Prosocial bonuses increase employee satisfaction and team performance.
In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type of bonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations to charity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canada and pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses--shifting the focus from the self to others--can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.
Marketing Department, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America.
Lalin
L
Anik
Lara B
LB
Aknin
Michael I
MI
Norton
Elizabeth W
EW
Dunn
Jordi
J
Quoidbach
D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012919:Social Behavior