A better individual performance? Yes, but how?

Public service motivation (PSM) is expected to improve the performance of employees in public organizations. Many scholars predict that as the level of PSM increases, the performance of public employees will also increase. Unfortunately, existing research has yet to fully support this hypothesis, because some studies that tested this hypothesis have come to different conclusions. This study investigated, by using a structural equation modelling and a group-comparison, the effect that some mediators and/or moderators variables have on the relationship between PSM and the self-reported performance of public employees. Through the use of self-reporting questionnaires issued to a sample of 800 Italian public teachers, this study found that some PSM dimensions had no significant direct impact on the performance of public employees, when some variables were taken into account. The implications of this study and areas of future research are discussed.