Are highly public service-motivated individuals immune to common causes of unethical behavior?

Previous research has neglected the moderating role of the environment in studying the negative effect of public service motivation (PSM) on unethical behavior. This article investigates whether this effect prevails under group pressure and competition for economic resources. Moreover, it assesses w...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hernández, Enrique|||0000-0002-9219-9293, Ballart, Xavier|||0000-0002-8256-6512, Ripoll Pascual, Guillem|||0000-0002-5949-352X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:290826
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/290826
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1080/15309576.2022.2127806
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Competition
Group pressure
Public service motivation
Public values
Unethical behavior
Descripción
Sumario:Previous research has neglected the moderating role of the environment in studying the negative effect of public service motivation (PSM) on unethical behavior. This article investigates whether this effect prevails under group pressure and competition for economic resources. Moreover, it assesses whether these moderating effects can be counterbalanced by activating public values. Using a survey experiment on a sample of citizens in Catalonia (Spain), the results suggest that PSM is vulnerable to group pressure and that the proposed activation of public values does little to neutralize this effect. The discussion addresses the findings and provides directions for future research.