Quality of leadership and public service motivation: A social exchange perspective on employee engagement

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine salient mechanism by which the quality of political and administrative leadership might influence employee engagement in public sector organizations through public service motivation (PSM). Specifically, the purpose of the paper is twofold. First, the psychological outcomes of quality of leadership perceptions among public employees are identified. Second, how PSM mediates the influence of leadership quality perceptions on employee engagement is examined.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses the US Merit System and Protection Board’s (MSPB) 2010 Merit Principles Survey. To establish the distinctive validity of the constructs, the authors performed exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis for latent variables, and subsequently conducted validity and reliability analyses. The authors performed a structural equation model to determine relationship between quality of political and administrative leadership, PSM, and employee engagement.

Findings

The results reveal that the quality of political and administrative leadership is positively related to PSM and employee engagement. This study also confirmed the mediating role of PSM on the relationship between the quality of political and administrative leadership.

Originality/value

The paper expands the literature through studies that may discover critical mechanisms that are of significance in enhancing employee engagement such as quality of leadership depicted in political and administrative leaders and PSM. While previous studies have extensively explored several antecedents of employee engagement, research focusing on the role of quality in public sector leadership and PSM remains limited.

Citation

Ugaddan, R.G. and Park, S.M. (2017), "Quality of leadership and public service motivation: A social exchange perspective on employee engagement", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 270-285. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-08-2016-0133