Relational job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference

This article illustrates how work contexts motivate employees to care about making a positive difference in other people’s lives. I introduce a model of relational job design to describe how jobs spark the motivation to make a prosocial difference, and how this motivation affects employees ’ actions and identities. Whereas existing research fo-cuses on individual differences and the task structures of jobs, I illuminate how the relational architecture of jobs shapes the motivation to make a prosocial difference. Why do I risk my life by running into a burning building, knowing that at any moment... the floor may give way, the roof may tumble on me, the fire may engulf me?... I’m here for my community, a community I grew up in, a communitywhere I know lots of people, a community that knows me (fire-fighter; International Firefighters ’ Day, 2004). On my bad days I feel I have wasted three years working here in the ghetto.... You can work four days straight, sixteen hours a day... until your eyes start falling out.... we charge one-tenth of what a lawyer would normally charge.... It’s just physically too much—and emotionally.... You’re aware of the suffering of your client.... You know the pressure he’s under. It makes you all the more committed. We don’t help them only with their legal problems. If they’re suffering from a psycho-logical problem we try to hook them up with a psychiatrist.... You get to know them intimately. We’re very close.... The people I work with here are my life (inner-city attorney; Terkel, 1972: 538– 539). Employees often care about making a positive difference in other people’s lives. In the popular press, it is widely assumed that employees want to make a difference (Bornstein, 2004; Everett, 1995; May, 2003; Quinn, 2000). In order to moti-vate employees, many organizations define their missions in terms of making a differenc