Relational Job Design and the Motivation to Make a Prosocial Difference

Abstract

This article illustrates how work contexts motivate employees to care about making a positive difference in other people's lives. I introduce a model of relational job design to describe how jobs spark the motivation to make a prosocial difference, and how this motivation affects employees' actions and identities. Whereas existing research focuses on individual differences and the task structures of jobs, I illuminate how the relational architecture of jobs shapes the motivation to make a prosocial difference.Why do I risk my life by running into a burning building, knowing that at any moment . . . the floor may give way, the roof may tumble on me, the fire may engulf me? . . . I'm here for my community, a community I grew up in, a community where I know lots of people, a community that knows me (firefighter; International Firefighters ' Day, 2004 Employees often care about making a positive difference in other people's lives. In the popular press, it is widely assumed that employees want to make a difference (Bornstein, 2004;Everett, 1995;May, 2003;Quinn, 2000). In order to motivate employees, many organizations define their missions in terms of making a difference (Collins & Porras, 1996;Margolis & Walsh, 2001Thompson & Bunderson, 2003). Qualitative research and quantitative research reveal that many employees describe the purpose of their work in terms of making a positive difference in others' lives (Colby, Sippola, & Phelps, 2001;Ruiz-Quintanilla & England, 1996), and research in diverse bodies of literature suggests that this motivation to make a prosocial difference is prevalent in a variety of work contexts. For example, in business, managers often attempt to improve the experiences of organizational members by persuading top administrators to address important issues (Dutton & Ashford, 1993;Meyerson & Scully, 1995) and by taking proactive steps to help proté gé s develop skills and advance their careers (Higgins & Kram, 2001). In public service, employees often place their own lives in jeopardy, beyond the call of duty, in order to protect the welfare of others: police officers chase armed suspects in order to safeguard their communities (Marx, 1980), and ambulance drivers speed through red lights at busy intersections in order to rescue victims (Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes, 2002).Despite the evidence that employees are motivated to make a positive difference in other people's lives, the organizational literature is relatively silent about the sources of this motivation. Existing research suggests that dispositions may shape employees' motivations to make a prosocial difference. Employees who see their work as a calling want their efforts to make

Measuring Knowledge

“…As Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995 as cited in Ipe, 2003) mention: knowledge is about beliefs and commitment. Similarly, Grant (2007) says that at least a certain part of knowledge is based on an individual's judgement and experience. A consequence is that if knowledgeable employees leave the firm, e.g., following better opportunities offered by other firms, the employees will take, at least a part of, their knowledge with them (Fong et al, 2011).…”

Conexão Social Intraorganizacional, Suporte no Trabalho e Identificação Organizacional

“…Logo, torna-se imprescindível a consideração da influência dos laços sociais na identificação organizacional. Nesse tipo de recurso, enquadram-se todos os elementos dentro do contexto social do trabalho que constituem o conteúdo das interações e relacionamentos dos atores organizacionais (Freeney & Fellenz, 2013 Em resumo, tais estudos contribuem no sentido de mostrar de que forma ativos sociais de ordem relacional operam não apenas como insumos para manutenção e renovação da motivação para o trabalho, mas fundamentalmente como mecanismos de ligação do indivíduo com a sua organização (Grant, 2007). Sluss e Ashforth (2008) esclarecem que a associação entre relacionamentos no trabalho e identificação organizacional é estruturada por meio de mecanismos sociais que fazem com que a qualidade do relacionamento com a própria organização afete a identificação com ela (antropomorfizada), mas que os relacionamentos com chefes e colegas também são estendidos em alguma medida à organização.…”

“…Nesse sentido, a identificação é fruto não apenas de atributos organizacionais, como já ressaltado, mas também da arquitetura relacional do trabalho (Jones & Volpe, 2011). Tal arquitetura vai além da estrutura imediata da atividade (i.e., job design) e contempla centralmente as interações e relacionamentos dos atores organizacionais (Grant, 2007).…”

“…Portanto, considerando os potenciais efeitos da arquitetura relacional do trabalho na percepção de unicidade entre indivíduo e organização (Grant, 2007), propõe-se aqui examinar a influência de dois recursos relacionais sobre a identificação organizacional: (a) suporte no trabalho (grau em que organização, chefe e colegas valorizam as contribuições do ator organizacional e se preocupam com seu bem-estar) (Hayton, Carnabuci, & Eisenberger, 2012); e (b) conexão social intraorganizacional (percepção generalizada de que os contatos de interação mais frequente atuam no sentido de fazer o ator organizacional sentir-se incluído na rede intraorganizacional) (Maciel, 2014). Esses dois tipos de recursos foram escolhidos como antecedentes da identificação organizacional em razão de representarem diferentes parâmetros de avaliação de desempenho de papel dos atores sociais no trabalho.…”

Employee Maintenance: Examining Employment Relationships from the Perspective of Managerial Leaders

“…Because fully developing logical arguments for these and other individuals difference factors would make for an unwieldy exercise, we instead focus on a feature of leaders that we believe to be of particular importance in this context À the motivation to make a prosocial difference. Prosocial motivation captures a desire to benefit other people (Grant, 2007). Individuals with stronger prosocial motivation are concerned with others' well-being and are willing to expend effort to be of help to those who need it.…”