When job performance is all relative: how family motivation energizes effort and compensates for intrinsic motivation

Published in: Academy of Management Journal - April 2017

Written by

Jochen Menges, Danielle Tussing, Andreas Wihler and Adam Grant

Summary

What we found: Supporting one’s family is a major reason why many people work. But when employees see their job as a way to support their families, does that also affect their job performance? We found that for employees who do not enjoy their job itself, family motivation enhances their job performance because it provides them with a source of energy.

Why it matters: Finding meaning in less interesting tasks can be challenging. But if employees see their work as a way to support those who are most important to them, it enables them to perform as well as if they would work on more interesting tasks.

What next: When thinking about how to make less interesting jobs more meaningful, companies might consider the role of employees’ families more intensively. Establishing practices that relate the outcomes of jobs to ways on how to support employees’ families may boost the positive effects of family motivation.