A capable public sector workforce is essential for sustainable development. In public procurement, the ability of procurement reform to support Sustainable Development Goals depends on a workforce with the competencies and professional standing needed to translate reform into administrative practice. Drawing on Institutional Theory and strategic PHRM, this study examines how workforce professionalization in public procurement is being constructed and institutionalized in Lebanon under Public Procurement Law No. 244 of 2021. Using a document-based qualitative case study, the study analyzes legal documents, technical reports, competency frameworks, and training materials produced between 2020 and 2025. The findings show that workforce professionalization in public procurement advanced through competency frameworks, certification initiatives, and professional training systems. However, workforce professionalization remains unevenly embedded across the civil service system. The study contributes to strategic public HRM and procurement governance scholarship and offers insight into workforce professionalization in governance-constrained settings in the Global South.
Public employees serve the public interest through their work and extend this commitment through volunteerism. However, it remains unclear what motivates them to volunteer when professional roles already fulfill intrinsic prosocial motivations. Drawing on theories from multiple life domains and public service motivation, this study examines how public sector workplace experiences, specifically exposure to public participation and job satisfaction, are associated with volunteering behavior. Using cross-sectional, nationally representative survey data from U.S. local government managers, this study finds that the relationships vary by individuals’ prior volunteering status. Among non-volunteers, higher levels of public participation exposure and job satisfaction are both associated with a greater probability of initiating volunteering. Among current volunteers, lower levels are associated with greater time devoted to volunteering, whereas higher levels are linked to volunteering across a wider range of domains. Job satisfaction negatively moderates the relationship between public participation exposure and volunteering intensity. This study extends conventional understanding of public employee volunteering beyond public service motivation and sector differences by demonstrating a contingent work–volunteerism association, offering practical insights into managing workplace experiences to sustain public service both within and beyond organizational boundaries.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize inclusive economic growth (SDG 8) and reduced inequalities (SDG 10), including equal employment opportunities for workers with disabilities (WWDs). Despite international and national efforts, WWDs still face barriers to labor market participation. Public sector organizations are expected to lead in inclusive HRM but often lag behind in employing WWDs, raising concerns about their ability to contribute to the SDGs. Using Social Exchange Theory and Self Determination Theory, we examine how three HR practices of training and development, workplace accommodations, and establishing clear expectations affect the employability of 313 WWDs in a Dutch public sector organization. Survey data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and regression-based mediation analysis. Findings show that HR practices primarily impact employability mediated through basic psychological needs satisfaction, with limited direct effects. This study offers empirical insights on how inclusive HRM in the public sector can advance the SDGs.
One of the major barriers to the national government achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is civil servants’ lack of awareness of the SDGs’ importance and of a clear understanding of how to link between their organizational goals and the SDGs. In this article, we examine to what extent civil servants are aware of SDGs-implementation performance by illuminating the role of their public service motivation (PSM) and organizational commitment. We hypothesize that civil servants with higher PSM and organizational commitment will be better aware of SDGs implementation performance, showing a smaller gap between the actual performance in accomplishing the SDGs and their perception of it. Leveraging the original data from surveys with 2,161 civil servants in South Korea combined with the performance data from the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), our analysis strongly supports our predictions. An increase from the observed median to maximum values of PSM and organizational commitment, respectively, leads to 1.43- and 1.5-times greater awareness of SDGs-implementation performance among civil servants. Our findings have important implications: strengthening PSM and organizational commitment can play a central role in increasing civil servants’ awareness of SDGs-implementation performance and ultimately facilitating the achievement of the SDGs.
Scholarship in Public Administration has extensively examined how frontline workers cope with workload. However, most studies focus on public services where employees have significant discretion, leaving standardized services - where service time is a critical measure of customer satisfaction - relatively unexplored. This article investigates the relationship between workload and service time across various standardized government services, emphasizing the influence of job design variables. Drawing on data from 41 government service centers in Hungary, encompassing 3,406,152 worker-customer interactions across 36 services delivered by 947 frontline workers, the analysis reveals that increased workload prompts workers to accelerate service times, highlighting a predominant coping strategy regardless of service knowledge requirements. The relation between workload and service time is shaped by factors such as task specialization, task variety, operational volume, and on-the-job breaks. These findings offer valuable insights for managing government services under high workload conditions.
Telework research has gained significant attention in the wake of the global pandemic. Existing studies in public management generally suggest that telework reduces work-family conflict. However, drawing on conservation of resources and social role theory, we propose that the effects of telework on work-family conflict vary based on the gender of the teleworkers. Using survey data from Korean government employees, we find that telework can help public employees mitigate work-family conflict, but its benefits do not extend equally to women. Specifically, telework is negatively associated with men's perceptions of work-family conflict, while women report no reduction in such conflict.
This study examines how smart work use affects innovative behavior among public bureaucrats, particularly focusing on the moderating role of organizational goal ambiguity. Using large-scale survey data from Korean central and local governments (N = 29,197), we discover that smart work use, work autonomy, and innovative culture significantly enhance innovation, whereas organizational goal ambiguity suppresses it. Notably, smart work benefits are diminished under goal ambiguity conditions. These findings offer new insights into designing flexible work policies in the public sector, especially where performance and innovation are prioritized.
