Social Media Threat and Organizational Justice: Impacts on Public Service Motivation and Behavior in Public Service

Public service motivation is an important concept in public sector human resource management, yet scholarly understanding of its antecedents remains underdeveloped in the literature. This study examines how negative public opinion on social media influences public service motivation and employee behavior within Indonesia’s customs administration. Employing an experimental design involving 217 civil servants, the findings indicate that negative public sentiment does not significantly diminish PSM. Conversely, perceived organizational justice positively correlates with PSM but does not moderate the relationship between public opinion and motivation. Under external reputational threats, employees tend to reorient their behavioral preferences toward programs aligned with public interest and institutional objectives. Furthermore, organizational tenure is positively related to both PSM and goal-directed behavior. These findings offer new insights into the cognitive and behavioral adaptation mechanisms of civil servants facing reputational threats and underscore the significance of psychological and institutional factors in sustaining motivation in the public sector.