Self-oriented Motives Research Articles

Examining Chinese adult children’s motivations for traveling with their parents

This study examines Chinese adult children’s holiday travel with their parents as a unique type of family travel. A netnographic examination of 158 detailed online blogs was conducted to explore the adult children’s motivations for taking such travels. The results of the netnographic study revealed that the motivations for traveling with their parents by Chinese young adults include health and recovery, novelty and knowledge, commemoration and celebration, dream fulfillment, family togetherness and relationship, compensation and reward, expression of filial piety, escape and relaxation, and pleasure seeking. These motivations can be classified as parent-oriented motivations, family-oriented motivations and self-oriented motivations. The study identifies features of the adult children-senior parents’ travel market and offers insights about the continuity of family roles in the social context of an aging Chinese society. Marketing implications for this growing Chinese market are provided.

A Study on the Effect of Economic Stress on Aging Anxiety among Elderly: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Age and Self-oriented Motivation of Volunteering

A Study on the Effect of Economic Stress on Aging Anxiety among Elderly: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Age and Self-oriented Motivation of Volunteering

What drives employees to participate in corporate volunteering programs?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how some of the key aspects of employee motivation and their perception of volunteering programs impact their participation in corporate volunteering. Specifically, this study argues that employee’s self-oriented motives to significantly influence employee participation than other-oriented motives. Similarly, this study also hypothesized that the corporate volunteering program characteristics to significantly relate to employee participation in corporate volunteering.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 461 employee volunteers representing various industries across four different locations in India. A self-reported method was used to collect the data by administering the questionnaires.FindingsThe structural equation modeling results indicate that other-oriented motives (altruistic) and characteristics of corporate volunteering programs to significantly predict employee participation in corporate volunteering and self-oriented motives did not show significance in predicting employee participation.Research limitations/implicationsResults suggest that employee participation in volunteering is a function of not merely employee motivation but also how the volunteering programs are conceptualized and implemented.Originality/valueThis research study moves beyond mere role of employee motives analysis and considered the role of characteristics of corporate volunteering programs to impact employee volunteering behavior. Further, it highlights there is a differential impact of self- and other-oriented motives in predicting employee participation.

Are Ethical Consumers Happy? Effects of Ethical Consumers' Motivations Based on Empathy Versus Self-orientation on Their Happiness

Studies on fair-trade consumption have concentrated on economic, demographic, and ethical issues, and research on consumers’ moral emotions and self-orientation is limited. Although consumers’ satisfaction with their consumption has been emphasized in consumer studies and marketing, little substantive empirical research has addressed ethical consumers’ emotional satisfaction and the link between their motivations and happiness. This study focused on ethical consumers who regularly purchase fair-trade coffee to understand their moral emotions and self-orientation as motivations for fair-trade consumption and determine whether empathy and self-oriented motivations led to their happiness. A survey was conducted on 471 regular purchasers of at least one cup of fair-trade coffee weekly or a pack of fair-trade coffee beans monthly. The survey data were analyzed using partial least squares. The results showed that guilt was positively associated with empathy, which positively influenced self-actualization. Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, empathy did not elicit consumers’ happiness. As expected, narcissism affected self-actualization, which in turn elicited happiness. Happiness was positively associated with customers’ repurchase intentions for fair-trade coffee. The results of this study demonstrate the strong associations of the paths from narcissism to self-actualization, self-actualization to happiness, and self-actualization to repurchase intentions compared to the paths from guilt to empathy, empathy to happiness, and empathy to repurchase intentions. Contrary to common expectations, the results indicate that self-oriented motivations focused on self-actualization rather than moral emotions (guilt and empathy) play key roles in ethical consumers’ happiness with fair-trade consumption.

Antecedents and Outcomes of Older Adults’ Motivations to Volunteer With Experience Corps®

This study examined factors associated with motivations to volunteer among older adults and how these motivations related to the subsequent volunteer experience. Focusing on one large national program, Experience Corps (EC), the authors interviewed 510 volunteers at the time they first volunteered for EC and again after one year of service. Eighty-seven percent were females, with ages ranging from 50 to 93 years. Volunteers were asked why they volunteered for this program; open-ended responses were coded into four types of motivations. Results showed that 33% reported altruistic motives; another 36% reported a mixture of altruistic and self-oriented motives, followed by self-oriented motives (16%) and practical features of the program (15%). Motivational type was regressed on demographic antecedents as well as volunteer history and receiving a stipend. Findings showed that African Americans and males were more likely to be motivated by altruism, whereas non-African Americans were more likely to report volunteering because of practical features of the program. Women were more likely than men to report being motivated by altruistic and self-benefit motives. Thus, recruitment messages regarding the altruistic nature of the volunteer work could be targeted toward older African Americans. Further, appealing to the possibility of doing good for others while doing good for oneself may appeal to older women. In regards to outcomes, motivation type did not affect the volunteer experience, suggesting that retaining volunteers may require different programmatic efforts than recruiting, such as providing supervision and recognizing volunteers’ contributions.

