Other-oriented Motives Research Articles

Ghosting: Social rejection without explanation, but not without care.

Many social ties end when one side rejects the other, but rejection does not need to happen directly. Ghosting-the act of ending a relationship by ignoring another person's attempts to connect-is a common way of ending social ties. The present experiments first establish the key characteristics of ghosting and distinguish it from other rejection behaviors (Pilot Studies 1a-1c). The experiments then proceed to explore the relational and motivational implications of this behavior, finding that ghosters (those who ghost) care about the well-being of ghostees (those who are ghosted) more than ghostees realize. This result occurs in recalled instances of ghosting (Experiment 1), when ghosting in real time (Experiment 2), and when refraining from ghosting is monetarily costly (Experiment 3). We find that this occurs partly because ghostees underestimate the other-oriented motives involved in ghosting, misunderstanding that ghosters ghost partly as a way to end a tie while avoiding hurting ghostees' feelings (Experiments 4-6). Indeed, greater other-oriented motives lead to a higher likelihood of ghosting others (Experiment 7). A final experiment finds relational consequences whereby ghostees miss out on opportunities for future help exchange due to their underestimation of the extent to which ghosters care about them (Experiment 8). Ghosting is social rejection without explanation or feedback, but not without care. This study highlights how prosocial motives can drive rejection behaviors and the role of interpersonal accuracy in mitigating the negative effects of social rejection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Do They Mind the Gap? The Role of Founders in Organizational Pay Dispersion

This study adds to the emergent stream of work examining the micro-level antecedents of pay dispersion by focusing on how business founders’ personal characteristics influence pay dispersion in their organizations. We leverage stakeholder theory and the motivated information processing perspective to predict pathways between founders’ self- versus other-oriented motivations, their perceptions of employee and shareholder salience, and pay dispersion in their organizations. We test our hypotheses on data from a two-wave survey of founders. We find that a high level of motivation to benefit others on the part of a founder reduces the salience of shareholder concerns in decision-making, which in turn reduces pay dispersion. In contrast, a high level of motivation to benefit oneself heightens the salience of shareholder concerns in decision-making, increasing pay dispersion. Our results inform the debate on pay dispersion by elucidating the role played by founders’ self- versus other-oriented motivations and stakeholder salience perceptions.

Digging deeper into responsibility: an investigation of responses to online help-request marketing campaigns in social networking groups

PurposeThere is a growing trend among online merchants to conduct help-request marketing campaigns (HMCs), which refers to a kind of marketing campaign that leverages participants' help-request to encourage the subsequent engagement of participants' online friends. The paper aims to investigate how individuals respond to online HMCs in social networking groups (SNGs). Integrating the norm activation model and regulatory focus theory, this paper examines the mediation effects of the two facets of responsibility perception, i.e. perceived causality and perceived answerability.Design/methodology/approachA field experiment was conducted by organizing a real HMC on WeChat. To manipulate request individuation, experimental confederates were engaged to serve as requesters in the HMC. The actual responses provided by the recipients (subjects) were captured via the HMC pages. The multiple-group analysis was used for data analysis.FindingsEmpirical results reveal that request individuation strengthens the effect of relationship closeness on perceived causality but reverses the effect of relationship closeness on perceived answerability from being positive to negative. Except for the negligible impact of perceived answerability on inaction, both perceived causality and perceived answerability affect recipients' reactions to HMCs as expected.Practical implicationsFirst, social media platforms should promote other-oriented prosocial values when designing features or launching campaigns. Second, the designers of HMCs should introduce a “tagging” feature in HMCs and provide additional bonuses for requesters who perform tagging. Third, HMC requesters should prudently select tagging targets when making a request.Originality/valueFirst, this paper contributes to the literature on social media engagement by identifying responsibility as an other-oriented motivation for individuals' social media engagement. Second, this paper also extends our understanding of responsibility by dividing it into perceived causality and answerability as well as measuring them with self-developed instruments. Third, this study contributes to the research on WOM by demonstrating that individuals' response behaviors toward help-requests embedded in HMCs can take the form of proactive helping, reactive helping or inaction.

Keep the fire burning: Social entrepreneurs’ motives, role stress, perceived work competence and passion

This study examines factors affecting social entrepreneurs’ passion, focusing on their motives, job stress, and perceived work competence. The analysis of the survey data of 264 self-identified social entrepreneurs working in different types of organizations reveals that other-oriented motives are strongly associated with passion while self-oriented motives are not. The results also show that job stress is negatively correlated with social entrepreneurs’ passion. When the perceived work competence is included as a mediator, however, it alters the nature of the job stress-passion relationship, suggesting that job stress can positively affect social entrepreneurs’ passion when they perceive a high level of competence. The findings also suggest that perceived work competence reinforces the positive relationship between other-oriented motives and passion. This paper concludes with practical implications for social entrepreneurship education.

