This study aims to investigate whether individual differences in public service motivation (PSM) between the public and private sectors are a cause or a consequence of choosing a job, testing self-selection and socialization hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset from a nationally representative cohort in Korea. The study uses two samples from the data of three successive waves (t − 2, t, t + 2) surveyed biennially, finding that “self-selection” can more persuasively explain the state that employees in the public sector have higher levels of PSM than those in the private sector, with job seekers with high PSM levels being more likely to work in the public sector and with the magnitude of differences in PSM between the public and private sectors maintained through the early years after entry into the workplace, while the levels of PSM, however, decrease in all job sectors. Implications of our findings are discussed.

中文翻译：

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韩国的公共服务动机和公共部门就业

本研究旨在调查公共部门和私营部门之间公共服务动机（PSM）的个体差异是选择工作的原因还是结果，并使用韩国全国代表性队列的纵向数据集测试自我选择和社会化假设。该研究使用了每两年调查一次的三个连续波（ t  − 2, t , t + 2）数据中的两个样本 ，发现“自我选择”可以更有说服力地解释公共部门​​员工具有较高水平的 PSM与私营部门相比，PSM 水平高的求职者更有可能在公共部门工作，而且在进入工作场所后的最初几年里，公共部门和私营部门之间的 PSM 差异仍然很大，而然而，所有工作部门的 PSM 水平均有所下降。讨论了我们的研究结果的含义。