The Benefits of Reflecting on Gratitude Received at Home for Leaders at Work: Insights From Three Field Experiments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hu, Jia (Jasmine); Kim, Daniel; Lanaj, Klodiana
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; Tsinghua University; State University System of Florida; University of Florida
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0001194
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1461-1488
• 关键词: gratitude intervention; prosocial impact; need fulfillment; leader helping; EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP

摘要

Expressions of gratitude by leaders tend to yield positive effects in the workplace. Leaders, however, are not solely bestowers of gratitude but also recipients of it. Although leaders are often studied for their influence on others in the workplace, it is crucial to acknowledge that they are also complete individuals with personal lives outside of work that can spill over and affect their feelings and leadership behaviors at work. To advance research on leadership and gratitude, we take a whole-person view of leaders to understand the interpersonal crossover and intrapersonal spillover of gratitude. By integrating the moral affect theory of gratitude and savoring interventions research, we investigate how an intervention involving reflecting on gratitude received from family members at home motivates leaders to be more helpful and empowering toward their followers at work. We studied these ideas across three daily field experiments with 103 full-time managers from high schools, 116 leader-follower dyads from a variety of industries, and 109 leaders across various industries. Our findings demonstrate that when leaders reflected on receiving gratitude from family members at home, they felt higher prosocial impact at home, which in turn fulfilled their basic daily needs, consequently motivating them to engage in more helping and empowering behavior toward their followers at work. We also found some evidence that leaders higher in trait negative affect benefited the least from reflecting on receiving gratitude at home. We discuss how our findings provide extensions to literatures on gratitude, leadership, and work-family issues.