Self-interest and other-orientation in organizational behavior: implications for job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative.
In this article, the authors develop the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators hypothesis. The authors argue that many theories on work behavior assume humans to be either self-interested or to be social in nature with strong other-orientation but that this assumption is empirically invalid and may lead to overly narrow models of work behavior. The authors instead propose that self-concern and other-orientation are independent. The authors also propose that job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative are a function of (a) individual-level attributes, such as job characteristics when employees are high in self-concern, and (b) group-level attributes, such as justice climate when employees are high in other-orientation. Three studies involving 4 samples of employees from a variety of organizations support these propositions. Implications are discussed for theory on work behavior and interventions geared toward job enrichment and team-based working.
De Dreu
Carsten K W
CK
Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.k.w.dedreu@uva.nl
Nauta
Aukje
A
D000328:Adult; D001240:Aspirations, Psychological; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D015279:Organizational Culture; D012649:Self Concept; D012919:Social Behavior; D012933:Social Identification; D012935:Social Justice / Q000523:psychology; D012941:Social Responsibility