Orientation: Public service motivation has increased in prominence in recent years, even though the influences on employee behaviour and attitudes have not received as much emphasis. Research purpose: This research investigates the impact of public service motivation on job satisfaction, organisational commitment, work engagement and counterproductive work behaviour. Motivation for the study: Counterproductive work behaviour of public service employees results in the citizenry developing negative perceptions about the government. Notwithstanding, the behaviour and attitudes of public service employees and the motivation that drives them are less explicit. Research approach/design and method: A positivist correlational research approach was implemented by administering a questionnaire to a sample of 1031 public service employees in the North West Province using a simple stratified sampling method. Statistical analyses included structural and regression modelling. Main findings: Results reveal that public service motivation statistically significantly predicts job satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. The results show that 28.9% of the variance in counterproductive work behaviour could be attributed to public service motivation. Thus, as public service motivation increases, counterproductive work behaviour decreases. Practical or managerial implications: Strategies to improve public service motivation could putatively have an impact on the reduction of counterproductive work behaviour. Public service motivation could also improve service delivery to the citizenry by significantly impacting the public service employees’ work engagement. Contribution/value-add: Empirical evidence shows the influence of public service motivation on core work evaluation and counterproductive work behaviour, contributing to the corpus of knowledge with practical applicability.
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