Looking good or doing good? Motivations for organisational citizenship behaviour in Turkish versus South Korean collectivists.

The purpose of this article is to explore potential motivations to perform organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) in collectivistic Turkish and South Korean societies. Although collectivism has been proposed as a predictor of OCB, previous research has not fully explored the possibility that collectivistic individuals' OCB may result from their self-oriented motives (i.e. social desirability concerns) or their future-oriented motives (i.e. long-term orientation concerns). We predicted that OCB stems from social desirability concerns among Turkish collectivists, meaning it is used for maintaining a positive image within the organisation. However, for South Korean collectivists, we predicted that OCB stems from their long-term orientation concerns, meaning it is used to make the organisation better. The results were in line with our predictions, and the findings are discussed in terms of their implications for firms in collectivistic societies.

On the Creative Edge: Exploring Motivations for Creating Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Content Online.

The last decade has witnessed an exponential growth in user-generated online content featuring Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI), including photography, digital video, poems, blogging, and drawings. Although the increasing visibility of NSSI content has evoked public concern over potential health risks, little research has investigated why people are drawn to create and publish such content. This article reports the findings from a qualitative analysis of online interviews with 17 individuals who produce NSSI content. A thematic analysis of participants' narratives identified two prominent motives: self-oriented motivation (to express self and creativity, to reflect on NSSI experience, to mitigate self-destructive urges) and social motivation (to support similar others, to seek out peers, to raise social awareness). Participants also reported a double-edged impact of NSSI content both as a trigger and a deterrent to NSSI.

Motivations to Volunteer and Their Associations With Volunteers’ Well-Being

Volunteerism is a key form of community involvement that can provide both physical and mental health benefits for volunteers as well as positive outcomes for the community. However, volunteers become involved for different reasons and recent studies suggest that other-oriented volunteers may accrue greater health benefits than self-oriented volunteers. To investigate this possibility, we surveyed 4,085 Australian volunteers about their motivations using the Volunteer Functions Inventory, together with their well-being using measures of self-esteem, well-being, self-efficacy, social connectedness, and social trust. As predicted, these individual differences in well-being proved to be differentially associated with other-oriented and self-oriented motivations. Furthermore, other-oriented motives were positively correlated, and self-oriented motives were negatively correlated, with satisfaction and intentions to continue. We discuss implications of these patterns for organizations that work with volunteers.

Fatores e motivações associados à escolha da especialidade pediatria

Para entender a carência de pediatras em certas regiões do País, objetivamos identificar fatores associados à escolha da Pediatria e a intenção de retorno à cidade de origem. Aplicamos um questionário em uma universidade privada do Rio de Janeiro que usualmente tem metade dos estudantes de Medicina oriundos de outros Estados. Analisaram-se associações entre escolha da Pediatria e características sociodemográficas, intenção de retorno à cidade de origem, influência de terceiros e motivações para a carreira médica, classificadas como "indispensabilidade", "ajuda às pessoas", "ser respeitado" e "interesse científico". Dos 244 internos respondentes, 99 (41%) optaram pela Pediatria. Dos 110 naturais de outros Estados, 56% dos que escolheram Pediatria não tinham intenção de retornar à cidade natal, comparados aos 35% na Clínica Médica (OR = 2,41, IC 95% = 1,04 - 5,59). As motivações "indispensabilidade" (r s = - 0,23; p < 0,000) e "respeito" (r s = - 0,21; p = 0,001) foram negativamente correlacionadas à escolha da Pediatria. O cenário alerta para a possível manutenção da má distribuição de pediatras no País e sugerimos medidas de incentivo ao retorno à cidade natal, já que motivações autocentradas movem menos os candidatos à especialidade.

Boring but important: a self-transcendent purpose for learning fosters academic self-regulation.

Many important learning tasks feel uninteresting and tedious to learners. This research proposed that promoting a prosocial, self-transcendent purpose could improve academic self-regulation on such tasks. This proposal was supported in 4 studies with over 2,000 adolescents and young adults. Study 1 documented a correlation between a self-transcendent purpose for learning and self-reported trait measures of academic self-regulation. Those with more of a purpose for learning also persisted longer on a boring task rather than giving in to a tempting alternative and, many months later, were less likely to drop out of college. Study 2 addressed causality. It showed that a brief, one-time psychological intervention promoting a self-transcendent purpose for learning could improve high school science and math grade point average (GPA) over several months. Studies 3 and 4 were short-term experiments that explored possible mechanisms. They showed that the self-transcendent purpose manipulation could increase deeper learning behavior on tedious test review materials (Study 3), and sustain self-regulation over the course of an increasingly boring task (Study 4). More self-oriented motives for learning--such as the desire to have an interesting or enjoyable career--did not, on their own, consistently produce these benefits (Studies 1 and 4).