The impact of mindfulness meditation on social and moral behavior: Does mindfulness enhance other-oriented motivation or decrease monetary reward salience?

This perspective article provides an overview of the impact of mindfulness meditation (MM) on social and moral behavior. In mindfulness research, prosocial behavior has been operationalized as helping behavior, altruistic redistribution of funds, reparative behavior, or monetary donation. Studies concerning moral behavior are still scarce. Despite inconsistent evidence, several studies found a beneficial effect of mindfulness on prosocial outcomes (i.e., a higher propensity to spend or give away money for the sake of other individuals). However, since the employed tasks were reward-based, participants’ decisions also directly affected their own payoff by reducing it. Crucially, MM also affects self-control circuitry and reduces reward-seeking behaviors and reward salience by making rewards less tempting. We have discussed evidence suggesting how challenging it may be to dissociate the specific weight of enhanced other-oriented motivation from one of the decreased monetary reward salience in explaining meditators’ behavior. Future higher-quality studies are needed to address this open issue.

Exploring the impact of leader humility on different types of voice: the role of employee other-oriented motivations

AbstractDrawing on social learning theory and taking a motivational perspective, this study mainly investigates how leader humility can promote employees' other-oriented motivations, and uncovers the other-serving motivational mechanism through which leader humility can impact their employees' different types of voice behavior. By collecting data from 152 leader–subordinate dyads through an online survey, the results revealed that leader humility was positively related to both employees' prosocial motivation and organizational concern motivation. Meanwhile, these two motivations play mediating roles in explaining how leader humility can positively affect employees' supportive voice and challenging voice. It is noteworthy that leader humility, which features highlighting the value and strength of others, is more likely to trigger employees' prosocial motivation and thus influence their voice behavior. This research extends our understanding of leader humility, employee motivation, and workplace voice. Practical implications and limitations of the results are also discussed.

Periodic Versus Aggregate Donations: Leveraging Donation Frequencies to Cultivate the Regular Donor Portfolio

Charitable organizations play a key role in society but face the recurrent challenge of obtaining sufficient resources to accomplish their missions. The regular donor portfolio becomes a critical element in providing stable and long-lasting funding, and its effective management has emerged as a key research area. This study investigates the impact of the donation frequency by regular donors on their donation amount over time. Drawing from temporal reframing literature, we provide an understanding of these effects as well as the moderating role of the motivations to donate (self- vs other-oriented). The study also investigates the extent to which frequency choices are influenced by the motivations to donate and by the donation options presented during registration. Using a sample of regular donors from 2013 to 2019 and applying dynamic panel data techniques, the findings reveal that higher frequencies lead to higher donations, though this effect is strengthened by self-oriented motivations and weakened by other-oriented motivations. Our study shows that motivations to donate and donation options jointly explain donation frequencies. This study provides useful guidance for charities on how to increase regular donors’ perceived value and their contributions to help these organizations provide essential services to the most vulnerable groups in society.

Moderated Mediating Effect of Pro-Social Behavior and Gender between Volunteer's Motivation(self-oriented motivation, other-oriented motivation) and Volunteer Activity Satisfaction

