Social Work Design and Prosocial Organizational Behaviors

Ayça Bülbül

doi:10.13189/ujp.2014.020201

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors are defined as acts which are performed by an individual or a group and are beneficial to other people either at the individual or group level. An act qualifies as prosocial regardless of the motivation of the agent or the fact that the act was voluntary or a role requirement. With this broad definition, prosocial behaviors in organizations constitute a less researched topic in organizational literature. Rather, it was conventionally operationalized as organizational citizenship behaviors, helping others or willingness to cooperate. In this respect, the present study is an attempt to operationalize prosocial organizational behaviors with a broader scope and aims to explore the social structure of work as an antecedent of prosocial organizational behaviors. Social aspects of work design were explored as likely antecedents of prosocial organizational behaviors. A total of 308 employees, working in white-collar jobs from various industries participated in the study. Among the antecedents tested, interaction and caring were found to contribute significantly to prosocial behaviors in organizations, while the contribution of interdependence was not found to be significant. The findings were discussed in terms of their possible individual as well as organizational outcomes.

Highlights

Ranging from philosophical to biological, several perspectives are offered to study and explain prosocial behaviors
Among the possible antecedents of prosocial behavior in organizations, social work design is addressed in the present study
Building on the finding that prosocial acts which benefit individuals and organizations correlate with dispositional and situational antecedents differentially [17], the present study explores whether the beneficiary of the prosocial act factors in as a determining component of prosocial behavior in organizations

Summary

Introduction

Ranging from philosophical to biological, several perspectives are offered to study and explain prosocial behaviors. At the intersection of these various disciplines, the study of prosocial behaviors suffers from the lack of adequate knowledge transfer among fields. There are a multitude of definitions for prosocial behavior. Defined, it “represents acts that are defined by some significant segment of society and/ or one’s social group as beneficial to other people” [1, p. The design of work is hypothesized as contributing to the display of prosocial acts in organizations. Among the possible antecedents of prosocial behavior in organizations, social work design is addressed in the present study

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion