Full Citation
Title: Beyond assumptions of altruism: Examining nonprofit work with a job fit framework and response surface analysis
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN:
ISSN: 15427854
DOI: 10.1002/nml.21610
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Abstract: Scholars frequently investigate how nonprofit employees, as a group, differ from public or for-profit employees. However, there is less focus on how motivational profiles vary among nonprofit employees. Particularly as the nonprofit sector professionalizes, the reasons why people seek nonprofit employment are diversifying. Recent work highlights a more individualized understanding of employee motivation, which can lead to more nuanced and tailored human resource management techniques. I amplify this stream of scholarship, guided by a job fit framework and introducing a robust methodological approach from organizational psychology that accounts for interactions between an employee's work preferences and work experiences on outcomes of interest. With two waves of original data on international aid workers, I demonstrate that the experience of prosocial work (i.e., work that aims to help other people) is associated with greater job satisfaction for those with strong prosocial work preferences but can be associated with reduced job satisfaction for those without. These findings necessitate nuanced attention to employees' work preferences, moving beyond assumptions that prosocial work will universally motivate nonprofit employee performance.
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Authors: Oelberger, Carrie
Periodical (Full): Nonprofit Management and Leadership
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