Public service motivation of public and private employees in Chinese context: A comparative study

To investigate the public service motivation (PSM) of public and private employees in Chinese context, a comparative study is conducted with two independent samples. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analysis is implemented to test the existence of PSM based on 250 public employees. In Study 2, 247 respondents from private companies are evaluated. These studies not only provide evidence for the construct validity of PSM in Chinese context, but also demonstrate that comparatively the levels of public employees´ PSM are relatively higher, especially for the attraction to policy making and commitment to public interest dimension of PSM.