How Does Public Service Motivation Affect Employee Commitment in Higher Education?—An Analysis of the University of Nottingham

An employee with public service motivation has a desire to do something good to others and society. In higher education, employees deliver the public services by means of teaching students, doing research and dealing with administrative issues concerning students and employees. The research focuses on the topic of how PSM affect employee commitment in higher education and tries to find out how and why PSM might be changing. The research uses face-to face interviews to collect data and chooses the sample from the employees in departments in the University of Nottingham. Based on the literature, the findings find out several socialization factors, the change of university management and competition for the change of PSM. Moreover, employee commitment has a positive relation with PSM. Therefore, the higher/lower level of PSM may lead to an employee to be more/less committed to their work or organization. Certain respondents do not believe PSM has a strong effect on employee commitment in higher education. However, as the university is a kind of institution that delivers public services, employees may have different levels of PSM and their commitment may also be affected by PSM or other extrinsic factors. The findings of the dissertation provides useful suggestions for the university to improve the employee commitment and the level of PSM. Keywords: PSM; employee commitment; higher education; university; public service