Antecedents of Work Outcomes of Local Government Employees: The Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation

Many studies have analyzed the performance of government employees, but there is still little research on the relationship between equal employment opportunity and public service motivation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether equal employment opportunities affect individual job satisfaction and job performance. This study also evaluated whether the relationship is mediated by public service motivation. The survey research was implemented in the Bengkulu City Government to achieve the study objectives. There were 252 participants in this study who responded by completing an online questionnaire. The results of the structural equation modeling show that job satisfaction and individual job performance are equally influenced by job opportunities and public service motivation. In addition, the influence of equal employment opportunity on job satisfaction and individual job performance is mediated by public service motivation. The implications of this work on the theory and practice of human resource management in the public sector are outlined in the findings. Antecedents of Work Outcomes of Local Government Employees: The Mediating Role of Public


Introduction
After the implementation of decentralization in Indonesia in 1999, local governments (provincial/district/city) faced challenges to provide quality public services because they were no longer provided by the central government and now local governments had to provide them (Talitha et al., 2020). Since then, many local governments in all regions of Indonesia have designed a public service system that puts the citizens first. In this system, the public's best interest are a top priority in all public service processes. Although the

Kristanti, Dwi was born in
Bengkulu, 19 April 1981. She has an undergraduate degree from Universitas Bengkulu and a graduate degree from Universitas Gadjah Mada in the field of public administration. She serves as assistant professor in UPBJJ Universitas Terbuka of Bengkulu. Her research focuses include policy implementation, network governance, human resources management, and public service. She regularly conducts research and community service on applicable issues. She took part in many trainings held by Universitas Terbuka to improve her competencies, such as teamwork enhancement, training of trainers for tutors, lecturer certification, and student creativity program. national regulations on regional autonomy have been amended several times, based on Law No. 22 of 1999, Law No. 32 of 2004, Law No. 12 of 2008  One of the principles of HRM is an equal employment opportunity (EEO). EEO policy has been implemented in numerous public organizations to ensure justice and equality (Yudiatmaja, 2020).

Yudiatmaja, Wayu Eko
Theoretically, positive perceptions of the public employee on EEO practices in the organization contribute to shaping work outcomes, including job satisfaction and performance (Choi, 2020).
Practically, enhancing job satisfaction and employee performance are important to retain the employee on the organizational side. Employees who are more satisfied at work typically demonstrate high performance levels and tend to stay in such organizations because they feel comfortable with the job environment. Currently, public employee performance has also become a crucial issue in Indonesia because of the complexity of public needs and interests (Dwiyanto, 2018).
In this study, we examine two employee job outcomes, including job satisfaction and employee performance in the public sector, and their relationship to EEO and public service motivation (PSM). We assume that EEO and PSM are closely related to employee performance and job satisfaction. This research contributes greatly to the debate about outcomes in public sector organizations in a number of ways. First, current studies have identified several individual and organizational factors that determine employee outcomes in the public service sector. Individual dimensions recognized as determinants of work outcomes include emotional intelligence (Levitats & Vigoda-Gadot, 2017), respect and intimidation (Nguyen et al., 2019), and enthusiasm (Duan et al., 2021). On the other hand, organizational aspects that are widely recognized as antecedents of work outcomes are usually procedural justice (Quratulain et al., 2019), organizational politics (Asrar-ul-Haq et al., 2019;Park & Lee, 2020), high-level performance work practices (Ogbonnaya & Valizade, 2018;Rubel et al., 2020), and organizational prestige (Bright, 2021).
However, studies that consider EEO and its effect on work outcomes are rare. Yudiatmaja (2020) assessed the nexus between EEO and service performance and found a positive relationship between these two constructs. Nevertheless, his study did not focus on individual job outcomes.
As one of the features of HRM, EEO is certainly an important part that affects employee work outcomes (Stoilkovska et al., 2015). In short, EEO has an important role in determining employee performance. To fill the gap, our study, therefore, recognizes EEO as the first antecedent that affects the work outcomes of government employees.
Second, our study considers PSM as a second antecedent that affects workers' employment outcomes. Various scholars have focused their attention on the effect of PSM on employee work outcomes in the context of public sector entities (Taylor, 2014 (Hariria et al., 2016;Napitupulu et al., 2017).
In terms of PSM, several researchers have also described PSM of government officials (Banuri & Keefer, 2016;Yudiatmaja, 2017). However, little attention in research studies has been paid to the case of an employee working in a local government in Indonesia.
Based on the description above, the main objectives of this study are to examine: (1) the effect of EEO on job satisfaction and performance of government employees, (2) the effect of EEO on PSM, and (3) the mediating effect of PSM on the relationship between EEO and work outcomes.

