Contrasting effects of leadership styles on public service motivation: the mediating role of basic psychological needs among Indian public sector officials

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-02-2022-0046
• Published date: 05 July 2022
• Date: 05 July 2022
• Pages: 659-675
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management
• Author: Sanket Sunand Dash,Rajneesh Gupta,Lalatendu Kesari Jena

Contrasting effects of leadership

styles on public service motivation:

the mediating role of basic

psychological needs among Indian

public sector officials

Sanket Sunand Dash

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, India

Rajneesh Gupta

Birla Institute of Management Technology, Noida, India, and

Lalatendu Kesari Jena

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, Rohtak, India and

School of Human Resource Management, XIM University, Bhubaneswar, India

Abstract

Purpose –Public service motivation (PSM), among actual and prospective employees in the public sector, lead

to positive work outcomes. However, there is limited integration of PSM with existing motivational theories,

especially self-determination theory (SDT). The impact of destructive leadership styles on PSM is also

understudied. The study aims to fill the gap.

Design/methodology/approach –The study used a cross-sectional survey of 693 public sector officials

employed in Indian Railways to test the hypotheses. PLS-SEM was used for the analysis. The study found that

fulfillment of basic psychological needs (BPN) at work leads to improved PSM while BPN partially mediates the

positive/negative effect of constructive/destructive leadership styles like servant/autocratic leadersh ip on

employees’PSM.

Findings –Autocratic/servant leadership was negatively/positively and significantly related to PSM and to

all three BPN needs. Servant leadership was found to be positively and significantly related to all three BPN

needs, while the BPN needs partially mediated the relationship between servant leadership and PSM.

Research limitations/implications –The study identifies servant leadership as a driver of PSM and

suggests that managers employed in public sector establishments should be trained to be less autocratic and

more attuned to subordinates’needs. The baneful impact of autocratic leadership on employee PSM is

highlighted. The cross-sectional nature of study makes it susceptible to common-methodbias. The sample was

limited to a single country. Future longitudinal and experimental studies based on samples drawn from

multiple countries can yield more robust results.

Originality/value –The study advances the integration of PSM with SDT by identifying PSM with introjected

motivation. It is also the first study to link destructive leadership styles with a reduction in employ ees’PSM. It

identifies a counterintuitive, negative relationship between competence need satisfaction and PSM in the Indian

public sector.

KeywordsPublic service motivation, Leadership styles, Self-determination theory, Basic psychological needs,

Autocratic leadership

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Public service motivation (PSM) has been identified as a unique type of motivation that is

activated by the “specific dispositions and values arising from public institutions and

missions”(Perry et al., 2010, 682). Public service providers who rate high in PSM tend to

display greater work engagement (Cooke et al., 2019) and innovative behavior (Miao et al.,

2018). The current Covid-19 pandemic is likely to increase the salience of PSM for public

Contrasting

effects of

leadership

styles on PSM

659

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0951-3558.htm

Received 14 February 2022

Revised 10 May 2022

Accepted 21 June 2022

International Journal of Public

Sector Management

Vol. 35 No. 6, 2022

pp. 659-675

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0951-3558

DOI 10.1108/IJPSM-02-2022-0046

institutions as many public service providers face greater demands and risks to life and

health in the conduct of their daily duties and hence need greater motivation to continue.

Given the relevance of PSM in the effective provision of public services and the primary

role of the public sector in providing public services, there is a need to identify factors that

improve the mean PSM of public sector employees. One such driver of PSM is the quality of

leadership (Christensen et al., 2017). Researchers have studied the relationship between

leadership styles, especially transformational leadership, and PSM. However, the research on

the effect of leadership on PSM is from a few shortcomings. Firstly, the choice of leadership

styles is usually not theoretically linked to the PSM construct. Secondly, the focus has been

primarily on the positive effect of constructive leadership styles in improving PSM. Thirdly,

the psychological mechanisms through which leadership affects PSM are not adequately

explored.

This paper adds to our understanding of the relationship between leadership and PSM by

identifying autocratic leadership as an inhibitor and servant leadership as a driver of

employee PSM. Autocratic leadership is chosen because of its possible wide prevalence in the

Indian public sector (Mounk, 2018), which forms the context of the study. The prevalence of

autocratic leadership in organizations is hypothesized because of the hierarchical structure of

the Indian public sector and the large power distance in Indian society. Servant leadership is

chosen because of the conceptual similarities between it and PSM. A comparison of Sendjaya

et al. (2008) servant leadership framework with PSM indicates that elements of service, self-

sacrifice (voluntary subordination) and compassion (responsible morality) are common

to both.

The paper analyzes PSM through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT; Corduneanu

et al., 2020). SDT provides the theoretical bedrock of the study. As PSM reflects coherence

between personal and organizational goals, the study classifies it as a form of integrated

regulation. SDT considers interjected regulation to be a form of autonomous motivation and

posits that a person’s motivation is autonomous when the concerned individual experiences

satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs (BPN) of autonomy, competence and

relatedness (Gagn

e and Edward, 2005). Thus, the study hypothesizes that satisfaction of BPN

at work leads to higher PSM, and increased/decreased BPN satisfaction mediates the effect of

different leadership styles on PSM.

The structure of the paper is as follows. First, the concept of PSM is discussed in the

context of SDT. The paper draws on earlier works to conceptualize PSM as a form of

integrated motivation. Next, the role of leadership in crowding out and promoting PSM is

discussed. The third section presents the hypothesis linking servant leadership to the

enhancement of PSM and autocratic leadership to crowding out of PSM. The effects of

leadership are expected to be mediated by the satisfaction/non-satisfaction of BPN. The

fourth section describes the methodology of the study and presents the results. The fifth

section discusses the results and points out the limitations and scope for future studies.

Situating PSM in broader motivational theories

PSM is a specific form of motivation that is grounded in the other-focused mission, values and

norms of public institutions (Perry and Lois, 1990, 368). The two core concepts underlying

PSM are other-orientation and publicness (Perry, 2021). In contrast to market-linked, self-

oriented theories of motivation like merit pay, PSM focuses on the role of intrinsic motives in

driving the behavior of public service providers (Perry, 2021).

In line with Perry (1996), the paper conceptualizes PSM as consisting of the following four

dimensions: attraction to policymaking, commitment to the public interest, compassion and

self-sacrifice. This conceptualization of PSM has been supported in India (Gupta et al., 2020).

Key debates about the nature of PSM relate to its conceptual and empirical distinction from

IJPSM

35,6

660