Differential public service motivation among Hong Kong public officials: A qualitative study

This article adopts a qualitative approach to investigate public service motivation (PSM) among the government employees in Hong Kong. The government employees are not a homogeneous whole but a nuanced combination of rational self-interested motives, and PSM may help to explain the entry reason as well as work efforts of government officials of various ranks and employment terms, different nature of work, postings as well as time periods. Various obstacles to the development of PSM among the different groups are found, and the means of encouraging PSM are discussed. However, it should be pointed out that the primary requirements for a government employee should be competence and a "sense of responsibility" in carrying out the duties of the post concerned, while PSM serves only as an additional merit, indeed of secondary importance.