Employees without a Cause: The Motivational Effects of Prosocial Impact in Public Service

ABSTRACT

Public service employees often lack opportunities to see the prosocial impact of their jobs—how their efforts make a difference in other people's lives. Drawing on recent job design theory and research, I tested the hypothesis that the motivation of public service employees can be enhanced by connecting them to their prosocial impact. In a longitudinal quasi-experiment, a group of fundraising callers serving a public university met a fellowship student who benefited from the funds raised by the organization. A full month later, these callers increased significantly in the number of pledges and the amount of donation money that they obtained, whereas callers in a control group did not change on these measures. I discuss the implications of these results for theory, research, and practice related to work motivation in public service.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For constructive feedback on previous drafts, I am grateful to Jim Perry, Annie Hondeghem, two anonymous reviewers, Sue Ashford, Rick Bagozzi, Jane Dutton, Fiona Lee, and members of the Impact Lab. For assistance with data collection and entry, I thank Jenny Deveau and Howard Heevner. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the American Psychological Association Early Research Award, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Lee Hakel Scholarship provided valuable financial support for the preparation of this article.

Notes

Notes. As discussed in the text, repeated-measures ANOVAs indicated significant interactions between time and condition on pledges obtained per week, F(1, 42) = 9.27, p < .01, and donation money obtained per week, F(1, 43) = 16.78, p < .001. Paired-samples t tests within each condition showed that callers in the prosocial impact condition increased significantly in pledges obtained per week, t(21) = 4.87, p < .001, and donation money obtained per week, t(22) = 4.79, p < .001; conversely, callers in the control condition did not change significantly in pledges obtained per week, t(21) = 1.34, ns, nor in donation money obtained per week, t(21) = 1.86, ns.

Not all contact with beneficiaries is expected to be beneficial (e.g., Cordes and Dougherty 1993; Grant 2007). The complications of unpleasant contact and negative feedback are discussed later in this article.

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Notes on contributors

Adam M. Grant

Adam M. Grant ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and his B.A. in psychology from Harvard University. His research focuses on job design, work motivation, prosocial and proactive behaviors, and employee well-being. His research has earned awards from the National Science Foundation, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Academy of Management Journal and the International Public Management Journal.