Playing a role – but which one? How public service motivation and professionalism affect decision-making in dilemma situations

Individuals who work in the public sector see themselves confronted with the key characteristics of this particular sphere: conflicting values, contradictory demands, and the need to serve an at times difficult to define ‘public interest’. Thus, professionals active in the context of public governance frequently need to make decisions in the face of dilemmas, which increases the risk of variation in their decision-making. Because equality before the law is a core value in the public sector, variation in public servants’ decision-making, provided the context is similar, should be minimized. A deeper insight into what drives the behaviour of individuals in dilemma situations can help to anticipate unwanted behaviour.

This book contributes to our understanding of what drives public service professionals’ decision-making in real-life dilemma situations by looking into the combined effect of public service motivation (PSM) and professionalism. Because there are persistent knowledge gaps about the meaning and behavioural consequences of these concepts when it comes to the specific context of dilemma situations, this book presents new approaches to the study of PSM and professionalism. Another contribution of this study is related to the current discussion about the stability of PSM. Several hypotheses and propositions are put to the test within a mixed-method research design based on data from research on veterinary inspectors working for the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority.

The results show that in order to clarify the meaning and behavioural consequences of PSM and professionalism in the context of dilemmas it is useful to combine our understanding of these concepts with insights from identity theory. Approaching professionalism as professional role identity and PSM as a role identity-dependent concept enables us to predict professionals’ decision-making to a certain extent. Mixed findings regarding the relationship between PSM and professionalism highlight our incomplete conceptual understanding of the topics studied, and call for future research that is sensitive to role perceptions. Finally, the results suggest that an inability to deal with daily work demands might be a better, or at least additional, explanation for the post-entry dynamics of PSM than the ‘reality shock’ frequently discussed in the literature.