This study develops and tests an integrated model explaining both the promotion and suppression of unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) driven by public service motivation (PSM). While PSM is typically viewed as prosocial, growing research on the PSM's dark side suggests that it may unintentionally foster UPB by strengthening organizational identification (OI). Drawing on the Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS) theory, this study incorporates ethical leadership (EL) as a contextual moderator that shapes when OI increases or suppresses UPB. Using survey data from Korean public employees, results show that PSM enhances OI, which subsequently promotes UPB. However, EL significantly weakens both the direct effect of OI on UPB and the indirect pathway from PSM to UPB via OI. These findings advance understanding of the dual-function mechanism of PSM by integrating motivational, identity-based, and leadership factors, offering a more comprehensive explanation of when public servants' prosocial motives lead to ethical versus unethical outcomes.
This article examines how meaningful work is produced through fragile public HRM systems in reform-driven public education contexts. While often treated as a positive individual experience, meaningful work is conceptualised here as a socially and institutionally embedded process shaped by employment regimes and reform pressures. Drawing on 48 interviews with managers, professionals, and administrative staff across four public education providers, the analysis identifies four interrelated dynamics: HRM structures that institutionalise precarity; commitment to vulnerable communities; self-recognition in the absence of formal validation; and the normalisation of sacrifice as dedication. The article advances public HRM scholarship in three ways. First, it shows that ambivalence in meaningful work is institutionally produced under conditions of fragility. Second, it specifies how HRM configurations mediate between reform-driven instability and employees' meaning-making. Third, it situates meaningful work within debates on decent work (SDG 8) by demonstrating how moral commitment sustains service delivery while compensating for deficits in security, recognition and institutional care.
The public sector is experiencing a hiring crisis. This challenge is particularly evident in organizations that manage complex service delivery while facing sustained high turnover rates. Such organizations have, therefore, implemented multiple policy changes to improve employee stability with a limited understanding of how they affect retention and performance. This study analyzes 9 years of child welfare services data from one U.S. state to explore the relationship between frontline turnover and service outcomes, while accounting for the broader influence of professional identity and workforce capacity. The results show that the turnover-outcome relationship was weak and contingent on goal proximity. Additionally, a hiring policy change to address turnover by expanding the labor pool but ignoring professional identity further exacerbated human capital instability. The paper highlights the need to consider policy context and potential effects on professional identity when implementing changes to address turnover and encourage retention in complex public organizations.
Employee engagement has emerged as a critical area of interest within public management. Scholars recently proposed that engagement may exhibit a curvilinear relationship with positive outcomes. Previous research posits that greater effort on the job increases employees' appreciation for pay equity, which, in the public sector, is defined by three components: equal pay for equal work, market-based pay, and performance-based pay. Using Merit Principles Survey data, this study finds that as employees become more engaged, their perceived importance of these three components remains relatively unchanged or even declines-until a certain threshold of engagement is reached. Beyond this point, the perceived importance of pay equity increases significantly. These findings offer an empirical response to Bakker et al.'s call for research on nonlinear engagement effects and refine the conventional view that greater effort is consistently associated with stronger concerns for pay equity.
Recently, there has been a significant shift toward equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace, particularly for LGBTQI+ employees in several countries. However, research addressing this issue within public administration, specifically concerning HRM practices in public service organizations, remains relatively scarce. Drawing on social identity theory (SIT), our study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between HRM practices and job satisfaction and engagement of LGBTQI+ employees in government agencies, with a focus on perceived supervisory support. We analyzed two waves of data collected from 268 LGBTQI+ federal employees working in US government agencies. Our findings reveal that HRM practices directly impact job satisfaction and engagement of LGBTQI+ employees. Additionally, perceived supervisory support was identified as a mediator in these relationships. This article addresses the critical issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and provides insights for designing more effective HRM practices to tackle these challenges.
Nonstandard employees typically receive less favorable treatment than their standard counterparts, yet little is known about how supervisors manage and interact with them. Drawing on three-wave, time-lagged survey data from 650 nonstandard employees in Chinese public organizations, this study reveals that abusive supervision increases employees' use of surface acting while reducing their use of deep acting, thereby intensifying emotional exhaustion. Unexpectedly, the likelihood of standard employment, which is often regarded as a positive expectation, intensifies rather than mitigates the negative effects of abusive supervision. This study enhances our understanding of emotional labor under abusive supervision and provides practical insights for public organizations to better motivate and support nonstandard employees.
By reframing fear as a strategic resource in HRM, this study explores how public sector organizations can support employees while maintaining operational effectiveness. Efforts to enhance service delivery through efficiency, targets, and accountability create tensions between professional values and corporate imperatives, leading to disengagement. While managers may use fear to align individuals with corporate values, employees can mobilize it as concertive resistance against identity regulation. Setting our study in the UK Probation Service, we reveal how employees' strategic use of fear challenges managerial control, resisting the divisions imposed by identity regulation and identity threat. Rather than portraying employees as passive subjects of managerialism, we position them as active contributors to reducing the structural, instead of the interpersonal, imbalance between them and managers. Recognizing resistance as integral to public management allows HRM frameworks to foster a resilient, engaged workforce, addressing those complexities in an evolving public sector.
