Enhancing the Resilience of Public Servants in Ho Chi Minh City's Public Sector: A Perspective from Public Service Motivation, the Role of Leadership, and Work

Tóm tắt

This study investigates the factors influencing the resilience of public sector employees in Ho Chi Minh City – a major urban center undergoing extensive administrative reforms and restructuring of its civil service system toward greater efficiency. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model, and the concept of Public Service Motivation (PSM), the study develops a structural model that examines the combined effects of three key factors: (1) Public Service Motivation (PSM), (2) Leadership Role (LD), and (3) Work Environment (WE) on civil servant resilience (RES). A distinctive contribution of this research is the inclusion and empirical validation of two cross-effect hypotheses, whereby both Leadership Role and Work Environment influence PSM as a critical mediating variable. Using survey data from 279 public servants selected through stratified sampling across multiple administrative levels, the study employs SPSS and SmartPLS, with hypotheses tested via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Theoretically, the findings extend the contemporary PSM literature by demonstrating that PSM is not merely an individual attribute but a psychological mechanism shaped by organizational conditions—particularly leadership and work environment—in a transitioning public administration context. Empirically, all three factors significantly affect resilience, with PSM exerting both direct and mediating effects. These results provide practical implications for strengthening civil servant resilience amid growing reform pressures, contributing to improved governance effectiveness in Ho Chi Minh City.