Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

Lalin Anik*, Lara B. Aknin, Michael I. Norton, Elizabeth W. Dunn, J. Quoidbach

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Indexed journal article Articlepeer-review

62 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere75509
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume8
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 18 Sept 2013
Externally publishedYes

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