Education and Public Service Motivation: A Longitudinal Study of High School Graduates

Prior studies examined an individual's level of education as one of the antecedents of public service motivation (PSM). Despite having the same level of education, why are the levels of PSM different among individuals? This study investigates the various components of high school education that may influence graduates' levels of PSM by analyzing longitudinal data (3,592 cases in four waves) of the Korean Education Longitudinal Study. It shows that leadership experience, volunteering satisfaction, peer collaboration, and constructive self-assessment on achievement in high school Social Studies courses have positive influences on graduates' PSM. This study provides support for the institutional perspective that PSM can be cultivated through processes of institutional socialization, and suggests that the self-determination theory and the social interdependence theory are useful for understanding the effects of extracurricular activities and peer collaboration on PSM, and that collaborative learning and service-learning will be valuable in cultivating PSM.