Commentary: Three-Part Harmony

Anne Mette Kjeldsen's analysis of public service motivation, which divides Danish public service employee motivation between service production (or service delivery) and service regulation (or policy), provides a welcome expansion of the existing literature on the motivations of public service staff and how experience reshapes their predilections over time. The framework misses a critical third dimension of public service career choice in the United States. In the US, the public/private distinction that the author draws is murkier. Most social services in the United States are delivered not by staff employed by the government but by nonprofits. And while the government retains formal regulatory authority, many nonprofits are also engaged in what Kjeldsen sees as service regulation. Students in the United States consider not only a field and a role but also a type of organization.