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Firing Each Other Up: The Impact of Motivational Messages from Peers on Job Performance

Firing Each Other Up: The Impact of Motivational Messages from Peers on Job Performance. Jeff Thompson, Brigham Young University Richard Gardner, Texas A&M University Adam Grant, University of North Carolina Joseph Pike, Hewitt Associates, Chicago John Bingham, Brigham Young University.

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Firing Each Other Up: The Impact of Motivational Messages from Peers on Job Performance

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  1. Firing Each Other Up: The Impact of Motivational Messages from Peers on Job Performance Jeff Thompson, Brigham Young University Richard Gardner, Texas A&M University Adam Grant, University of North Carolina Joseph Pike, Hewitt Associates, Chicago John Bingham, Brigham Young University

  2. Motivation Maintenance at a Telefund • Brief interaction with a beneficiary increases both persistence and performance of fundraising callers (Grant, et al, 2006). • Callers who read a letter from scholarship recipients (task significance condition) received more pledges (Grant, 2008) • Those who read a letter from past employees (personal benefit condition) did not

  3. Can Employees Replicate these Effects with One Another? • Callers appear to get “fired up” by interaction with (or a letter from) a beneficiary of their work. • Can callers “fire each other up” by sharing stories about helping beneficiaries? • Information richness theory (Daft & Lengel, 1984): richer, more personal, more enthusiastic communications foster internalization

  4. A Quasi-Experimental Opportunity • Brigham Young University’s Telefund provides some unique features: • High performing Telefund • Very low employee turnover • Unique social mission (church-owned school) • Most shifts begin with a “devotional” delivered by an employee (voluntary basis)

  5. What we Did • Trained shift supervisors to rate devotionals on a number of dimensions, e.g., • Told story about the Telefund • Told a story about helping others outside Telefund • Talked about Telefund’s benefits to others • Talked about Telefund’s benefits to self • Used inspirational quotes, etc. • Collected data over 10 weeks; 39 shifts with at least two supervisor-ratings of devotionals • Telefund provided performance data for all 75 callers • Total of 1224 individual-level observations

  6. Preliminary Results • DV = Pledges per minute • Controlled for prior individual performance (ns?!) • Controlled for shift time, day, and calling pool (more donations at 5pm and when calling young prior donors; fewer donations from recent grads) • Devotionals “fired up” callers when they: • Told a story about the Telefund (ß = 2.44*) • Told a story about helping outside the Telefund (6.73**) • Related to the work of the Telefund (4.41**) • Were specific (3.73**) • Were less polished (-4.95**!) • Devotional traits explained 8% of variance in pledges • But very small effects for dollars pledged/minute

  7. What are we Learning? • Employees may be able to “fire each other up” even without interacting with beneficiaries • Specific work-related stories seem to be an effective proxy for direct interaction • Motivational messages seem to influence the number of pledges, but not the overall dollar amount (more small pledges?) • Also collected employee data. Look for moderators such as: • Prosocial motivation • Proactive personality • Psychological contract fulfillment, etc.

  8. Questions for MMMers • What is/isn’t compelling about the data so far? • What theories might best help us tell a story here? • Where should we go next? • What questions aren’t we thinking about? • Why and where does this matter?

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