목적 자원봉사자의 동기부여가 자원봉사활동 만족도의 관계에서 자원봉사활동 만족도를 증가시키는 요인을 알아보고자 문헌 고찰을 하였고, 이를 바탕으로 본 연구에서는 자원봉사자의 동기부여(자기지향적 동기, 타인지향적 동기)와 자원봉사활동 만족도의 관계에서 자원봉사활동 만족도를 더욱 증가시키는 요인으로 친사회적 행동을 선정하였고, 그 관계가 성별의 조절에 따라 달라질 수 있는지 확인하기 위해 조절된 매개효과 모형을 검증하였다. 방법 본 연구는 경기도를 중심으로 자원봉사 경험이 있는 사람을 대상으로 온라인 설문을 통해 설문조사를 실시하였으며, 응답자 총 661명의 자료를 수집하였다. 수집된 자료는 SPSS 프로그램을 활용하여 기술통계분석 및 상관관계 분석, 위계적 회귀분석, PROCESS macro 모형검증을 시행하였다. 결과 연구결과를 보면 첫째, 자원봉사자의 동기부여(자기지향적 동기, 타인지향적 동기)와 자원봉사활동 만족도의 간에 친사회적 행동의 매개효과가 유의하였으며, 부분매개효과를 나타냈다 둘째, 자원봉사자의 타인지향적 동기와 친사회적 행동, 자원봉사활동 만족도의 간에 성별(남자, 여자)의 조절된 매개효과가 유의하였다. 성별(남자)의 조절효과를 보면, 자원봉사자의 타인지향적 동기가 친사회적 행동으로 가는 직접 영향을 조절하여 자원봉사활동 만족도에 미치는 영향이 성별(남자)의 조절 수준이 높아질수록 자원봉사활동 만족도가 서서히 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 반면, 성별(여자)의 조절효과를 보면, 자원봉사자의 타인지향적 동기가 친사회적 행동으로 가는 직접 영향을 조절하여 자원봉사활동 만족도에 미치는 영향이 성별(여자)의 조절 수준이 높아질수록 자원봉사활동 만족도가 서서히 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 결론 본 연구 결과를 바탕으로 본 연구의 결과가 연구에 주는 의의와 실제 자원봉사 현장에서 성별에 맞는 친사회적 행동 및 자원봉사활동 만족도를 높이는 방안을 논의하였다.

Mobilizing to take responsibility: exploring the relationship between Sense of Community Responsibility (SOC-R), Public Service Motivation (PSM) and public service resilience during Covid-19

ABSTRACT This paper explores how other-oriented motivations: Sense of Community Responsibility (SOC-R) and Public Service Motivation (PSM) relate to voluntary support during the Covid-19 crisis. Drawing on original panel survey data, collected spring 2020, it compares SOC-R and PSM for civic participation. The study reveals that while both forms of motivations relate to voluntary support, PSM remains stable over time while SOC-R varies. Furthermore, SOC-R develops differently over time for those who engage in voluntary support and those who do not. Such heterogeneity is not observed for PSM. Based on these findings, the paper discusses SOC-R’s contribution to public service resilience.

Science for Others or the Self? Presumed Motives for Science Shape Public Trust in Science.

Science can improve life around the world, but public trust in science is at risk. Understanding the presumed motives of scientists and science can inform the social psychological underpinnings of public trust in science. Across five independent datasets, perceiving the motives of science and scientists as prosocial promoted public trust in science. In Studies 1 and 2, perceptions that science was more prosocially oriented were associated with greater trust in science. Studies 3 and 4a & 4b employed experimental methods to establish that perceiving other-oriented motives, versus self-oriented motives, enhanced public trust in science. Respondents recommend greater funding allocations for science subdomains described as prosocially oriented versus power-oriented. Emphasizing the prosocial aspects of science can build stronger foundations of public trust in science.

What drives employee's involvement in corporate volunteering? Bright and dark side of consequences to organization

PurposeThis study assesses the relevance of both individual and contextual factors as an antecedent to employee participation in corporate volunteering (CV) activities and affective organizational commitment and inter-role conflict as an outcome of employee volunteering. This study draws from the functional theory of motivation, social exchange theory and role strain perspective to explain hypothesized relationship of the study constructs.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire survey was administered with 461 employee volunteers who had participated in company-sponsored volunteering programs. The authors adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the study hypotheses.FindingsThe findings from the survey suggest that altruistic motives and organization CV capability will impact employee's participation in CV. The results highlight that employee participation in CV enhances affective organizational commitment, indicating that employee volunteering creates inter-role conflict.Research limitations/implicationsThough the study has identified inter-role conflict as a potentially unfavorable outcome, exploring when and how employee volunteering will create a negative effect will add significant value to organizations to protect the interest of their employees.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights to understand the relative effects of self- and other-oriented motives. The results suggest that organizations have more directed and carefully designed employee volunteering activities to enable more favorable benefits to employees.Originality/valueThis study contributes to expanding the knowledge on the phenomenon of employee volunteering by introducing and empirically validating an integrated framework of antecedents and consequences of employee volunteering.

