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Public Service Motivation: Beyond the Boundary of Public Management 

Call for Papers

Proposals due: Sept 1, 2018; 

Full Papers due: March 1, 2019; Publication Date:  Spring 2020

A special issue of Public Management Review

Guest editor:   Neil Boyd, Bucknell University

Over the past 40 years, an argument could be made that perhaps no other concept has grabbed the attention of scholars in public management as much as public service motivation (PSM). As the literature has evolved, scholars have suggested that PSM can direct applicants toward public service-oriented careers (Christensen and Wright, 2011; Perry and Wise, 1990), and once hired, many have posited that PSM is linked to psychological outcomes and behavioral activity within public service-oriented organizations (Alonso and Lewis, 2001; Andersen and Kjeldsen, 2013; Bright, 2008; Homberg, McCarthey, and Tabvuma, 2015; Naff and Crum, 1999; Perry and Hondeghem, 2008; Petrovsky and Ritz, 2014; van Loon, Vandenabeele & Leisink, 2015).

Although some scholars have attempted to characterize and study PSM in relation to concepts outside of public management (Boyd & Nowell, 2017; Nowell, Izod, Ngaruiya, & Boyd 2016), the vast majority of scholarship has been grounded specifically in the public management literature. This is true when characterizing PSM as a factor that relates to career choice as well as a predictor of motivated states once one occupies a role within an organization. 

Given the continued vigor by which scholars focus attention on PSM, and fervent views of its legitimacy as one of the most prominent concepts in public management, it is important to study and evaluate PSM within the milieu of a broader conceptual and theoretical landscape across related disciplines (i.e., primarily management and the social sciences).  For example, it would be useful to know how PSM operates in relation to a variety concepts and frameworks in the fields of organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and related disciplines. Explorations in such areas will help to clarify when PSM acts as an antecedent, co-variate, consequence, or competing factor, and clarify its utility within a broader landscape of knowledge.

 Such concerns will be of great interest to public management scholars and readers of Public Management Review as they address, for example:

·         What we currently know from the vast literature on PSM in relation to career choice and psychological/behavioral outcomes in organizations.

·         How PSM integrates with concepts, models, and theories from related disciplines and expands the frontier in which PSM may operate.

To advance our knowledge in the areas above, we seek manuscripts that explore:

·         Theoretical understandings of PSM in relation to related concepts in management and the social sciences writ large.

·         Empirical investigations of PSM in relation to concepts in other disciplines that help us understand its utility as a career selection variable.

·         Empirical investigations that help us understand how PSM operates in relation to concepts that are oriented toward "regarding others."

We seek innovative articles that clarify the current state of the PSM literature drawn from various fields and disciplines; demonstrate what has, or has not, been imported to public management from these other disciplines; and exhibits explicit direction of a comprehensive research agenda that advances knowledge in PSM in one or more of Public Management's major topic arenas.  We are particularly interested in cross-national, comparative, and inter-disciplinary papers that promote cross-boundary learning and conceptualization.

Proposals (up to 750 words) for manuscripts are invited which address the aim.

Manuscripts may be conceptual or empirical, but all must hold promise for understanding PSM across disciplinary boundaries and advance thinking on future research directions of the field. Thus, proposals should include a description of how the manuscript makes these links.

Submission process: Authors should submit proposals (up to 750 words) by email to the Guest Editor of the Special Issue no later than Sept 1, 2018.  The Guest Editor will review the proposals and invite authors within 4 weeks to submit a full manuscript, subject to peer review and consistent with PMR guidelines for reviewers.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts is March 1, 2019. Publication is anticipated for Spring 2020. Send proposal submissions or inquiries to Neil Boyd at Neil.Boyd@Bucknell.edu.

Please share this call for proposals with interested colleagues.