Higher Public Service Motivation for Accepting Public Sector Pension Reform? Evidence from Korean Government Organizations*

Organizational reforms that employees do not voluntary accept are likely to negatively affect organizational effectiveness in the long term. We conducted an empirical analysis with survey data by reviewing related studies on public service motivation (PSM) and acceptance of organizational changes, the goal being to verify the relationship between government employees’ PSMand their acceptance of public sector pension reform in Korea. Results show that public servants highly driven by PSM are willing to accept this pension reform even though it reduces their own benefits. This study is distinguished from existing literature of PSM and responses to organizational changes because it reduces the possibility of endogeneity problems.