Title |
Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance
|
---|---|
Published in |
PLOS ONE, September 2013
|
DOI | 10.1371/journal.pone.0075509 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Lalin Anik, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn, Jordi Quoidbach |
Abstract |
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. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 11 | 25% |
United Kingdom | 2 | 5% |
Finland | 2 | 5% |
Australia | 2 | 5% |
Germany | 1 | 2% |
Canada | 1 | 2% |
Luxembourg | 1 | 2% |
Netherlands | 1 | 2% |
Sweden | 1 | 2% |
Other | 3 | 7% |
Unknown | 19 | 43% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 36 | 82% |
Scientists | 5 | 11% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | 5% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
United States | 4 | 1% |
United Kingdom | 2 | <1% |
Kenya | 1 | <1% |
Canada | 1 | <1% |
Germany | 1 | <1% |
Spain | 1 | <1% |
Romania | 1 | <1% |
Japan | 1 | <1% |
Luxembourg | 1 | <1% |
Other | 0 | 0% |
Unknown | 260 | 95% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 46 | 17% |
Student > Master | 45 | 16% |
Student > Bachelor | 26 | 10% |
Researcher | 19 | 7% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 15 | 5% |
Other | 62 | 23% |
Unknown | 60 | 22% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Business, Management and Accounting | 63 | 23% |
Psychology | 57 | 21% |
Social Sciences | 28 | 10% |
Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 17 | 6% |
Engineering | 6 | 2% |
Other | 33 | 12% |
Unknown | 69 | 25% |