Prosocial Impact Research Articles

How innovation types affect users' continuous knowledge sharing intention: a self-determination perspective

PurposeThis research aims to investigate the effects of innovation types (exploratory innovation vs. exploitative innovation) on users' psychological perceptions (perceived self-improvement and prosocial impact) and continuous knowledge sharing intention and the moderating effects of monetary incentives.Design/methodology/approachThe research model was developed based on the self-determination theory. A two-study approach involving an online survey (n = 338) and an online experiment (n = 160) was employed to collect quantitative data. Structural equation modeling and variance analysis were adapted to analyze the data.FindingsThe results show that exploratory innovation leads to higher perceived self-improvement among users than exploitative innovation, whereas exploitative innovation leads to higher perceived prosocial impact than exploratory innovation. The perceived self-improvement and perceived prosocial impact positively affects users' continuous knowledge sharing intention. Monetary incentives moderate the relationships among perceived self-improvement, perceived prosocial impact and continuous knowledge sharing intention.Originality/valueThis research highlights the role of users' experience of initial participation in forming continuous knowledge sharing intentions and also reveals the effectiveness of monetary incentives in different types of innovation activities. The findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of the antecedents of users' continuous knowledge sharing behavior, offering new insights and recommendations for managerial practitioners.

What Comes First: Self or Social? Occupational Identification in Emotional Dirty Work

There are certain occupations where the focal activity of the workers includes interacting with other’s displayed emotions that act as a threat to the normal order of the society or individual. Engagement in such work is said to be classified as emotional dirty work. Emotional dirty work is marked with taint and stigma due to the kind of emotions the workers have to deal with. While there is a growing interest in the various challenges such workers experience in their daily lives, not much is known about how the emanating stigma affects the focal worker’s occupational identification. Premised on the social identity theory and conservation of resources theory, this study empirically investigates the relationship between perceived occupational stigma consciousness and occupational identification for individuals engaged in emotional dirty work. Further, the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and moderating influence of perceived prosocial impact is also examined. The results based on data collected from 244 emotional counselors demonstrate a positive effect of stigma consciousness on occupational identification. Such a finding highlights the significant role played by social identity theory in emotional dirty work, thereby extending the literature in the domain. Further, practical implications and future research directions are also outlined.

The Growth Mindset at Work: Will Employees Help Others or Only Help Themselves?

Organizations want employees to grow and develop their professional skills. Towards this aim, companies like Microsoft are turning to growth mindset interventions that increase employees’ belief in their developmental potential. But will embracing interventions that foster a strong self-development focus have unintended consequences and decrease employee efforts to help each other? We explore how growth mindset interventions impact other-oriented helping behavior using three experimental studies. A pilot study and Study 1 shows that a work-specific growth mindset intervention increases individuals’ intention to help their colleagues and helping behavior when compared to a control intervention. Study 2, a within-person field experiment utilizing a daily experience sampling approach, reveals that on days when employees participate in a work-specific growth mindset intervention (as compared to control), they engage in more helping and subsequently perceive greater prosocial impact and meaning in life. Further, these effects were stronger for those higher in trait-level growth mindset. Our findings suggest that the self-focused benefits of the growth mindset do not come at the cost of other helping behaviors that organizations also desire. We discuss the implications of our findings and the future of the growth mindset at work.

Identifiable Victim or Victor? How Drawing Employees’ Attention to Prosocial Impact can Backfire

Many organizations try to boost employee effort and morale through “prosocial leveraging”—that is, drawing increased attention to the beneficiaries of the organization’s social impact. Research suggests that exposing employees to more salient narratives about the beneficiaries of their work can generate heightened feelings of compassion and spur greater prosocial motivation to work harder. However, often implicit in this approach is that employees are in an advantaged position, relative to those they are helping, and that drawing increased attention to beneficiaries reflects a downward social comparison. Yet this is not always the case, and in this research, we question the efficacy of drawing attention to beneficiaries that may reflect an upward social comparison. We address this question via an initial generative field experiment, followed by a confirmatory lab experiment. Our results collectively contribute to: (1) literature on organizations that leverage their prosociality by raising the possibility that drawing increased attention to an organization’s social impact could backfire; (2) literature on prosocial motivation by augmenting it with a social comparison lens, and; (3) theory on the identifiable victim effect, showing that providing greater detail about those in need does not always increase positive emotional responses.

