person-environment fit
public service motivation
public values
symbolic-instrumental attributes

Access to Document

10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256

It s a match a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobsFinal published version, 1.53 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

@article{1463fee88d554a4786a209fe90c08962,

title = "{\textquoteleft}It{\textquoteright}s a match!{\textquoteright}: a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobs",

abstract = "What makes public service jobs attractive to citizens? We address this question by studying several attributes simultaneously, categorizing the signals sent by each attribute as instrumental or symbolic, and clarifying the role of PSM. Using a conjoint experiment on a sample of citizens in Catalonia (Spain), the results show that citizens prefer stable, well-paid and public sector jobs in organizations pursuing public values. The influence of public values, a symbolic attribute, strengthens as PSM increases, but citizens with high PSM are equally responsive to the appeal of other attributes. The discussion addresses the findings and provides directions for future research.",

keywords = "human resource management, Job attractiveness, person-environment fit, public service motivation, public values, symbolic-instrumental attributes",

author = "Guillem Ripoll and Xavier Ballart and Enrique Hern{\'a}ndez and Wouter Vandenabeele",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor \& Francis Group.",

year = "2025",

doi = "10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256",

language = "English",

volume = "27",

pages = "183--217",

journal = "Public Management Review",

issn = "1471-9037",

publisher = "Taylor and Francis",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘It’s a match!’

T2 - a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobs

AU - Ripoll, Guillem

AU - Ballart, Xavier

AU - Hernández, Enrique

AU - Vandenabeele, Wouter

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - What makes public service jobs attractive to citizens? We address this question by studying several attributes simultaneously, categorizing the signals sent by each attribute as instrumental or symbolic, and clarifying the role of PSM. Using a conjoint experiment on a sample of citizens in Catalonia (Spain), the results show that citizens prefer stable, well-paid and public sector jobs in organizations pursuing public values. The influence of public values, a symbolic attribute, strengthens as PSM increases, but citizens with high PSM are equally responsive to the appeal of other attributes. The discussion addresses the findings and provides directions for future research.

AB - What makes public service jobs attractive to citizens? We address this question by studying several attributes simultaneously, categorizing the signals sent by each attribute as instrumental or symbolic, and clarifying the role of PSM. Using a conjoint experiment on a sample of citizens in Catalonia (Spain), the results show that citizens prefer stable, well-paid and public sector jobs in organizations pursuing public values. The influence of public values, a symbolic attribute, strengthens as PSM increases, but citizens with high PSM are equally responsive to the appeal of other attributes. The discussion addresses the findings and provides directions for future research.

KW - human resource management

KW - Job attractiveness

KW - person-environment fit

KW - public service motivation

KW - public values

KW - symbolic-instrumental attributes

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85165571833

U2 - 10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256

DO - 10.1080/14719037.2023.2239256

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85165571833

SN - 1471-9037

VL - 27

SP - 183

EP - 217

JO - Public Management Review

JF - Public Management Review

IS - 1

ER -

‘It’s a match!’: a discrete choice experiment on job attractiveness for public service jobs

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this