Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and understand the relationship between community service and public service leadership. The aim of the study was to contribute to the current body of work by focusing on public sector employees and exploring how community service impacted their leadership skills and development. To achieve this, data was collected through personal interviews with 16 public sector leaders who reside in Central Illinois and employed with either a municipal, county, state or federal government agency. Four main themes emerged from the data collected: Cultural Conditioning Influencing Community Service and Leadership, Altruism and Public Service Motivation (PSM), Involvement with Community Service Organizations and Political Engagement and Advocacy. These themes led to the recommendation that enlightened conversation commence to investigate the utilization of skills acquired from the unpaid experiences of potential employees to forecast and determine employee suitability which will ultimately move the field of public sector leadership forward. Additionally, the data lends to the larger conversation of what skills and abilities are required of public sector leaders, how they can be identified and what paradigms must be developed for the inclusion of community service in employee development programs.