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Pro-social missions and worker motivation: An experimental study

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  • Fehrler, Sebastian
  • Kosfeld, Michael

Abstract

Do employees work harder if their job has the right mission? In a laboratory labor market experiment, we test whether subjects provide higher effort if they can choose the mission of their job. We observe that subjects do not provide higher effort than in a control treatment. Surprised by this finding, we run a second experiment in which subjects can choose whether they want to work on a job with their preferred mission or not. A subgroup of agents (roughly one third) is willing to do so even if this option is more costly than choosing the alternative job. Moreover, we find that these subjects provide substantially higher effort. These results suggest that some workers can be motivated by missions and that selection into mission-oriented organizations is an important factor to explain empirical findings of lower wages and high motivation in these organizations.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Volume (Year): 100 (2014)
Issue (Month): C ()
Pages: 99-110

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:100:y:2014:i:c:p:99-110
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo

Keywords: Motivation; Sorting; Labor; Effort; Organization; Non-monetary incentives; NGOs;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
  • J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
  • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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  1. Canice Prendergast, 2007. "The Motivation and Bias of Bureaucrats," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(1), pages 180-196, March.
  2. Kosfeld, Michael & von Siemens, Ferdinand, 2007. "Competition, Cooperation, and Corporate Culture," IZA Discussion Papers 2927, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Buurman, Margaretha & Delfgaauw, Josse & Dur, Robert & Van den Bossche, Seth, 2012. "Public sector employees: Risk averse and altruistic?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 279-291.
  4. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2012. "Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment," CEU Working Papers 2012_12, Department of Economics, Central European University, revised 20 Jul 2012.
  5. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2003. "Competition and incentives with motivated agents," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2202, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  6. Gregg, Paul & Grout, Paul A. & Ratcliffe, Anita & Smith, Sarah & Windmeijer, Frank, 2011. "How important is pro-social behaviour in the delivery of public services?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 758-766.
  7. Karine Nyborg & Tao Zhang, 2013. "Is Corporate Social Responsibility Associated with Lower Wages?," Environmental & Resource Economics, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 55(1), pages 107-117, May.
  8. Urs Fischbacher, 2007. "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 171-178, June.
  9. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur, 2008. "Incentives and Workers' Motivation in the Public Sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 171-191, 01.
  10. Francois, Patrick, 2000. "'Public service motivation' as an argument for government provision," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 275-299, November.
  11. Bruggen, Alexander & Strobel, Martin, 2007. "Real effort versus chosen effort in experiments," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 232-236, August.
  12. Tonin, Mirco & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2010. "Disentangling the sources of pro-socially motivated effort: A field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 1086-1092, December.
  13. Jacobsen, Karin & Eika, Kari H. & Helland, Leif & Lind, Jo Thori & Nyborg, Karine, 2011. "Are Nurses More Altruistic than Real Estate Brokers?," IZA Discussion Papers 5721, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Engelmann Dirk & Strobel Martin, 2002. "Inequality Aversion, Efficiency, and Maximin Preferences in Simple Distribution Experiments," Research Memorandum 015, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
  15. Delfgaauw, Josse & Dur, Robert, 2007. "Signaling and screening of workers' motivation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 605-624, April.
  16. Jeffrey Carpenter & Caitlin Knowles Myers, 2010. "Why Volunteer? Evidence on the Role of Altruism, Image, and Incentives," Middlebury College Working Paper Series 1023, Middlebury College, Department of Economics.
  17. David Burns & Jane Reid & Mark Toncar & Jeffrey Fawcett & Cynthia Anderson, 2006. "Motivations to volunteer: The role of altruism," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 3(2), pages 79-91, December.
  18. Avinash Dixit, 2002. "# Incentives and Organizations in the Public Sector: An Interpretative Review," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(4), pages 696-727.
  19. Brekke, Kjell Arne & Nyborg, Karine, 2008. "Attracting responsible employees: Green production as labor market screening," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 509-526, December.
  20. Huck Steffen & Rasul Imran, 2010. "Transactions Costs in Charitable Giving: Evidence from Two Field Experiments," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-35, April.
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Cited by:

  1. Robin Zoutenbier, 2014. "The Impact of Matching Mission Preferences on Well-being at Work," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-036/I, Tinbergen Institute.
  2. Gerhards, Leonie, 2015. "The incentive effects of missions—Evidence from experiments with NGO employees and students," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 252-262.
  3. Lea Cassar, 2014. "Job mission as a substitute for monetary incentives: experimental evidence," ECON - Working Papers 177, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
  4. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2014. "Corporate Philanthropy and Productivity: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 4778, CESifo Group Munich.
  5. Banuri, Sheheryar & Keefer, Philip, 2016. "Pro-social motivation, effort and the call to public service," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 139-164.
  6. Llopis,Óscar & Azagra-Caro,Joaquín M., 2015. "Who do you care about? Scientists’ personality traits and perceived beneficiary impact," INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Working Paper Series 201503, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV).
  7. Mirco Tonin & Michael Vlassopoulos, 2012. "Social Incentives Matter: Evidence from an Online Real Effort Experiment," CEU Working Papers 2012_12, Department of Economics, Central European University, revised 20 Jul 2012.
  8. Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Gong, Erick, 2013. "Motivating Agents: How Much Does the Mission Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 7602, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  9. Hannes Koppel & Tobias Regner, 2014. "Corporate Social Responsibility in the work place," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 347-370, September.
  10. Gary Charness & Ramón Cobo-Reyes & Angela Sanchez, 2014. "The effect of charitable giving on workers’ performance. Experimental evidence," ThE Papers 14/06, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
  11. Fehrler, Sebastian & Kosfeld, Michael, 2013. "Can You Trust the Good Guys? Trust Within and Between Groups with Different Missions," IZA Discussion Papers 7411, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  12. Michael Kosfeld & Susanne Neckermann & Xiaolan Yang, 2014. "Knowing that You Matter, Matters! The Interplay of Meaning, Monetary Incentives, and Worker Recognition," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-043/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
  13. Fehrler, Sebastian & Przepiorka, Wojtek, 2016. "Choosing a Partner for Social Exchange: Charitable Giving as a Signal of Trustworthiness," IZA Discussion Papers 9998, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  14. Kosfeld, Michael & Neckermann, Susanne & Yang, Xiaolan, 2016. "The Effects of Financial and Recognition Incentives Across Work Contexts: The Role of Meaning," CEPR Discussion Papers 11221, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  15. Karine Nyborg, 2014. "Do responsible employers attract responsible employees?," IZA World of Labor, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), pages 17, May.
  16. Tobias Regner & Hannes Koppel, 2015. "What drives motivated agents? The 'right' mission or sharing it with the principal," Jena Economic Research Papers 2015-022, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
  17. David Ong & Chun-Lei Yang, 2014. "Pro Bono Work and Trust in Expert Fields," CESifo Working Paper Series 4897, CESifo Group Munich.

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