https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X16639111 Review of Public Personnel Administration 2018, Vol. 38(2) 139–166 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0734371X16639111 journals.sagepub.com/home/rop Article Only When the Societal Impact Potential Is High? A Panel Study of the Relationship Between Public Service Motivation and Perceived Performance Nina van Loon 1,2 , Anne Mette Kjeldsen 2 , Lotte Bøgh Andersen 2 , Wouter Vandenabeele 1 , and Peter Leisink 1 Abstract Many studies find positive associations between public service motivation (PSM) and performance, but much of this literature is based on cross-sectional data prone to endogeneity and common method bias. Moreover, we know little about potential moderators. In this study, we test the moderating role of societal impact potential (SIP)—the degree to which the job is perceived to provide opportunities to contribute to society. We use cross-sectional data from 13,967 employees in 2010 and 2012 aggregated to construct longitudinal data for 42 organizations. As expected, the association between PSM and individual perceived performance is positive when SIP is high. However, when SIP is low, PSM is only weakly or not at all related to performance. This is an important insight for organizations that try to enhance performance through PSM. Our findings suggest that this can only be done when the employees think that their jobs allow them to contribute to society. Keywords public service motivation, performance, societal impact potential 1 Utrecht University, The Netherlands 2 Aarhus University, Denmark Corresponding Author: Nina van Loon, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Bartholins Alle 7, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark. Email: nina@ps.au.dk 639111ROP XX X 10.1177/0734371X16639111Review of Public Personnel Administrationvan Loon et al. research-article 2016