Transformational Leadership and Public Service Motivation: Driving Individual and Organizational Performance

2010/08/31 by Laurie E. Paarlberg, Bob Lavigna · 377 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Business #Employee motivation #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Marketing #Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering #Political science #Prosocial behavior #Psychology #Public Policy and Administration Research #Public relations #Public sector #Public service #Public service motivation #Service (business) #Social psychology #Transformational leadership

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02199.x

published in Public Administration Review 70(5), 710-718 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2010/08/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Despite growing evidence about prosocial motivations and their effects on employee behavior, how can new public service motivation research translate into more effective management practices—which, so far, regrettably remain underdeveloped? Increasingly, public service motivation studies have moved from understanding what motivates public servants to exploring how public service motives influence performance. Similarly, greater attention is now paid to the practices of transformational leadership. Drawing on concepts from transformational leadership, this essay explores how managers can harness the positive aspects of public service motivation to enhance employee and organizational performance and outlines strategies that can help managers incorporate public service motivation values across management systems.

Citations

• Person–Organization Fit and Contextual Performance: Do Shared Values Matter
• Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership, Public Service Motivation, and Mission Valence
• The Motivational Bases of Public Service
• The Role of Organizations in Fostering Public Service Motivation
• Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey.

Cited by

• Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership, Public Service Motivation, and Mission Valence
• Leadership Styles and International Agenda-Setting: Understanding Small-State and Middle-Power Leadership on the Responsibility to Protect
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• How Transformational Leadership Supports Intrinsic Motivation and Public Service Motivation: The Mediating Role of Basic Need Satisfaction
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• ADMINISTRATIVE LEADERSHIP THEORY: A REASSESSMENT AFTER 10 YEARS
• Dynamic Leadership Tools Supporting Psychological Needs Satisfaction in Public Organizations: Experimental Evidence
• Theorizing Leadership Credibility: The Concept and Causes of the Perceived Credibility of Leadership Initiatives
• Deviating from the course: How presentational strategies and leadership investments affect leader credibility and collaborative engagement
• Leadership training and just-in-time nudges: A field experiment on the transfer of learning into action
• The Impacts of the High-Quality Workplace Relationships on Job Performance: A Perspective on Staff Nurses in Vietnam. [europepmc]
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• Does Public Service Motivation Affect Teacher Satisfaction From the Perspective of Urban and Rural Dual Structure? Empirical Analysis Based on Estonia TALIS 2018 Data. [europepmc]
• The relationship between public service motivation and turnover intention: the mediating role of work stress and task performance. [europepmc]
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• The mediating role of incentives in association between leadership attention and self-perceived continuous improvement in infection prevention and control among medical staff: A cross-sectional survey. [europepmc]
• The Effect of Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles on Organizational Readiness for Change Among Health Professionals. [europepmc]
• Leading with purpose: unraveling the impact of motivating language on work engagement with a focus on psychological meaningfulness in the tourism and hospitality sector. [europepmc]

Related

• Pulling the Levers: Transformational Leadership, Public Service Motivation, and Mission Valence
• How Transformational Leadership Supports Intrinsic Motivation and Public Service Motivation: The Mediating Role of Basic Need Satisfaction
• Transformational Leadership and Project Success: A Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation
• Public Service Motivation and the Assumption of Person—Organization Fit
• PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION RESEARCH