Volunteer’s motives and subjective well-being

Previous research has analysed the role of volunteers’ motives on the time of permanence in the organization. The findings had shown that self-oriented motivations were more important than other oriented motivations. In this study, the main objective was to analyse the motives associated to the permanence in the voluntary service, as well as the volunteer’s subjective well-being. 153 volunteers (mean age: 36.20) completed a list about initial motives for volunteering and measures of life satisfaction, happiness, and positive and negative emotions. The time of permanence was associated to the desire of doing something useful, being at peace with themselves, moral obligation, request of the organization, previous experiences and self-actualization. Relationships between motives and subjective well-being varied in each indicator. Happiness was associated to the request of the organization, and negative emotions were related to previous private experiences. Relationships between motives of volunteering, life satisfaction and positive emotions were not found.

Aspiring to become a therapist: Personal strengths and challenges, influences, motivations, and expectations of future psychotherapists

Ten female students who were considering therapy as a career path wrote self-reflection papers and were interviewed regarding their career choice. Consensual qualitative research was used to analyze the data. These participants all indicated a passion for helping others, believed in the importance of giving back, and had prior experiences in helping activities. They considered themselves to have personal helping-related strengths (e.g. empathy) as well as challenges (e.g. avoidance of interpersonal conflict), and worried about potential problems they would encounter as therapists (e.g. being too emotionally invested). Participants expressed both other-oriented (e.g. to help others who had similar painful experiences) and self-oriented (e.g. to help self) motivations for wanting to become therapists. Implications for helping undergraduate students reflect about therapy as a career choice are offered.

Expressing the “True Self” on Facebook

The present research examined correlates of “true self” expression to offline friends on Facebook. The “true self” (McKenna et al., 2002) consists of qualities an individual currently possesses but does not normally express to others. In Study 1, 184 undergraduates completed an online survey assessing “true self” expression to their friends online and reported the frequency of various Facebook activities. True self expression was positively correlated with using Facebook for communicating with others, general self-disclosure, emotional disclosure, attention-seeking, and acceptance-seeking, but was unrelated to seeking connection with and expressing caring for others. In Study 2, 41 undergraduates completed the “true self” measure and their Facebook profiles were saved and coded. True self expression was positively correlated with frequency of posting on others’ walls, but not posting on one’s own wall or receiving posts from others. Finally, true self expression was positively associated with the level of personal disclosure of participants’ wall posts. These results suggest that those who feel able to express their “true self” online are more active on Facebook, have more self-oriented motivations for posting, and post more personally revealing and emotional content.

Are taxpayers, who pay their taxes, all cooperative citizens?

France does not have a classical withholding tax system; taxes are calculated on the basis of the previous year declaration of income. Moreover, France is, in terms of corruption (Transparency index, Corruption Perceptions Index, 2011), in the 25th row, behind many of the European countries, which indicates a very high perception of corruption in France, compared to the other European countries. In this article, the focus is on the psychological effect of this system and its consequences in terms of tax compliance versus tax evasion, which can be seen in terms of cooperation versus competition. This study, in line with E. Kirchler’s research on tax evasion, investigates the links between powers of authorities, trust in authorities, and tax compliance in the French context. Moreover, along with Kirchler et al.’s (2008) work, our goal was to test the ‘slippery slope’ framework on tax compliance with a sample of French citizens. In order to test it, trust in authorities and power of authorities were manipulated with four different scenarios (high trust/high power; high trust/low power; low trust/high power; low trust/low power). French university students in economics (320) were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions, in which they read one of the scenarios and had to answer a questionnaire composed of 24 items. In this article, tax compliance is approached in terms of cooperation versus competition; for this, we examined: if citizens comply in a cooperative way; if they have a competitive attitude towards tax authorities, indicating that they try to evade taxes as much as possible, thus go against the collective goal because they have self-oriented motivations; or if they have a competitive attitude towards authorities because they do not consent government’s policies. This study, which had two main facets, enabled identifying tax compliance in terms of trust in authorities and power of authorities, and allowed identifying cases in which conformity is voluntary, which implies cooperation; or forced, which implies that authorities impose compliance. Based on our results, the article concludes that both an increase of trust in the authorities and an increase of power of the authorities create an increase of tax compliance, which tends to show that, based on distrust, fraud is non-cooperative, and can be sometimes considered as competitive, as it is placing self-interest into the foreground instead of public interest.

