Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

08 Prosocial Bonuses Increase Employee Satisfaction and Team Performance

February 2014

Jordi Quoidbach

Lalin Anik

Lara B. Aknin

Michael I. Norton

Elizabeth W. Dunn

Abstract

Anik, L., Aknin, L., Norton, M., Dunn, E., & Quoidbach, J. (2013). Prosocial bonuses increase employee satisfaction and team performance. PLoS ONE, 8, e75509. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075509

In three field studies, we explore the impact of providing employees and teammates with prosocial bonuses, a novel type of bonus spent on others rather than on oneself. In Experiment 1, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of donations to charity lead to happier and more satisfied employees at an Australian bank. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we show that prosocial bonuses in the form of expenditures on teammates lead to better performance in both sports teams in Canada and pharmaceutical sales teams in Belgium. These results suggest that a minor adjustment to employee bonuses – shifting the focus from the self to others – can produce measurable benefits for employees and organizations.

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Jordi Quoidbach is Associate Professor at Pompeu Fabra University’s Department of Economics and Business. He has a PhD from the University of Liège, Belgium. His research has been published in journals such as Science, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Psychological Science, and is often covered in popular media such as CNN, BBC, and The New York Times. Quoidbach has written several popular books on happiness and emotions. Jordi Quoidbach teaches Business Negotiations and Managing Happiness at the Barcelona School of Management-UPF.