公共服务动机研究的兴起和发展

The Rise and Development of Public Service Motivation Research

和主流经济学将人类行为的动机归结为自我利益的保护和追求而用"经济人"假设予以表达不同,公共管理学新近的发展凸显了一种利他的"公共服务动机"在公职人员中的广泛存在,并围绕公共服务动机的存在、性质及其对工作绩效的影响和管理启示等问题进行探讨,形成了持续扩张的研究热潮。尽管仍存在分歧和争议,公共服务动机多被看作是一种关爱他人的利他主义或亲社会动机,它与一般利他主义或亲社会动机的区别在于,其关爱的他人不是一般的个人、家庭或其他私人领域的利益相关者,而是公共领域的人民、大众、社会或国家。公共服务动机虽然会产生某些负面效应,整体上却对公共部门的绩效有促进作用;这种作用表现为雇员个人及其所属团队和组织工作效率的改进或提高,常通过工作满意度、组织目标、组织责任、组织承诺以及个人-工作-组织环境匹配度等中间变量的调节来达成。承认公共服务动机的客观存在并加以利用,对公共管理尤其是信息不对称条件下公务员行为的有效治理具有重要启示和意义。本文拟在文献梳理和分析基础上,对公共服务动机研究的兴起、发展、议题、观点及其局限和价值进行述评和解析,从中展示公共服务动机理论演进的历史和逻辑。

Different from the ＂economic man＂ hypothesis of economics which dscribed the motives of human behavior to the protection and pursuit of self-interest, the recent development of Public Administration has highlighted the widespread existence of an altruistic ＂public service motivation＂ among public employees, and carries on the probe and discussion around the existence, nature of public service motivation and its im- pact on job performance and practical implications,and other issues,has formed a continuous expansion of the research boom. Although there are still inconsistencies and disputes, public service motivation has been often viewed as a kind of altruism that cares others or pro-social motivation. The difference between public service motivation and general altruism or pro-social motive is that the mean of caring people in the public service motivation is not the general individual, family or other private sector stakeholders, but the people in the field of public, society or country. There may also be a dark side to public service motivation,but on the whole, the public service motivation has a positive effect on the organizational performance of the public sector：the effect is manifested as an improvement in the efficiency of the individual employees but also their respective teams and organizations. Moreover, it is usually achieved through the adjustment of intermediate variables such as job satisfaction,organizational goals,organizational responsibility,organizational commit- ment, and the degree of person-job-organization environment fit. It is of great revelation and significance to acknowledge the objective existence of public service motivation and utilize it for public administration,es- pecially the effective governance of civil servants behavior under the background of information asymme- try. On the basis of combing and analyzing the literature, this paper reviews and analyzes the rise, develop- ment, topic, viewpoint, limitations and value of public service motivation researches, and demonstrates the history and logic of the evolution of public service motivation theory.