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Symbolic Immortality at Work: Understanding the Antecedents of Generative Job Performance

Symbolic Immortality at Work: Understanding the Antecedents of Generative Job Performance. B. Lindsay Brown & Lillian Eby. Research Question: How does mortality awareness translate into meaningfulness in the workplace?. Age development & nurturing younger generations (Erikson, 1950 )

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Symbolic Immortality at Work: Understanding the Antecedents of Generative Job Performance

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  1. Symbolic Immortality at Work: Understanding the Antecedents of Generative Job Performance B. Lindsay Brown & Lillian Eby

  2. Research Question: How does mortality awareness translate into meaningfulness in the workplace?

  3. Age development & nurturing younger generations (Erikson, 1950) • Motivation, behaviors, & attitudes directed towards helping or positively impacting others, organizations, community, or society (McAdams, St. Aubin, & Kim, 1992) • Associated w/ meaningfulness in life What is generativity?

  4. Existential dilemma • Transcend death by impacting the world and making contribution to the future that will benefit others (Kotre, 1984; Wade-Benzoni, 2006; Wade-Benzoni, et al., 2009) • Generativity connects the individual with something greater than the self and is associated with mortality awareness (Becker, 1973; Kotre, 1984) • Generativity allows one to “outlive the self” (Kotre, 1984) Symbolic Immortality & Meaningfulness

  5. Contradictory findings • Beneficial & detrimental • Job tension (Chisolm, Kasl, & Eskenazi,1983) • Pro-social behaviors (Elder & Clipp, 1988) • Task significance & variety • Emotional exhaustion, organizational commitment & pay satisfaction (Jermier, Gaines, & McIntosh, 1989) Current Literature on Workplace Mortality Awareness

  6. Multiple work contexts • Overt - Combat military, hospice workers • Covert - Substance abuse counselors, ER clerical staff, 911 operators • Personal & vicarious effects of death at work • Aging population • Trainability Importance of Understanding Mortality Awareness at Work

  7. Formally assess mortality awareness and relationships to supervisor-rated performance outcomes • Address when and for whom mortality awareness increases workplace generativity • Grant & Wade-Benzoni’s (2009) contingency model of death awareness at work Current Study

  8. Work orientation Job design Death reflection Generative work behaviors Contingency Model of Death Awareness at Work (Grant & Wade-Benzoni, 2009)

  9. Calling work orientation Mentoring received H3 H2 Generative work behaviors: Task performance OCB-I Death reflection H1 Research Hypotheses

  10. Sample • 348 substance abuse counselors and their clinical supervisors • 17 organizations across U.S. Procedure • Paper-and-pencil surveys part of larger N.I.D.A. study • $50/$75 compensation Measures • Previously validated (α= .88 - .97) • Supervisor-rated job performance Method

  11. H1a & H2a not supported; H3a supported Results: Hierarchical Moderated Regression - Task Performance

  12. Three-way Interaction of Death Reflection, Calling, & Mentoring on Task Performance

  13. Three-way Interaction of Death Reflection, Calling, & Mentoring on Task Performance

  14. H1b, H2b, & H3b not supported Results: Hierarchical Moderated Regression - OCB-I

  15. All three factors must be present to positively impact generative task performance • Null findings • Practical implications • Self-selection • Job previews • Theoretical implications • Specifying behaviors and relationships • Future research • Mediating factors • Other forms of generative work outcomes Discussion

  16. “What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal.”-Albert Pike

  17. Questions? Thank you for your time.

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