Making ends meet: How reinvention reforms complement public service motivation

Students of public management often argue that imposing market-based logic on public sector organizations can undermine the altruistic motives of public employees. Focusing on the complex relationships between 'reinventing government' reforms, bureaucratic red tape, and public service motivation (PSM), we contend that the effects of reinvention reforms on PSM change as a function of the ability of reforms to cut bureaucratic red tape. A series of structural equation models reveal that the relationships between reinvention reforms, bureaucratic red tape, and PSM are much more complex than previously thought. Contrary to conjectures in the mainstream PSM literature, implementing market-like reforms in public organizations positively influences PSM, if one views the reform as minimizing red tape.