“Eyes for eyes, teeth for teeth”: positive and negative reciprocity in NPOs

PurposeManagement scholars investigated the motivational aspects of volunteers, mainly focusing on their positive reciprocity – individuals feel obligated to reciprocate whenever they receive benefits from others – but neglected the possible role of negative reciprocity, the tendency to retaliate in case of mistreatments. Based on motivational functions theory and the norm of reciprocity, this paper proposes a framework assessing other-oriented and self-oriented motives as the main antecedents of volunteers’ intention to stay in non-profit organizations (NPOs).Design/methodology/approachCovariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and the PROCESS macro were used to empirically validate and test the hypothesized conceptual model on a sample of 379 volunteers actively involved in Italian NPOs.FindingsPositive reciprocity partially mediated the relationships between volunteers’ other-oriented motives and self-oriented motives and their intention to stay. Instead, negative reciprocity fully mediated the relationship between self-oriented motives and intention to stay but not the relationship between other-oriented motives and intention to stay.Practical implicationsManagers and marketers of NPOs should pay more attention to volunteers’ attitudinal and behavioral signals to encourage within-organization positive reciprocal attitudes and discourage negative reciprocal attitudes. This represents a strategic lever to prevent volunteers from quitting the organization – which is one of the most critical challenges for NPOs’ management – and improve their intention to stay.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies that simultaneously investigate the mediating role of both positive and negative reciprocity of volunteers actively involved in NPOs. Moreover, the constructs of other-oriented and self-oriented motivations are statistically validated as two separate psychological dimensions impacting on volunteers’ turnover. Finally, the study has been conducted in the Region of Tuscany (Italy) which, despite its centuries-old tradition of volunteerism, has received scant attention by non-profit scholars.

Emergence of interpersonal helping in times of crises: a theoretical model of prosperity and eradication of interpersonal helping in organizations

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to develop a cross-level, theoretical model describing the process by which interpersonal helping becomes conspicuous, as well as the process by which interpersonal helping subsequently prospers or becomes eradicated in the organization.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical analysis was performed by drawing upon various management-related theories.FindingsWe propose that organizational crises foster the emergence of interpersonal helping. Additionally, the positive relationship between organizational crises and interpersonal helping is stronger (or weaker) when individuals possess higher levels of other-oriented (or self-oriented) motives. Furthermore, we propose that a sympathetic climate at the unit level and employee job crafting at the individual level result in the prosperity of interpersonal helping, whereas interpersonal helping is eradicated by a sarcastic atmosphere at the unit level and citizenship pressure at the individual level.Originality/valueTheoretically, we advance the literature by providing future research with a theoretical base for understanding interpersonal helping from a temporal and cross-level perspective. Practically, this article offers some managerial recommendations that help managers nurture interpersonal helping in organizations effectively.

Familiarity and Audience Effects on Giving: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Giving is often characterized by the conflicting decision to give up something of value to benefit others. Recent evidence indicated that giving is highly context-dependent. To unravel the neural correlates of social context, in this study, young adults (n = 32) performed a novel giving fMRI paradigm, in which they divided coins between self and known (friends) or unknown (unfamiliar) others. A second manipulation included presence of others; giving decisions were made with an audience or anonymously. Results showed that participants gave more coins to a friend than to an unfamiliar other and generally gave more in the presence of an audience. On a neural level, medial prefrontal cortex and the right insula were most active for relatively generous decisions. These findings possibly reflect that aversion of norm deviation or fairness concerns drive differences in the frequency of giving. Next, activation in separate subregions of the TPJ-IPL (i.e., a region that comprises the TPJ and inferior parietal lobule) was found for target and audience contexts. Overall, our findings suggest that donation size and social contextual information are processed in separable brain regions and that TPJ-IPL plays an important role in balancing self- and other-oriented motives related to the social context.

Social Entrepreneurs’ Motives, Role Stress, Work Competence, and Passion

This study examines how social entrepreneurs’ motives and role stress affect their passion and how these relationships are mediated by their perception of own work competence. The analysis of the data from a survey of 264 self-identified social entrepreneurs working in different types of organizations show that other-oriented motives are strongly associated with passion while self-oriented motives are generally not. The results also reveal that perceived work competence mediates these relationships, reinforcing the relationships between other-oriented motives and passion and between role stress and passion. In particular, when social entrepreneurs perceive a high level of competence, role stress positively affects social entrepreneurs’ passion, suggesting that the multitude and ambiguity of roles can boost passion, rather than decreasing it. This paper concludes with suggestions for social entrepreneurship education programs and curricula.

Exploring the relationship between umbilical blood cord donation and the impact of social distance on altruism and trust.

