How Does Red Tape Influence Public Service Motivation? A Study of 2011 Taiwan Government Bureaucrats Survey
Don-Yun Chen, Chien-Hsun Huang (pdf file)
Abstract
Previous studies have found that public service motivation (PSM) has been an important mindset and driving force for public administrators and that it could be satisfied in public sector settings where they aim at serving the public. However, scholars and practitioners argued that many members of public service feel powerless due to the constraints on the public sector and its inflexibility, especially the so-called red tape. Previous studies paid little attention to the relationship between red tape and PSM as well as the mechanism in which they have interacted. By analyzing survey data from TGBS (Taiwan Government Bureaucrat Survey) in 2011, the author finds that public administrators’ perceived red tape is negatively associated with PSM, in particular policy-making initiative, and that organizational commitment plays a complete mediator role between red tape and PSM, and a partial mediator role between red tape and policy-making initiative. Those results imply that constraints and burdens from red tape may cause alienation of administrators, leading to lower identity toward the organizations they serve, and then to lower PSM, particularly policy-making initiative. In the final section of this paper, research limits and further researches are identified and management suggestions are also provided for public sector.
Keywords: bureaucracy, red tape, public service motivation, organizational commitment