Seeing a different self: Altruistic activities and their impact on employees’ affective commitment

• Main Authors: Li-Yun Huang, 黃莉芸
• Other Authors: An-Chih Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/88942744104619338969

碩士 === 中原大學 === 心理學研究所 === 102 === Prior research on altruistic activities of business organizations mainly investigated effects of such activities at the organizational level; little is known about how these activities affect employees at the individual level. Although Grant, Dutton, and Rosso (2008) have proposed a sensemaking model to explain the relationship between participation in altruistic activities promoted by organizations and employees’ affective commitment, the boundary condition of this model is still unclear. Sampling employees of two large-scale companies in Taiwan, I employ a qualitative approach to re-test Grant et al.’s model. My findings suggest that the extent to which the model holds depends on the types of self-reflection emerged after employees’ participation in organization-promoted altruistic activities. Personalized reflection, or reflection on what one’s participation in these activities really means to him or her, fully activates the two sensemaking routes specified in Grant et al.’s model and, thus, increases employees’ affective commitment. Depersonalized reflection, or reflection on how participation in altruistic activities has impact on participants in general, only activates one of the two routes in Grant et al.’s model and, thereby, has a weaker effect on employees’ affective commitment. Lack of both types of self-reflection, finally, fails to activate any sensemaking route; employees’ affective commitment even decreases if they are aware of the instrumental intention of their organization to promote altruistic activities. Findings of this study further revise Grant et al.’s model and clarifies the role of organizational promotion of altruistic activities.