Mission-Driven Bureaucrats: Performance & Promotion Tension in Thailand & Beyond

• In Event: Frontiers of Research on Bureaucratic Politics and Management Mini-Conference: Discretion, Incentives, and Effectiveness

Abstract

We have all met bureaucrats who seem to be motivated merely by collecting their paycheck. But we have also all met exemplary public employees who are willing to go the extra mile, seemingly motivated not by extrinsic rewards like promotion or pay but rather by a sense of duty, of mission. This presentation will present the model undergirding my book project, examining how motivation and management practice interact in impacting bureaucratic performance. Management practice impacts realized bureaucratic motivation both via selection (individuals’ propensity to enter and exit an agency) and treatment (changes within-person over time while on the job), which differentially impacts performance depending on features of the task environment and management regime. While the broader project draws on empirics from a number of countries (developed and developing), I will briefly discuss findings from Thailand as a way of illustrating the general model and the potential policy implications that flow from systematic consideration of bureaucrats’ sense of mission.

Author

• Dan Honig, University College London