Effect of educational intervention based on theory of planned behavior on aggression preventive behaviors in students

PurposeAggressive behaviors are common among students. Given the importance of education in reducing aggressive behavior, this study aims to examine the influence of a theory of planned behavior (TPB)-based educational intervention on aggression-preventive behaviors in fifth-grade male students in Fasa city, Iran.Design/methodology/approachA total of 120 male students were randomly picked from several public schools in Fasa city, Iran, between 2018 and 2019. Assessments were completed before and three months after the intervention. Intervention consisted of eight 55–60-min training sessions based on the TPB’s processes and constructs.FindingsPrior to the educational intervention, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, intention to stop aggressiveness or to engage in aggression-preventive activities. However, three months following the intervention, the experimental group demonstrated a considerable rise in the aforementioned constructs (p > 0.001 in all cases).Originality/valueThe study’s findings demonstrated the efficacy of a TPB-based educational intervention on constructs of the TPB theory. Results suggest application of a TPB-based educational intervention can have a pro-social impact on the attitudes and behavior of elementary age boys.

Values and Inequality: Prosocial Jobs and the College Wage Premium

Employers often recruit workers by invoking corporate social responsibility, organizational purpose, or other claims to a prosocial mission. In an era of substantial labor market inequality, commentators typically dismiss these claims as hypocritical: prosocial employers often turn out to be no more generous with low-wage workers than are other employers. In this article, we argue that prosocial commitments in fact inadvertently reduce earnings inequality, but through a different channel than generosity. Building on research on job values, we hypothesize that college graduates are more willing than nongraduates to sacrifice pay for prosocial impact. When employers appeal to prosocial values, they can thus disproportionately reduce pay for higher-educated workers. We test this theory with data on online U.S. job postings. We find that prosocial jobs requiring a college degree post lower pay than do standard postings with exactly the same job requirements; prosocial jobs that do not require a college degree, however, pay no differently from other low-education jobs. This gap reduces the aggregate college wage premium by around 5 percent. We present a variety of supplementary evidence using labor market data, worker survey responses, and a vignette experiment with hiring managers. The findings reveal an unintended consequence of employers’ embrace of prosocial values: it offsets macro-level inequality.

Is ability-job fit important for work engagement? Evidence from the Irish civil service

ABSTRACT Few studies of work engagement have been undertaken within a civil service context. This study draws on data from an employee survey of the Irish civil service to explore the relationship between perceptions of ability-job fit and engagement and whether this relationship is mediated by meaningful work. It also examines whether the relationship between perceived ability-job fit and meaningful work is moderated by prosocial impact. The hypotheses for mediation are supported, but the findings for moderation suggest a tension between the ideals of doing public service work and those associated with making a difference to the lives of others.

The interactive influence of public service motivation, perceived reward equity, and prosocial impact on employee engagement: a panel study in Pakistan

ABSTRACT We examine independent and joint influences of public service motivation (PSM), job prosocial impact, and job reward equity on public employee engagement. Using panel data collected from 56 public managers in Pakistan, we find that managers with high levels of PSM feel more engaged when they experience high reward equity but low job prosocial impact or when they experience high job prosocial impact but low reward equity. Managers with low to moderate levels of PSM, however, report being more engaged when both job reward equity and job prosocial impact are high. These findings provide a nuanced understanding of how PSM affects public employee engagement.

