Social Motivation (Frontiers of Social Psychology) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Behavioral Sciences
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2011-05-10T14:00:00+00:00

LINKS TO SOCIAL ACTION

The motivations for volunteerism have parallels in other forms of social action, such as civic and political participation, social movements, and organizational citizenship (see Snyder & Omoto, 2007). In an attempt to better understand why people become involved in civic and political causes, Verba, Schlozman, and Brady (1995) identified four categories of benefits that people may seek from civic participation. These were selective material benefits (e.g., furthering one’s own career), selective social gratification (e.g., being with other people), selective civic gratification (e.g., making the community or nation a better place), and collective outcomes (e.g., influencing government policy). These outcomes reflect both specific benefits to individual activists and collective benefits for the larger society. Through interviews with political activists, Teske (1997) also identified a diverse set of motives that give rise to political participation, including growth and development as a person, increased self-esteem, good feelings derived from doing the right thing, and gaining community.

Motivations have also been the focus of attempts to understand social movement participation, or why people engage in collective attempts to change disadvantageous conditions (e.g., fighting on behalf of targets of prejudice and discrimination, for those who have limited economic and employment opportunities, and for people who have limited access to educational opportunities and health care). Klandermans (1997) proposed three classes of motivation for social movement participation, each arising from different expected costs and benefits. The collective motive involves the shared benefits sought from the social movement (e.g., equal rights, higher wages). The normative motive has to do with expectations for how significant others will react to an individual’s social movement participation (e.g., Will others approve or disapprove? Offer praise or criticism?). And finally, the reward motive involves individual and personal costs and benefits of participation (e.g., taking time away from work, making new friends). The role of this set of motives has been documented among participants in various social movements, including most prominently in the labor and peace movements in the Netherlands (Klandermans, 1984, 1997; Klandermans & Oegema, 1987).

Organizational citizenship behavior provides yet another example of the critical role of motivation. It has been suggested that workers must engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., prosocial behaviors directed at helping others and the organization itself) for organizations and firms to operate successfully and to encourage worker satisfaction and camaraderie (Borman & Penner, 2001; Brief & Weiss, 2002; Cropanzano & Byrne, 2000; Katz, 1964; Organ, 1988). Penner, Midili, and Kegelmeyer (1997) adopted a functional approach and conceptualized organizational citizenship as prosocial behaviors, consciously chosen by individuals and engaged in to meet needs and to satisfy motives. The same acts of organizational citizenship could reflect different motives for different individuals. Among the motives that have been explored as underlying organizational citizenship behaviors are prosocial values, organizational concern, and impression management (Rioux & Penner, 2001). Prosocial values motives appear to most strongly predict organizational citizenship behaviors directed at individuals, whereas organizational concern motives seem to be most strongly associated with organizational citizenship behaviors directed at the organization (Rioux & Penner, 2001).

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