THE PERSISTENCE OF PUBLIC SERVICE MOTIVATION

Romanian public organisations did not emphasized modern motivation techniques of the public servants. They still use the traditional top-down, superior-subordinated approach that has a low degree of participation in the objectives setting and as a result, a low commitment of the employee. A cost-effective public organization should acknowledge that it is important to properly understand the specific motives of public employees (Public Service Motivation - PSM) to ensure their long term commitment. In apparently contradiction with the theory of PSM, the extrinsic motivation techniques, such as financial incentives, function better in Romanian public organizations, the reason being in general connected with the payment level for the public servants and their expectations for the work performed. Although intrinsic, PSM is not immutable and can be lost. Public servants can loose PSM because of extrinsic motivational factors (low salary, lack of promotion, permanent structural changes of the organization, manager’s disregard etc).