Supervisors' knowledge hiding and knowledge-based trust: from the lens of social impact theory

PurposePast studies have largely focused on leaders' influence on employees' attitudes and behaviors, largely ignoring the followership and its consequences. This study investigates the social impact that followers induce on leaders through their intentions and actions. Following social impact theory (SIT), this study contributes to the growing research on supervisory knowledge hiding (KH) and related positive consequences beyond the traditional leader-centered approach. This paper investigates the serial mediation link between supervisory KH and supervisory knowledge-based trust (KBT) via perceived prosocial impact and supervisor directed citizenship behavior.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged dyadic data of 348 employees working in a bank under 54 supervisors were collected from Saudi Arabia.FindingsThe findings suggest that supervisory KH entails a potential prosocial impact on employees to engage in supervisor-directed citizenship behavior that builds the KBT in supervisors about subordinates. The empirical support provides an understanding of the social impact of subordinates' influence on supervisors above and beyond traditional leadership literature by depicting the active role of followers in influencing leaders' behavior in building trust in knowledge management. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.Originality/valueBy studying the followership effect on leadership, this study extends the social impact process beyond a social phenomenon to the workplace in a supervisor–subordinate relationship. Moreover, examining the positive framing of a leader's KH to transform such behaviors through active followership role provides a new insight into positive consequences of supervisory behavior through social impact.

Does Prosocial Impact Reduce Performance Data Gaming? The Role of Data Visualizations and Expert-Novice Differences

While research has documented the framing effects of performance data on decision-making, little is known about the impact of data visualizations on performance gaming. We propose that performance information portraying prosocial impact reduces gaming if the information is episodic and visualizes benefits for clients in need. We also theorize about expert-novice differences and suggest that performance information is less influential among experts. We conduct an experiment with samples of citizens (novices) and school leaders (experts) in which subjects must decide whether they are willing to omit poorly performing students when calculating school-wide performance scores. We find that school leaders game less than citizens, and that the former are less responsive to episodic information cues than the latter. However, information becomes more influential if it can capture school leaders’ attention and if leaders have little work experience. More broadly, our findings suggest being cautious with generalizations across groups of data users.

When and Why Does Safety Compliance Lead to One's Well-being?

Employee safety compliance has been a critical issue in the workplace for centuries, but it has taken on increased significance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the importance of employee safety, prior research has focused on the predictors of employee safety compliance. In this paper, we shift the focus of safety compliance research beyond the accident-based consequences of such compliance and examine how complying with safety measures affects how employees feel about their impact on others, and their subsequent well-being. Specifically, drawing from work on prosocial impact and self-determination theory, we predict that complying with safety measures will boost employees’ feelings of having a prosocial impact in their work, leading to higher well-being. Moreover, we expect the prosocial-impact driven effects of safety compliance on employee well-being to be particularly strong when employees’ compliance is not driven by external pressure (i.e., controlled motivation). Results from an experience-sampling study of independent delivery drivers in South Korea, operating in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggest complying with safety measures during the workday elicits higher perceptions of prosocial impact, which generates increased psychological vitality and job satisfaction and reduced emotional exhaustion in the evening. However, this effect was not significant when delivery drivers felt compelled to comply with safety measures for controlled reasons. By highlighting some benefits of safety compliance for frontline workers, these findings meaningfully extend our understanding of the effects of safety compliance on employee well-being, and the boundaries of these effects.

Cold (and hot) passion: A dual path model of job passion in professional work

It is widely believed that job passion leads to positive work outcomes because it fuels people with personal significance and emotional drive. However, we proposed that this theorization of job passion can be problematic in professional work as professionals are required to detach from their personal values and emotions, and adhere to professional values and standards. Based on in-depth interviews with professional journalists, we hypothesized that job passion in professional work has two distinctive paths, one leads to personal significance (“hot path”) and one leads to professional detachment (“cold path”). We further hypothesized that these two paths are associated with different workplace outcomes. On the one hand, job passion connects to higher work meaningfulness and perceived prosocial impact through personal significance. On the other hand, job passion relates to less tension and lower intention to leave through professional detachment. Results from a field survey with a larger sample of journalists support our dual path model of job passion in professional work. Overall, our research demonstrates the importance of job passion for professionals as well as the dual path of its positive influence on professional work.

