Greener pasture in the government sector? A factor structure on public service motivation among government employees in the Philippines

Working in the government is both a dream of securing a greener pasture and the opportunity to serve society with a noble intention and values. The main purpose of this study is to establish the factor structure of PSM in the Philippine context. A total of 456 randomly selected government employees from different agencies representing the three big islands of the country, namely Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, willingly participated in the survey. Data were analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis validated the original 40-item and four-indicator-PSM but with a shorter version with only three underlying factors comprising 11 items, namely, Self-Sacrifice with six items, Commitment to Public Interest with two items, and Attraction to Policy Making with three items. Furthermore, Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated the model's goodness of fit and established a significant relationship among the latent variables, signifying the ability to measure public service motivation in the Philippine context. Hence, aside from the lure of a greener pasture, the results highlight the higher public service values as motivating factors. The findings can help the Philippine government tailor the agencies’ respective human resource development programs while maximizing the identified motivation factors to propel individual productivity and effectiveness in public service.