“I want to serve but the public does not understand:” Prosocial motivation, image discrepancies, and proactivity in public safety

Publication date: September 2019Source: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Volume 154Author(s): Shefali V. Patil, R. David LebelAbstractScholars typically find that prosocial motivation is positively related to employee proactivity. However, we argue that in highly visible contexts such as public safety, this relationship is contingent on how employees think the public sees their jobs. Specifically, drawing on image discrepancy theories, we hypothesize that the relationship between prosocial motivation and proactive behavior is weakened when employees believe that the public fails to understand the difficulties of their jobs. This interaction is supported in multisource studies of 183 police officers across six agencies (Study 1a) and 238 firefighters across eight stations (Study 1b). In a time-separated, multisource study of 203 police officers at a metropolitan agency (Study 2), we further find that the interaction indirectly relates to proactivity via employees’ physical engagement. Overall, our studies highlight the importance of accounting not only for employees’ prosocial motivation, but also their perceived public image, especially in highly visible, high-risk contexts.

Source: Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes - August 14, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research