Volunteer work in youth organizations: predicting distinct aspects of volunteering behavior from self‐ and other‐oriented motives

AbstractThis study examined the impact of motivational underpinnings of volunteerism on self‐reported volunteer behaviors and satisfaction. Data from 153 volunteers in youth organizations supported a two‐dimensional structure of self‐ and other‐oriented motives. Self‐oriented motives were more important in explaining in‐role volunteer behavior, while other‐oriented concerns were also important in predicting extra‐role volunteer behavior and satisfaction. These findings are discussed in the context of a functional approach to volunteerism and linked to recent findings regarding the role of self‐ and other‐oriented motives from the organizational literature. Suggestions for recruiting and motivating young volunteers in youth development organizations are presented.

Venturing for Others with Heart and Head: How Compassion Encourages Social Entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship has emerged as a complex yet promising organizational form in which market-based methods are used to address seemingly intractable social issues, but its motivations remain undertheorized. Research asserts that compassion may supplement traditional self-oriented motivations in encouraging social entrepreneurship. We draw on research on compassion and prosocial motivation to build a model of three mechanisms (integrative thinking, prosocial cost-benefit analysis, and commitment to alleviating others' suffering) that transform compassion into social entrepreneurship, and we identify the institutional conditions under which they are most likely to do so. We conclude by discussing the model's contribution to and implications for the positive organizational scholarship literature, entrepreneurship literature, and social entrepreneurship literature.

The role of future work goal motives in adolescent identity development: A longitudinal mixed-methods investigation

Theories of adolescent identity development often emphasize the importance of adolescents’ future work goals, yet these theories rarely distinguish the self-oriented motives (enjoying or being a good fit for one’s work) from the beyond-the-self-oriented motives (having a positive impact on the world beyond the self) that underlie them. The present article explored the impact and development of both types of motives. Using longitudinal, mixed-methods data from middle school and high school students (N=99), the present article found that: (1) adolescents generated both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their future work goals, often simultaneously; (2) adolescents who held both self-oriented and beyond-the-self-oriented motives for their work goals were more likely to experience higher levels of purpose and meaning over a 2-year period than those who held neither; (3) school assignments that asked students to reflect on their work goals were positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among middle school students; and (4) support from friends was positively related only to the development of self-oriented motives for work goals among high school students.

Fostering integrative community leadership

This longitudinal field study examined the determinants of integrative, volunteer community leadership. Using a sample of 1443 participants in 43 community leadership programs across North America, we linked altruistic, social- and self-oriented motives to the breadth of individuals' volunteer involvement in their communities. Individuals who engaged in volunteer community leadership reported more altruistic motives (i.e., they volunteered because they were concerned about others). High levels of voluntary community leadership were also associated with social motives, such as getting involved in the community because friends or important others think doing so is important. Regardless of their motives, participants engaged in their communities in new ways following participation in a community leadership program, suggesting that such programs foster integrative community leadership. Programs that focused on team building as part of their curriculum were the most successful in fostering new community leadership activities, and programs that focused on knowledge and awareness of the community were effective in increasing participants' knowledge and awareness of the community. Considered as a whole, results of this study suggest that community leadership programs can increase both knowledge and awareness of the community and actual engagement in the community for community members who choose to participate in such programs.

Why Would You Do It? Age and Motivation to Become a Fire Service Volunteer

AbstractAustralian communities are very dependent on volunteer-based fire services for protection against fires and other hazards. However, overall volunteer numbers have declined significantly over the past decade, due mostly to the impact of economic and demographic changes on Australian society. One effect of these is that volunteer fire service memberships are ageing. Little is known with certainty about what motivates individuals to become fire service volunteers. A survey of 455 CFA volunteers suggested that those who volunteer do so because of a mix of community-safety, community-contribution, and self-oriented motivations. It appears that younger volunteers are more likely to be motivated by self-oriented perceived benefits from volunteering compared with older volunteers. However, they are no less motivated, on average, by community-safety concerns and community contribution desires than are older volunteers.

The egocentric nature of procedural justice: Social value orientation as moderator of reactions to decision-making procedures

In four studies, the authors investigated the individual-oriented versus social-oriented nature of procedural justice effects by comparing fairness-based responses to decision-making procedures among proself versus prosocial oriented individuals. In Studies 1 through 3, we measured participants’ social value orientation and manipulated whether or not they were granted or denied voice in a decision-making process. Results consistently revealed that the effects of voice versus no-voice on fairness-based perceptions, emotions, and behavioral intentions were significantly more pronounced for individuals with proself orientations than for individuals with prosocial orientations. These findings were extended in Study 4, a field study in which perceived procedural justice was a stronger predictor of satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors among proselfs than among prosocials. These findings suggest that procedural justice effects can be accounted for by self-oriented motives or needs, rather than prosocial motives that are often conceptualized as being associated with justice.