When the Meaning of Work Has Disappeared: Experimental Evidence on Employees’ Performance and Emotions

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2016.2426

References

  • Akerlof GA (1982) Labor contracts as partial gift exchange. Quart. J. Econom. 97(4):543–569.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Akerlof GA, Yellen JL (1990) The fair wage-effort hypothesis and unemployment. Quart. J. Econom. 105(2):255–283.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Al-Ubaydli O, List JA (2015) On the generalizability of experimental results in economics. Fréchette GR, Schotter A, eds. Handbook of Experimental Economic Methodology (Oxford University Press, New York), 420–462.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ariely D, Kamenica E, Prelec D (2008) Man’s search for meaning: The case of Legos. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 67(3–4):671–677.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ashraf N, Bandiera O, Jack BK (2014) No margin, no mission? A field experiment on incentives for pro-social tasks. J. Public Econom. 120:1–17.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bäker A, Mechtel M (2013) The role of task meaning on output in groups: Experimental evidence. IAAEU Discussion Paper 08/2013, Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union, Trier University, Trier, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Becker SO, Messer D, Wolter SC (2013) A gift is not always a gift: Heterogeneity and long-term effects in a gift exchange experiment. Economica 80(318):345–371.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Berg J, Dickhaut J, McCabe K (1995) Trust, reciprocity, and social history. Games Econom. Behav. 10(1):122–142.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bradler C, Dur R, Neckermann S, Non A (2016) Employee recognition and performance: A field experiment. Management Sci. 62(11):3085–3099.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Carpenter J, Gong E (2016) Motivating agents: How much does the mission matter? J. Labor Econom. 34(1):211–236.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Chandler D, Kapelner A (2013) Breaking monotony with meaning: Motivation in crowdsourcing markets. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 90:123–133.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Compte O, Postlewaite A (2004) Confidence-enhanced performance. Amer. Econom. Rev. 94(5):1536–1557.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Costa PT, McCrae RR (1989) The NEO PI/FFI Manual supplement (Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, FL).Google Scholar
  • Falk A, Heckman JJ (2009) Lab experiments are a major source of knowledge in the social sciences. Science 326(5952):535–538.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Falk A, Ichino A (2006) Clean evidence on peer effects. J. Labor Econom. 24(1):39–57.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fehr E, Kirchsteiger G, Riedl A (1993) Does fairness prevent market clearing? An experimental investigation. Quart. J. Econom. 108(2):437–459.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fehr E, Kirchsteiger G, Riedl A (1998) Gift exchange and reciprocity in competitive experimental markets. Eur. Econom. Rev. 42(1):1–34.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fehrler S, Kosfeld M (2014) Pro-social missions and worker motivation: An experimental study. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 100:99–110.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fried Y, Ferris GR (1987) The validity of the job characteristics model: A review and meta-analysis. Personnel Psych. 40(2):287–322.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gächter S, Fehr E (2002) Fairness in the labour market. Bolle F, Lehmann-Waffenschmidt M, eds. Surveys in Experimental Economics Bargaining, Cooperation and Election Stock Markets (Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany), 95–132.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gneezy U, List JA (2006) Putting behavioral economics to work: Testing for gift exchange in labor markets using field experiments. Econometrica 74(5):1365–1384.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grant AM (2008) The significance of task significance: Job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions. J. Appl. Psych. 93(1):108–124.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hackman JR, Oldham GR (1976) Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organ. Behav. Human Performance 16:250–279.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Harrison GW, List JA (2004) Field experiments. J. Econom. Literature 42(4):1009–1055.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hennig-Schmidt H, Sadrieh A, Rockenbach B (2010) In search of workers’ real effort reciprocity—A field and a laboratory experiment. J. Eur. Econom. Assoc. 8(4):817–837.Google Scholar
  • Humphrey SE, Nahrgang JD, Morgeson FP (2007) Integrating motivational, social, and contextual work design features: A meta-analytic summary and theoretical extension of the work design literature. J. Appl. Psych. 92(5):1332–1356.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Jamison J, Karlan D, Schechter L (2008) To deceive or not to deceive: The effect of deception on behavior in future laboratory experiments. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 68(3–4):477–488.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Jeworrek S, Mertins V (2014) Wage delegation in the field. IAAEU Discussion Paper 08/2014, Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union, Trier University, Trier, Germany.Google Scholar
  • Kosfeld M, Neckermann S (2011) Getting more work for nothing? Symbolic awards and worker performance. Amer. Econom. J.: Microeconomics 3(3):86–99.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kosfeld M, Neckermann S, Yang X (2018) The effects of financial and recognition incentives across work contexts: The role of meaning. Econom. Inquiry 55(1):237–247.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Krohne HW, Egloff B, Kohlmann CW, Tausch A (1996) Untersuchung mit einer deutschen Version der “Positive and Negative Affect Schedule” (PANAS). Diagnostica 42(2):139–156.Google Scholar
  • Kube S, Maréchal MA, Puppe C (2012) The currency of reciprocity—Gift-exchange in the workplace. Amer. Econom. Rev. 102(4):1644–1662.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Levitt SD, List JA (2007) What do laboratory experiments measuring social preferences reveal about the real world? J. Econom. Perspect. 21(2):153–174.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Loewenstein G (1999) Because it is there: The challenge of mountaineering for utility theory. Kyklos 52(3):315–343.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Maniadis Z, Tufano F, List JA (2014) One swallow doesn’t make a summer: New evidence on anchoring effects. Amer. Econom. Rev. 104(1):277–290.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rick S, Loewenstein G (2008) The role of emotion in economic behavior. Lewis M, Haviand Jones J, Feldmann Barett L, eds. Handbook of Emotions, 3rd ed. (Guilford, New York), 138–156.Google Scholar
  • Rosso BD, Dekas KH, Wrzesniewski A (2010) On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Res. Organ. Behav. 30:91–127.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Searle R, Den Hartog DN, Weibel A, Gillespie N, Six F, Hatzakis T, Skinner D (2011) Trust in the employer: The role of high-involvement work practices and procedural justice in European organizations. Internat. J. Human Resource Management 22(5):1069–1092.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Tonin M, Vlassopoulos M (2010) Disentangling the sources of pro-socially motivated effort: A field experiment. J. Public Econom. 94(11–12):1086–1092.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Watson D, Clark LA, Tellegen A (1988) Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. J. Personality Soc. Psych. 54(6):1063–1070.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Weller I, Matiaske W (2009) Persönlichkeit und Personalforschung. Vorstellung einer Kurzskala zur Messung der “Big Five”. Zeitschrift für Personalforschung 23(3):258–266.Google Scholar
  • Zizzo DJ (2010) Experimenter demand effects in economic experiments. Experiment. Econom. 13(1):75–98.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.