Prior studies have argued that the greater individuals' public service motivation (PSM), the more likely they will search for a job in the public sector. However, some doubt exists as to whether this expectation will be held across regimes in which different kinds of recruitment approaches in the civil service have been adopted. Accordingly, the present study aimed to revisit the PSM-attraction argument and explore the extent to which the effect of PSM on the intention of public employment, if any, will be weakened when government recruitment methods provide limited opportunities to evaluate applicants' personality, skills and motivation in addition to professional knowledge. Based on the 2017 survey data of 477 senior PA students from five universities in Taiwan (n = 313), one university in Hong Kong (n = 110), and one university in Singapore (n = 54), the present study showed that the overall PSM and the attraction to public service (APS) sub-dimension are positively associated with the tendency to search for membership in the public sector. Moreover, the positive impact of APS is likely to be weakened in the regimes in which exam-based recruitment approach (as opposed to the diverse recruitment methods) was adopted in the civil service although similar patterns were not found for overall PSM and the self-sacrifice sub-dimension. Our findings shed light on the importance of institutional contexts when examining PSM outcomes.
過去有研究指出,具有較高公共服務動機者,想要進入公部門服務的可能性也會愈高。然而,亦有學者質疑,各國的文官進用制度不盡相同,前述結果在不同地區是否依然成立,仍是文獻上有待進一步探討的問題。有鑑於此,本研究試圖分析公共服務動機對公部門工作的吸引效果,是否會因為各國文官進用方式的不同而有所差異。特別是除了專業知識的評測之外,當選才制度未能將應徵者人格特質、技能與動機等面向納入考量時,公共服務動機的影響力是否會被弱化。本研究於2017年針對477位學生進行問卷調查,受訪者分別來自於臺灣五所大學(313位)、香港一所大學(110位)以及新加坡一所大學(54位)之公共行政相關科系。資料分析結果顯示,整體公共服務動機以及「嚮往公共服務」子構面,對公部門工作的偏好有正向且顯著的影響。然而,在以紙筆測驗作為主要選才方式的地區中,嚮往公共服務的正向影響力會被弱化,儘管類似的調節作用並未出現於整體公共服務動機以及「自我犧牲」構面的模型中。本研究凸顯了在檢視公共服務動機可能帶來之結果時,將制度系絡因素納入考量的重要性。