When Tasks Feel Unjustified: How Illegitimate Tasks Undermine Public Servants’ Citizen-Oriented Behaviours
A new study of Vietnamese public servants finds that illegitimate tasks — assignments perceived as unreasonable or unnecessary — indirectly reduce the citizen-oriented behaviours that connect agencies with stakeholders, by increasing work cynicism. Public service motivation and ethical leadership, typically considered resources, intensify rather than buffer these negative effects.
Context
The bureaucratic, resource-constrained, and politically contested nature of the public sector often exposes public servants to illegitimate tasks: assignments they perceive as unreasonable or unnecessary. Such tasks frustrate public servants and can undermine behaviours critical to high-quality public service. Despite their prevalence, their consequences in public sector contexts remain underexplored.
Methods
The study examines how illegitimate tasks affect citizen-oriented boundary-spanning behaviours (COBSBs) — a set of positive work behaviours connecting agencies with stakeholders through service delivery, knowledge sharing, and external representation. Evidence comes from a time-lagged survey of Vietnamese public servants.
Key findings
Illegitimate tasks indirectly reduce COBSBs by increasing work cynicism.
Surprisingly, public service motivation and ethical leadership — typically considered resources — intensify rather than buffer the negative effects of illegitimate tasks.
By uncovering the costs of illegitimate tasks and these counterintuitive moderating mechanisms, the study offers new insights for public management theory and practice concerning task assignment, leadership, and motivation.
Policy implications
The study offers new insights for public management theory and practice concerning task assignment, leadership, and motivation, drawn from the costs of illegitimate tasks and the counterintuitive moderating mechanisms it uncovers.
Keywords:
Illegitimate Tasks
Public Service Motivation
Work Cynicism
Ethical Leadership
Public Administration
Vietnam
Link:
Citation:
Nguyen, N., Tuan, L. T., Nguyen, D., Khai, D. C., & Nguyen, T. (2026). When tasks feel unjustified: effects of illegitimate tasks on public servants’ citizen-oriented boundary-spanning behaviours. Public Management Review, 1-37.
