Public Service Motivation and Service Quality of Local Government Employees: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

The study of public service motivation (PSM) is an emerging topic in relation to understanding the impact of perceived service quality within public-sector organizations. Drawing upon the self-determination theory, this paper develops and validates a conceptual model incorporating the relationship between PSM and perceived service quality by the user. Moreover, this study also examines the moderated-mediation models of service factors in the link. This paper further argues user orientation as a mediator in the nexus between PSM and service quality, and service climate as a moderator in the effect of user orientation on service quality. This research was conducted on 250 frontline public servants and their users in Bintan Regency, Kepulauan Riau, Indonesia. The data was performed using structural equation modeling. The proposed model suggests (1) PSM positively related to service quality, (2) user orientation partially mediates the relationship, and (3) the indirect effect of PSM on service quality (via user orientation) is quasi moderated by service climate within the public organization. Accordingly, few theoretical and practical implications for policymakers are formulated.


Introduction
Public service motivation pieces of evidence explaining the relationship between PSM and public sector service quality. Ferdousipour (2016) sought the connection between PSM and service quality of governmental employees of Tajikistan. She found that PSM is significantly related to public service quality.
In a similar study, including an investigation of PSM and service quality, Syamsir (2016)  In order to fill the research gaps, the present study has two novels on the debate of PSM and service quality. Firstly, this study draws on the literature of self-determination theory to examine PSM's effect on service quality. The self-determination lens is used in this research because it, one of the major theories of motivation in the social psychology literature, was hardly understated by PSM scholars (Andrews, 2016;Chen et al., 2018;Xu & Chen, 2016). Secondly, this builds and tests multiple models of the interaction between PSM and service quality. The first one is the individual-level model, examining how PSM can effectively influence service quality through user orientation. Additionally, this paper also includes the moderating and impact of service climate in the user orientation-service quality association at the organizational level.
The rest of this study is organized in four sections, as follows: Before describing the research methods in this study, this paper first explains the theory used in this study, selfdetermination theory, and the relationship among variables constructed from the hypotheses. the key findings of the study are summarized in the conclusion.

Theory and Research
There are a variety of prominent theories explaining human motivation and behavior in the workplace, such as expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964), social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1989), self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), and selfdetermination theory . In this research, a self-determination viewpoint is utilized because a number of ideas have considered motivation as a one-size-fits-all phenomenon differing predominantly in degree (e.g., Bandura, 1997) so that individuals with more motivation strive to greater achievement and being more effective in their endeavors than people with less determination. On the contrary, SDT emphasizes that there are multiple forms of motivation. The structure of motivation is more necessary than predicting the significant outcomes of life in general.
The central argument of SDT is that there are at least three basic psychological needs necessary for optimal growth and functioning, s p e c i f i c a l ly t h e n e e d fo r c o m p e t e n c e , autonomy, and relatedness .
According to self-determination theory, getting inspired means getting pushed toward doing something. As such, a person feeling no impetus or enthusiasm to behave is categorized as unmotivated. At the same time, "anyone who is encouraged or activated towards an end" is assumed motivated (Rigby & Ryan, 2018, p. 136).
Using self-determination theory, this paper argues that public employees are determined by intrinsic motivation. This is in line with the assumption of PSM that PSM is a philosophy based on longer-term and more "other" than intrinsic motivation. It entails more intrinsic reliance rather than extrinsic benefits (Bullock et al., 2015). Moreover, public employees are also motivated to deliver excellent public service because they are motivated by orientation on their user and organizational service climate.

It establishes psychological balance in an
official's relationship and these individual and organizational circumstances.

The Relationship between PSM and User Orientation
Many scholars have defined PSM in diverse manners in the literature. Nonetheless, PSM is extensively defined as the predisposition of a person to reply to intentions predominantly or specially established in public institutions and organizations (Perry & Wise, 1990;Rainey & Steinbauer, 1999;Yudiatmaja, 2012). PSM is associated with the civil service's attitude for doing good to the users. The desire to do something excellent for others is attached to various types of motives. Perry and Wise (1990) suggested that PSM originated from three kinds of motives: normative, affective, and rational.
In doing so, Perry (1996) Andersen et al. (2011) found that physiotherapists in the private sector tend to be more specifically focused on the user, physiotherapists in the public sector have a wider emphasis on the public interest. Andersen and Pedersen (2012) studied PSM and the user orientation of Danish public sector organizations.
Analyzing the data from 845 civil servants, they revealed that professionalism is linked negatively to compassion and user orientation, but it is positively related to policy making attraction.
A qualitative study on PSM and its relationship with user orientation were conducted by Sayce In the context of self-determination, the presence of user orientation in the PSM construct is especially essential for the delivery of social services to individuals, as user orientation can flourish in contexts with a sense of relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2019). Based on prior studies and the concept of self-determination, the first hypothesis can be formulated, as follow: H1 : There is a positive and significant relationship between PSM and user orientation

