A Walk on the Wild Side? On the Motivation to Provide Public Service in Arctic Areas

This paper investigates what motivation it takes to deliver public service to those who need it the most. In so doing, it compares motivation in relation to recruitment and de-recruitment of school teachers on the West and East coast of Greenland respectively. The findings show that employees who are driven by excitement motivation seek employment on the East coast, but not on the West coast, where local teachers in contrast are drawn to seek employment close to the community where they grew up, signaling a commitment to the public interest of the community (CPI). This is a relatively more stable form of motivation than excitement motivation which tends to diminish with time giving way to boredom and ultimately paving the way into derecruitment. The methodological contribution of the paper is to use colour theory as the foundation for coding the nuance, intensity and contrast of different motivational forms. The basic argument is that the conceptualization of different motivational forms has to be contextualized. Just as yellow is understood as being distinct from blue, excitement motivation is perceived in contrast to the presence or absence of alternative motivational forms at the particular location.