Managerial Functions and Public Service Motivation Among Early-Career Public Servants

Research has shown that levels of public service motivation (PSM) among public employees tend to decrease in their early years of employment in Korea. This study examines specific managerial functions in maintaining and enhancing PSM among early-career public servants. It utilizes a sample of 5,627 public servants with less than 5 years of service, drawn from pooled cross-sectional data from three annual surveys (2022–2024) of the Public Employee Perception Survey in Korea. The results indicate that goal clarity, performance feedback, autonomy, and supervisory support are positively associated with PSM. However, these relationships vary across government levels. Goal clarity and performance feedback are positively associated with PSM at all levels of government, operating through both direct and indirect pathways. In contrast, autonomy and supervisory support are positively associated with PSM only in the central government context, and their effects operate entirely through indirect pathways mediated by value congruence, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction. These findings suggest that informational managerial functions have universal applicability, while the effectiveness of relational managerial functions is contingent on institutional context. The implications and limitations of this study are discussed.