Unraveling the Dynamics of Issue-Selling for Sustainable Development in Taiwan

• In Event: Environmental and Gender Politics in Taiwan

Abstract

Previous research shed lights on the interactions of public servants, acting collectively as policy actors, with stakeholders external to public organizations, aiming to address environmental issues in various stages of the policy process, encompassing agenda setting, policy diffusion, stakeholder engagements, and implementation. However, the effective delivery of public services requires credible commitments from individual public servants towards the defined policy goals, especially in the early stages of the policy process. What factors cause public servants sell green issues with in public organizations? Drawing on the literature on organizational citizenship behaviors（OCB）and collective action theory （e.g., Stritch & Christensen, 2016; Lubell et al., 2007）, the argument posits that public employees decide to proactively sell policy issues in the workplace, as a form of OCB, influenced by not only the anticipated benefits but also the perceived efforts required for such endeavors. Utilizing survey data with a representative samples of Taiwan public servants, this paper is to investigate public servants’ participation in issue-selling for sustainable development goals（SDG）. The findings could offer insights into the significance of public service motivation (PSM) in driving OCB, especially considering that the levels of PSM in Taiwan may not be as high as those in the USA（Chen et al, 2020）. Beyond motivational factors, the study examines the effects of individual eco-initiatives and other organizational factors on issue-selling behaviors, suggesting that the adoptions of managerial practices could have impacts on policy outcomes.

Author

• Chien-Shih Huang, National Taiwan University