IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rpxmxx/v28y2026i6p1486-1510.html

Public service motivation and policy implementation attitudes: survey experimental evidence from Street-level Bureaucrats in China

Author

Listed:
  • Chao An
  • Jinhai Yu
  • Xi Tan

Abstract

Understanding how public service motivation (PSM) impacts frontline implementation is crucial for effectively delivering services. Drawing on PSM and street-level bureaucracy theories, we examine whether PSM influences street-level bureaucrats’ policy implementation attitudes towards discretion versus rule focus. Using a question-order survey experiment with 1,548 social assistance workers in China and OLS regression, we find that activating PSM shifts the emphasis from rules to discretion, with stronger effects under low perceived policy performance. These results highlight PSM’s pivotal role in influencing how bureaucrats balance discretion with rule adherence, ultimately shaping the public services citizens receive.

Suggested Citation

  • Chao An & Jinhai Yu & Xi Tan, 2026. "Public service motivation and policy implementation attitudes: survey experimental evidence from Street-level Bureaucrats in China," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(6), pages 1486-1510, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:28:y:2026:i:6:p:1486-1510
    DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2025.2501734
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14719037.2025.2501734
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14719037.2025.2501734?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rpxmxx:v:28:y:2026:i:6:p:1486-1510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rpxm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.