The effectiveness of inclusive leadership has been examined in stable Western contexts, but not in fragile states. This study investigates its impact on Subordinates' job performance in the South Sudan public sector. A cross-sectional quantitative design was employed, collecting data from 370 civil servants across various ministries in Juba, South Sudan. Data analysis utilized SPSS and SmartPLS employing structural equation modeling (SEM) to test direct, mediating, and moderating effects. Results indicate that inclusive leadership is significantly associated with public employees' job performance, with motivation and engagement partially mediating this relationship. Organizational culture, particularly the dimensions of involvement and adaptability, significantly moderated these effects. These findings demonstrate that inclusive leadership can significantly improve job performance, even in fragile state contexts, by repairing social exchange, redefining motivation, and serving as a vital resource, challenging the universal applicability of Western theories. Practical implications and future research direction are discussed.
This study investigates the impact of High-Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) on public employees' organizational affective commitment and turnover intentions, focusing on the mediating role of HR attributions. Drawing on the Ability-Motivation-Opportunity (AMO) framework and attribution theory, the research adopts a mixed-method design combining Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). Based on data collected from a mid-sized Swiss municipality, the findings reveal that HPWPs foster employee loyalty both directly and indirectly, especially when these practices are perceived as supporting employee well-being and aligned with public service values. The study contributes to the strategic HRM literature by validating the relevance of core theoretical frameworks in a public administration context and demonstrating the added value of a configurational perspective. It also provides actionable insights for HR professionals seeking to design integrated HRM systems that enhance commitment and reduce turnover in the public sector.
This study examines whether frontline public sector workers with higher public service motivation (PSM) are less likely to resign during challenging periods than their lower-PSM counterparts. We link data from two separate surveys fielded in 2019 to resignation records of sworn officers from a state-level law enforcement agency over the subsequent three years. Multilevel Probit regression analyses indicate a significant negative association between PSM and resignation and a positive association between burnout and resignation. Specifically, a one-standard-deviation increase in PSM score is associated with a 2.8-percentage-point lower probability of resignation, whereas a one-standard-deviation increase in burnout score corresponds to a 3.5-percentage-point higher probability of resignation. We also find evidence suggesting PSM diminishes the adverse effects of elevated burnout on resignation. These findings suggest that PSM can help sustain law enforcement officers in their roles during challenging periods by dampening burnout-related resignation pressures. We conclude with implications for PSM theory and for managing officer well-being and retention.
This study examines the applicability of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in public employee selection. Our interest in how cultural differences influence GenAI outputs leads us to compare OpenAI's ChatGPT and Baidu's ERNIE. We designed a conjoint experiment wherein these GenAI models evaluated pairs of hypothetical candidates with varying meritocratic attributes (including pre-employment assessment results, education level, and relevant experience) and non-meritocratic attributes (including gender, ethnicity, and age). Experimental vignettes were created based on two distinct settings-police and teacher-to control for job type. Our mixed-methods findings indicate that GenAI's hiring recommendations are more swayed by meritocratic than non-meritocratic attributes. However, compared to ERNIE, ChatGPT's candidate selections are slightly more influenced by considerations of gender diversity. Additionally, both models exhibit inconsistencies when non-meritocratic factors are involved. Based on these findings, we recommend a cautiously optimistic approach incorporating training and oversight if GenAI is to be used in employee selection processes.
Outsourcing comes with potential negative employee-related social costs since private sector organizations are not obliged to uphold public personnel regulations. In response, some local governments specify contract rules safeguarding outsourced employees. To understand why, we combine literature on outsourced employees and incomplete contracts. We hypothesize that employee safeguards are a function of local governments' political interests, fiscal capacity, and priority of contract price. Collaborating with purchasing practitioners, we develop a safeguard catalog and determine the use of safeguards in a unique dataset of 3,396 documents related to 247 Danish tenders involving the transfers of employees from public to private employment. We find that local governments with less fiscal capacity and more price orientation include fewer safeguards. These findings signal that certain local governments have more willingness and capacity to safeguard employees and thus potentially decrease unaccounted employee-related social costs of outsourcing.
Understanding the motivational mechanisms of administrative corruption is of paramount importance for public integrity. We propose and test a novel demands-resources model of civil servants' corruptibility from a micro-level perspective, focusing on important personality and job-related demands and resources, that is, personality traits, motives, and states. Drawing on experimental evidence (Obs. = 263) from Swiss public administration, this study reveals how public service motivation and social value orientation function as integrity-enhancing resources but through different psychological mechanisms. Furthermore, Machiavellianism and psychopathy-but not narcissism-significantly stimulate civil servants' capacity to morally disengage and hence increase corruptibility, serving as integrity-draining demands, while job-related burnout has no effect. These novel insights contribute to the "bright side" discourse of PSM, advance the conceptual understanding of administrative corruption, and expand the state-versus-trait debate of public integrity, providing important insights for the effective design of anti-corruption strategies and public personnel selection for public integrity.
