Motivación de servicio público entre funcionarios públicos chilenos

Abstract

In the last thirty years the debate in the field of public administration in Latin America has focused on how to introduce reforms in the public sector inspired by the New Public Management. Indeed, most public administrations have focused almost exclusively on introducing such type of reforms, ignoring a number of alternatives that have emerged in the academic debate. One of these alternatives is the public service motivation approach that analyzes how certain intrinsic factors, directly associated with the notion of public service, motivate the behavior of civil servants. This article aims to foster a Latin American debate on how to design and implement human resource policies based on the theory of public service motivation. Based on a non-probabilistic sample with 172 responses, this work identifies a number of public service motivation factors among Chilean civil servants. The findings show that attraction to public policies, commitment to the general interest, and compassion are as powerful factors as love for money. At the same time, the results show that self-sacrifice does not motivate Chilean civil servants. Based on these findings, a discussion on public service motivation as a useful approach for redesigning human resources policies is presented.

Publication
Revista del CLAD Reforma y Democracia, 81, 105-138
Carolina Cuevas
Carolina Cuevas
MA in Social Work

MA in Social Work from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Bastián González-Bustamante
Bastián González-Bustamante
Post-doctoral Researcher

Post-doctoral Researcher in Computational Social Science at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University, Netherlands.

Magdalena Calderón-Orellana
Magdalena Calderón-Orellana
PhD Researcher

PhD Researcher at the Faculty of Administration and Economics at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH). Lecturer in the Social Work School at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Diego Barría
Diego Barría
Full Professor

Full Professor in the School of Public Administration at the Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile.