Abstract
It is generally assumed that a corporate purpose aiming to benefit all stakeholders has a positive effect on employee motivation and engagement, but no empirical studies into these specific effects were found. To examine this assumption, a corporate mission and vision matching the definition of a higher purpose were tested in two subsequent studies. The first study (N = 270) was a cross-sectional self-report study. The second study included a longitudinal design (N = 56) modeling purpose, motivation, and engagement in a cross-lagged panel model over three time-points. The results associated purpose with motivation and engagement. The subsequent longitudinal analysis confirmed the presumed directionality from purpose to engagement, but not to motivation. Hence, while a corporate purpose can be added to the list of antecedents to work engagement, the relationship with motivation, despite the significant association with purpose in the cross-sectional study, remains more complicated. The present study adds to the knowledge of the beneficial effects of a broader purpose and responds to the current surge of interest in purpose as an instrument for sustainable business.
Highlights
Purpose-driven organizations can change the world (Barton et al, 2016)
Based on self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 2000), the present study examined the associations of a corporate purpose with employee motivation and work engagement testing the widespread assumption that a higher purpose leads to enhanced employee motivation and engagement
We argue that motivation may explain this relationship, in the same manner that basic psychological needs explain the relationship between, e.g., transformational leadership and work engagement (Kovjanic et al, 2012), or between teamvalues and work engagement (Schreurs et al, 2014)
Summary
Purpose-driven organizations can change the world (Barton et al, 2016). The debate on the purpose of organizations seems to develop toward a broader purpose-driven leadership (Harrison et al, 2019). In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, representing the largest United States companies, issued a press announcement redefining purpose to include all stakeholders: employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and shareholders (BRT, 2019). The announcement signaled an end to 50 years sway of shareholder value primacy and profit maximization at all costs (Gelles and Yaffe-Bellany, 2019). Popular business publications and consultancy reports frequently applaud the positive effects of a broader purpose on employee motivation and engagement. Many of these publications stress that motivation and engagement are in crisis but indispensable for companies to thrive in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) world
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