Work well-being and prosocial behavior in a sample of Bra-zilian workers

Laila Leite Carneiro,Antônio Virgílio Bittencourt Bastos

doi:10.5565/rev/qpsicologia.1583

Laila Leite Carneiro, Antônio Virgílio Bittencourt Bastos

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/qpsicologia.1583

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Abstract

Prosocial voice is as a proactive and positively oriented verbal behavior that the worker emits with the intent of promoting transformation that benefits the group or organization. Despite being a phe-nomenon widely studied in other countries, in Brazil there are few researches dedicated to this phe-nomenon. Supported by the literature gap and driven by the Positive Psychology perspective, the aim of this study was to describe how prosocial voice behaviors (PSV) are manifested in different Brazili-an workers. Additionally, we sought to analyze the predictive power of well-being at work on these behaviors. From the application of scales to a sample of 360 Brazilian workers, descriptive, correla-tion and linear regression analyzes were conducted. Results shows that some occupational variables, as well as individual variables interfere with the frequency of PSV issuance. Besides, the better a worker feels about his work, the more likely he is to engage in PSV behaviors.

Highlights

Organizations can be understood as a social construction, the result of interactions between the people who constitute them and, as a rule, communicate in order to create, maintain, and transform their structures (Gorden, 1988)
Participants: This study included 360 workers from different segments, occupations, and levels of education, who had at least 3 months employment with the organization. This time, according to the Decree of Law No 229 of 1967 pertaining to the Brazilian Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), constitutes the trial period, in which the worker is still adapting to the company and his/her permanence is still unstable
Not all workers in this study are linked to their organizations through the CLT, it is understood that this condition serves as a control, since it presupposes a reasonable time for workers to know and adapt minimally to their work activities and the organization as a whole in which they develop their work, allowing a more accurate assessment of the phenomena evaluated here, namely, the well-being of the workers and their commitment to the organization

Summary

Introduction

Organizations can be understood as a social construction, the result of interactions between the people who constitute them and, as a rule, communicate in order to create, maintain, and transform their structures (Gorden, 1988). It is not uncommon for organizations to expect their employees to be actively engaged and interested in contributing to building their success, helping them to be able to deliver quality products and/or services to ensure their survival and their competitive edge in the market (Botero & Van Dyne, 2009; Budd, Gollan & Wilkinson, 2010; Knoll, Wegge, Unterrainer, Silva & Jønsson 2016; Morrison, 2011). Collaborative worker behaviors that occur spontaneously, driven by the desire to contribute to the collective construction of a more efficient, effective, and healthy organization, are known as discretionary or extra-role behaviors (Van Dyne, Cummings & Parks, 1995; Van Dyne & LePine, 1998). Among the various possibilities for expressing these behaviors, we highlight a class that is called “prosocial voice”

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