The effect of User Orientation on Service Quality
User orientation can be understood as the orientation of public workers to help meet customer's needs through specific actions in service activities (Andersen et al., 2011;Vandenabeele, 2008). User orientation, market orientation, and service orientation are three different concepts with the same meaning. It occurs because of the paradigm shift in the study of public administration, from old public administration to new public management and new public service (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2007).
The difference between these notions is merely on the usage. If the idea of market and service orientation is ordinarily used in the private sector, user orientation is widely acknowledged in the public sector service. Service quality refers to the level of service provided by service organizations (Yoserizal & Yudiatmaja, 2010;Yudiatmaja et al., 2017). It can be measured by comparing the customer's perceived and expected service (Zeithaml et al., 2017). Because of the strategic role to maintain service organizations' sustainability, many firms develop and design service in excellent manners (Huang et al., 2019). Nevertheless, the principle has not been appropriately considered by a number of public-sector organizations because it is not directly associated with public organizations' existence (Grönroos, 2019). institutions in the United States. They asserted that the correlation between PSM and organizational citizenship behavior was mediated by a sense of community and responsibility. Palma et al. (2020) also found that user orientation mediated the connection between PSM and educational staff's work performance in Italy.
In this paper, user orientation is regarded as a mediator in the impact of PSM on public service quality provided by government officials.
Regarding a self-determination point of view, user orientation is related to the concept of competence (Sheldon & Prentice, 2019). This is based on the logic that user-oriented employees feel selfconfidence and enthusiasm because they have sufficient capacity and capability in delivering distinguished public service (Bro et al., 2017). It occurred because they entirely understand and afford to accomplish customer's needs. Thus, the fourth hypothesis is that: H4 : User orientation mediates the nexus between public employee's user-oriented behavior and service quality. Furthermore, this paper argues that the employee's climate for service plays a crucial role as moderator in the impact of user orientation on service quality of public attendants. So, the fifth hypothesis in this research is:

The Moderating Effect of Service Climate
H5: The relationship between user orientation of public officials and service quality is moderated by employee's perception of organizational service climate. The t-value criterion (t-value > 1.96) was used in the SEM analysis to assess the significant impact among the structural paths (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2015;Schumacker & Lomax, 2016). Additionally, Regression coefficient calculations were used in the regression analysis to analyze the general correlations between the variables, and trend shifts in the R-square and beta values were also studied. Each of these analyses was carried out based on the simple descriptive analyses, the reliability and validity checks of the measures, and the steps of data screening .

Validity and Reliability
Before performing the SEM test, several conditions must be fulfilled. First, the measuring model was tested using item loadings, composite reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) for convergent validity. All the loadings value is above 0.6, exceeding the suggested value.

All indicators have statistically significant loadings
(p < 0.01) on their expected constructs, implying convergent validity. CR values exceeded the recommended value of 0.7 and AVE exceeded the suggested value of 0.5 for all latent constructs, as presented in Table 1  .
To check the discriminant validity of the constructs, the Fornell & Larcker criterion (1981) was used. Discriminant validity refers to the degree to which empirical rules apply a concept that is genuinely distinct from other constructs (Hair et al., 2014). As shown in Table 4, the square root of AVE of the construct in the diagonal matrix is larger than the associated correlation (offdiagonal) in the corresponding rows and columns, thereby reflecting an adequate discriminant validity. Table 2 also depicts the Cronbach's alpha is between 0.78 (PSM) and 0.86 (user orientation) for each construct, demonstrating the internal consistency of all latent variables.

Measurement Model
A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was  Table 3 shows that all studied models clearly show a good level of fit  These results reveal that approximately 8% of the magnitude of the explanation is increased at a significant level once the second independent variable is included. These findings show the initial mediating impact of user orientation on the relationship between PSM and service quality.

Testing of Hypotheses
The SEM assessments were performed to analyze the multiple associations among studied variables, the mediating effect of user orientation, and the mediating role of service climate. The standardized path coefficient (SPC) estimates are examined to measure the magnitude of the connection paths among the research variables. According to Byrne (2016) and Kline (2015), the t-value of each direction must be higher than 1.96 to be important in doing so.
H1 and H3 predict that PSM would be positively linked to user orientation and service quality, respectively. As shown in Table 5 and Figure   2, the direct paths from PSM to user orientation (SPC = 0.683; t = 3.833, p < 0.001), and the direct paths from PSM to service quality (SPC = 0.383; t = 2.135; p < 0.01) are reported to be positive and jointly influence the dependent variable (service quality), and the findings of SEM demonstrate that the PSM's direct effect on the service quality is found to still be significant.

Mediation Test
The linear regression analysis was carried out to test whether the relationship between PSM and service quality is mediated by user orientation. In doing so, the service quality as a dependent variable, user orientation as a mediator variable, and PSM as the independent variable are introduced in the analysis. The results show that the model built is statistically significant, with user orientation determining 58% of the variance of service quality (t = 3.050; R 2 = 0.58; p < 0.01). The impact of PSM on service quality in the observed model is still significant (p < 0.01). Although the p-value decreases, the effect of user orientation is also found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) (see Table 5). The results of the structural equation analysis created by the bootstrapping method report a statistically significant impact of the PSM on service quality (indirect support) (p < 0.01). In line with these findings, user orientation has a partial mediating role in explaining the impact of PSM on service quality, in support of H4 (Byrne, 2016;Kline, 2015). PSM → UO → SQ n/a n/a 3.050** 0.58 Supported H5 CO → SC → SQ 0.220 n/a n/a 0.62 Supported Note: *** significant level at the 0.001 level (two tailed); ** significant level at the 0.01 level (two tailed); n/a = not available Source: The results of the data analysis using Amos 24.0  CO SC SQ 0.220 n/a n/a 0.62 Supported Note: *** significant level at the 0.001 level (two tailed); ** significant level at the 0.01 level (two tailed); n/a = not available Source: The results of the data analysis using Amos 24.0

Figure 2. The Structural Estimates among the Variables
Source: The results of the data analysis

Mediation Test
The linear regression analysis was carried out to test whether the relationship between PSM and service quality is mediated by user orientation. In doing so, the service quality as a dependent variable, user orientation as a mediator variable, and PSM as the independent variable are introduced in the analysis. The results show that the model built is statistically significant, with user orientation determining 58% of the

Moderation Test
Furthermore, H4 suggests that service climate improves the relationship between user orientation and service quality, thereby enhancing this relationship with higher position service climate levels. As depicted in Table 5, the interaction span of user orientation and service climate is important in predicting service quality (SPC = 0.22; p < 0.01). Although there is a deficit amount of variance in service quality estimated by the association term, the link between user orientation and service quality is also significant (ΔR 2 = 0.62; p < 0.01). The results also show that the relationship between user orientation and service quality is still significant after including service climate. Therefore, the service climate plays a quasi-moderation role in the nexus (Quoquab et al., 2018).
In addition, simple slope tests were performed to understand the conditional effect using Dawson's (2014) guidelines for two-way linear interaction effects. The positive impact of user orientation on service quality is stronger for public organization with high level of service climate (M + 1 SD; t = 6.573, simple slope = 0.72, p < 0.001) than for public organization with a lowlevel service climate (M + 1 SD; t = 8.050, simple slope = 0.36, p < 0.001). It can be seen that when the service climate is low (the clear line), there is little interaction between user orientation and service quality; however, the relationship is strong and positive when the service climate is high (see Figure 3). More specifically, public organizations with high scores on service climate report high service-quality scores compared with low service climate scores also under a level of service quality.
Hence, H5 suggesting that the relationship between user orientation and service quality is moderated by service climate is fully supported by these findings.
This study seeks how PSM influences service quality through user orientation, how service climate moderates the nexus of PSM service quality, and how it elaborates on self- in shaping service quality in service organizations (Saleem et al., 2017;Sharma et al., 2016;Yudiatmaja et al., 2018). In this study, the findings show that user orientation as an individual feature and service climate as an organizational factor positively corroborates the service quality of employees in the public sector and its relationship with PSM.
The role of PSM is significant with the service quality of the bureaucracy. It has been reported that public servants with higher PSMs (public interest, self-sacrifice, compassion, and attraction to policy making) are directly associated with service quality. These behaviors encourage public workers to provide their energy and consideration to adequately serve the public (Wright et al., 2017).

The significant and positive connection between
PSM and the quality of public service documented in this study are similar to the results found by Syamsir (2016)