Literature Review
We applied self-determination theory (SDT) to analyze the research problems. SDT is one of the prominent theories of motivation in the domain of behavioral psychology (Gagné & Deci, 2005) extensively used by PSM scholars (Chen et al., 2018;Corduneanu et al., 2020). SDT examines psychological needs and motivation, it addresses the differences between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). SDT postulates that all humans are naturally motivated. SDT focuses on investigating the inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs underlying self-motivation and individual personality integration, as well as the conditions that drive these processes. SDT has proposed that intrinsically motivated employees are driven by their curiosity and interest in learning, increasing cognitive flexibility, willingness to take risks, and openness to complexity (Gagné & Deci, 2005).
Additionally, SDT also assumes that individual motivations are affected by external factors, such as organizational environment and policy. Using SDT, we posit that EEO (external motivation) and PSM (internal motivation) determine employee job outcomes.
EEO refers to fair rules, regulations, and strategies that do not discriminate against people based on race, appearance, sexual identity, or sociocultural origin (Siddiquee & Faroqi, 2010). The spirit of EEO is to apply diversity and pluralism in the workplace through general principles related to humanism. EEO is practiced in various ways in public sector human resources, such as diversity management, non-discriminatory policies and   Regarding educational background, most of the respondents, around 67%, were undergraduates.
Respondents have diversity in work experience, while most of the years of service are more than ten years. Behavioral studies based on self-reported data are intended to generate common method variances. A common method variance is a bias generated in the data collection process. It is also generally recognized with general method bias.

All items of each construct applied in
The variation is caused by the measurement process rather than the construction represented by the measurement (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
The single factor Harman test was used to test the variance of the general method in this study (Podsakoff et al., 2012). We found that the cumulative initial eigenvalue was 24.023%, indicating that general method bias is generally not an important issue in our study (Y. J. Kim et al., 2019).
The data was run using structural equation

Measurement Model
As a guideline for SEM, the data were first examined before hypothesis analysis was studied through a causal model. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess convergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal consistency reliability of the data. We removed  (Voorhees et al., 2016). The cut of value for AVE must be above 0.5 to fill in discriminant validity (Yudiatmaja et al., 2022). We reach discriminant validity because the AVE is greater than 0.5.
Internal consistency reliability is calculated to ensure the consistency of the items in this study if used repeatedly. Reliability was measured using the reliability construct and Cronbach's alpha (α). The data is said to be reliable if the construct reliability and Cronbach's alpha is greater than 0.7 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). Based on these formulations, the reliability data is satisfactory because the construct reliability ranges from 0.820 to 0.889 and Cronbach's alpha ranges from 0.773 to 0.882.  In addition, all the square roots of AVE in the thick diagonal value are greater than the correlation value of each latent variable as shown in Table 2, so the discriminant validity is good.

Structural Model
We assessed the model fit before analyzing The statistical results depicted in Table   4 show that there is a positive and significant relationship between EEO and job satisfaction are also accepted. We applied the Sobel test and bootstrap technique to assess the mediation model. In this paper, there are two mediating relationships, the relationship between EEO and job satisfaction through PSM and the relationship between EEO and individual performance through PSM. The Sobel test was performed as recommended by Baron & Kenny (1986). First, we examine the direct effect of the independent variable (EEO) on the dependent variable (job satisfaction and individual performance). Second, we tested the   (Yudiatmaja, 2020). With regard to PSM theory, these practices not only increase trust but also motivation in a public employee to provide excellent service to the public (Perry & Wise, 1990;Yudiatmaja, 2021