Integrating the bright and dark sides of family supportive supervisor behaviors

Family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) aim to influence employees positively, yet scholars know little about how it affects actors themselves. We draw on conservation of resources theory and self-determination theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of FSSB on supervisors. We suggest that although FSSB can cause supervisor’s emotional exhaustion and consequent laissez-faire behaviors, FSSB is also positively associated with supervisor’s perception of prosocial impact, prosocial motivation and sequent servant leadership behaviors. Furthermore, for supervisors who are high in a family harmony climate, engaging in FSSB is associated with reduced emotional exhaustion and an increased perception of prosocial impact.

The effects of felt public gratitude on essential worker recovery activities during COVID-19

COVID-19 has been defined by an unusual outpouring of public gratitude to many, but not all, essential workers. So, we ask: what impact do these expressions of gratitude have on those who do or do not receive them? We examine how felt public gratitude affects the recovery activities of essential workers in underappreciated occupations during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a sample of 186 corrections officers, we find that felt public gratitude negatively relates to maladaptive recovery activities (e.g., overdrinking, overeating) and positively relates to adaptive recovery activities (e.g., exercise, meditation). Further, we examine the psychological processes (i.e., felt invisibility, perceived prosocial impact, negative/positive affect) through which felt public gratitude affects recovery activities. Finally, we investigate a contextual moderator (i.e., self-isolation) of these relationships. Results show that self-isolation strengthens the negative relationship between felt gratitude and maladaptive activities, but not the positive relationship between felt gratitude and adaptive activities.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Daily Challenging and Supportive Voice Behaviors

Employees contribute to their organizations by voicing concerns. They can provide suggestions that support current practices (supportive voice) and suggestions that challenge how things are done in the organization (challenging voice). Prior research suggests that there are both personal gains and costs associated with individual voice behavior. As such, we attempt to integrate the bright and dark sides of employee voice behavior and focus on the interpersonal daily costs and benefits experienced by employees who engage in these two types of voice behavior. Results from a daily-diary study using experience sampling methodology (ESM) find that challenging and supportive voice have differing personal costs and benefits for the individual employee. We find that supportive voice increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; we also find that supportive voice decreases ego depletion, which then reduces daily job stress. Daily challenging voice likewise increases perceptions of prosocial impact, which in turn increases daily job satisfaction; however, unlike supportive voice, challenging voice increases ego depletion, which then increases daily job stress. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Altruism and Inequality: How Pro-social Pay Discounts Offset the College Pay Premium

In an era of substantial labor market inequality, employers increasingly invoke pro-social mission, corporate responsibility and organizational purpose. Many commentators criticize these prosocial commitments as ineffectual and insincere. In this paper, we argue on the contrary that these employer commitments inadvertently reduce earnings inequality. Building on research on job values, we hypothesize that college graduates are more willing to sacrifice pay for pro-social impact. So employers’ increased emphasis on pro-social job amenity will lower pay disproportionately for higher skill workers. We test this theory with data on the near-universe of online US job postings. We find that pro-social jobs which require a college degree post 10 percent lower wages than standard postings with exactly the same job requirements. Wages at pro-social, but low-education jobs, are no different from comparable regular jobs. This gap reduces the aggregate college wage premium by around 5 percent. We present a variety of supplementary evidence using resumes, survey data and an online experiment with hiring managers. The findings show that employers' embrace of pro-social messages can offset macro-level inequality.