Allogeneic umbilical cord blood (UCB) donation is a pro-social behaviour directed to strangers that has a certain cost for the donor. Although the promotion of such behaviour is an important goal for many countries' health systems, little is known about the reasons that would lead to it. With this study, we explored how the impact of social closeness on altruism and trust could be related to UCB donation in a sample of new-mothers (N=167). Participants played hypothetical Dictator and Trust games with socially close (e.g., parents) or distant (e.g., strangers) others. They donated more money to parents and siblings compared to cousins, friends and strangers and they trusted more parents, siblings and friends than cousins and strangers. Interestingly, the lower the impact of social closeness on altruism (i.e., generosity towards socially distant others), the higher the intention and the actual probability of UCB donation. A mediation analysis has shown that the relationship between social closeness on altruism and UCB donation was mediated by objective intention to donate (i.e., having followed all the procedures needed). These findings show that other-oriented motivations towards distant others might have important practical implications in identifying the targets of interventions for the promotion of UCB donation.

The Role of Volunteer Participation and Person-Organization Fit in the Relationship between Motives and Psychological Well-Being

(1) Background: Studies have been limited in explaining how volunteering acts as underlying mechanisms that associate the antecedents and outcomes of volunteering. This study aims to investigate whether volunteer participation mediates the relationship between motives (self-oriented and other-oriented) and psychological well-being, and further whether person-organizational (PO)-fit moderates the relationship between motives and volunteer participation. (2) Methods: Data were collected from full-time employees in organizations in South Korea using a self-administered instrument. To test the hypotheses, hierarchical regression analyses and path analyses were conducted. (3) Results: Volunteer participation showed a significant mediating effect only for the relationship between other-oriented motives and psychological well-being. PO fit showed a significant moderating role, and further analysis revealed that the mediated moderation of PO-fit was significant. (4) Conclusions: Results suggest that employees with other-oriented motives and PO fit were more likely to participate in volunteer activities, which then increased one’s psychological well-being. Findings provide insights for HR practitioners regarding employee volunteering programs.

Self and Others in Adolescence.

Research has demonstrated that adolescence is an important time for self- and other-oriented development that underlies many skills vital for becoming a contributing member of society with healthy intergroup relations. It is often assumed that these two processes, thinking about self and thinking about others, are pitted against each other when adolescents engage in social decision making such as giving or sharing. Recent evidence from social neuroscience, however, does not support this notion of conflicting motives, suggesting instead that thinking about self and others relies on a common network of social-affective brain regions, with the medial prefrontal cortex playing a central role in the integration of perspectives related to self and others. Here, we argue that self- and other-oriented thinking are intertwined processes that rely on an overlapping neural network. Adolescents' motivation to contribute to society can be fostered most when self- and other-oriented motives align.

Helping one or helping many? A theoretical integration and meta-analytic review of the compassion fade literature

Researchers and practitioners in the area of charitable giving have long lamented the tendency to offer greater aid to one person who is suffering rather than to a large group with the same needs. Demonstrations of such compassion fade are common in the literature, although different explanations for these findings exist. To reconcile both past theory and empirical research, we utilized a dual concern framing (De Dreu, 2006; Pruitt & Rubin, 1985) in conducting a meta-analysis of 41 studies (95 independent samples; 13,259 total sample size) on compassion fade. Results suggest that victim group size negatively affects both helping intent and helping behavior, as well as our proposed mediating mechanisms of anticipated positive affect (self-oriented motivation) and perceived impact (hybrid other-/self-oriented motivation). However, significant effects were not found for empathetic concern (other-oriented motivation). Results also showed that the indirect effects of victim group size on helping are stronger through anticipated positive affect and perceived impact than through empathetic concern. Further, as indicated by supplemental analyses, anticipated positive affect and perceived impact likely operate as predictors of empathetic concern in a serial mediation process through which victim groups size affects helping. Finally, we examined calamity scope (number of victims) and event features (certainty, chronicity, and threat severity) as moderators of the observed relationships between victim group size and helping. Theoretical implications and directions for future compassion fade research emanating from these findings are discussed.

Job Crafting Differences between Generations X and Y: A Cross- cultural Study of Iran and China

This qualitative study examines the effects of generational differences and national culture on job crafting. Via interviews with employees from two generations, Generation X and Y, and two countries, Iran and China, the study uncovered how national culture, self vs. other-oriented motivations for development and autonomy can enable and constrain job crafting activities. Findings showed that certain job crafting activities clash with values and beliefs that are central to both Iranian and Chinese culture, such as loyalty to the family, and the importance of relationship building. Moreover, the two generation groups tend to have different motivations behind their involvement in job crafting activities: Generation Y participants were mostly concerned about their personal development whereas Generation X participants were mostly concerned with the development of a better future, company, or society. Finally, individuals in lower- rank positions felt their opportunities to engage in different job crafting activities were limited by their relative lack of autonomy, whereas, individuals in higher-rank positions, despite having more autonomy, found their job crafting opportunities constrained by expectations to meet organizational objectives.