Ambidexterity, prosocial impact, and task performance in cross-functional teams: the role of individual’s team identification

PurposeThis paper examines the motivational influence of individuals’ team identification (TID) on their ambidexterity (TA), prosocial impact (TPS), and task performance (TTP) at the team level of analysis, as well as investigates the role of TA in mediating TID’s relationship with both TTP and TPS.Design/methodology/approachBy using a cross-sectional sample of 102 cross-functional teams with a total of 362 individual members from 22 firms in the customer-facing industries of Indonesia, we analyzed multilevel data and tested hypotheses using aggregated team-level structural equation modeling (SEM).FindingsThis study supports a significant positive relationship between TID and TA. Further, while TA fully mediates the relationship between TID and TTP, TID has a direct influence on TPS.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to filling the gaps in empirical evidence pertaining to the role of identity in motivating employees beyond their formal employment contracts. Their immediate leaders play a crucial role in individuals’ daily work lives and affect how they view their social identifications with their team, which subsequently contributes toward the enhancement of people and organizational performances.Originality/valueOur study offers empirical evidence in support of the identity-enhanced principal-agent model and contributes to the literature on Social Identity Theory with a focus on the individual-group interface. To our knowledge, our study is the first empirical research on the influence of TID on TA, TPT, and TPS across multiple firms in the customer-facing industries.

A field experiment on the impact of beneficiary contact on federal employee perceptions of prosocial impact and social worth

Prior research examining the impact of beneficiary contact has demonstrated that brief interactions with beneficiaries can have large impacts on persistence and performance. However, that research has focused on undergraduate students, call center workers, and volunteers. Little is known about how beneficiary contact can affect public sector employees, like government workers, who have different motivations for their work. In this study, we conduct a cluster-randomized field experiment to examine the influence of beneficiary contact on federal employee perceptions of prosocial impact and social worth and examine how existing opportunities for contact with citizens may moderate the effect. We find that beneficiary contact has a small, though positive and significant influence on social worth, but no effect on prosocial impact. We rely on qualitative interviews to provide additional context for these results and examine implications for relational job design in the public sector.

The self-sacrificial nature of leader identity: Understanding the costs and benefits at work and home.

The leader role carries several complexities, suggesting that identifying closely with one's role as a leader might be both beneficial and costly on a day-to-day basis. We integrate theories of leader identity, self-sacrificial leadership, and self-regulation to develop a conceptual model articulating the manner in which strongly identifying with one's leader role on a daily basis yields benefits (i.e., increased task performance and perceived prosocial impact) and costs (i.e., increased depletion and conflict at home) via increased self-sacrificial leader behavior. Further, we theorize and test whether work addiction moderates the indirect effects of leader identity on the aforementioned processes. Using an experience sampling investigation of 80 leaders who completed 3 surveys per day for 10 workdays (Level 1 n = 645), we found that daily leader identity was positively associated with self-sacrificial leader behavior which, in turn, was positively associated with task performance and perceived prosocial impact (leader benefits) and positively associated with resource depletion and conflict at home (leader costs). Moreover, these effects were stronger for leaders who reported higher (vs. lower) levels of work addiction. In an exploration considering the effects of leader identity on daily well-being, results indicated that leader identity also indirectly helped and hindered psychological detachment from work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction among participants in health-affiliated charity sport events

PurposeUnderstanding factors that enhance participants' satisfaction has become critical to developing effective donor retention strategies for charity sport events (CSEs). However, there is a lack of empirical research on participants' satisfaction with CSEs. The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction among CSE participants and to empirically test the relationships between the proposed constructs.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 238 participants from four Relay For Life (RFL) events organized by the American Cancer Society, North Central Region in the USA. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted to analyze the measurement model and the structural model.FindingsThe results of the structural model indicated that perceived prosocial impact, sense of community and trust in CSE had significant positive effects on CSE satisfaction, while venue quality, knowledge attainment and entertainment value did not positively influence CSE satisfaction. CSE satisfaction had a positive direct effect on participant loyalty to CSE, which had a significant contribution to future participant intent.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide CSE directors and marketers with valuable insights into the process of how to build long-term relationships with participants by identifying factors that influence participants' satisfaction and its consequences.Originality/valueBy measuring the mediating role of CSE satisfaction, this study provides a deeper understanding of the causal pathways from the antecedents to participant loyalty through CSE satisfaction.