{"id":17339,"date":"2016-10-25T15:42:39","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T15:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ugaresearch.uga.edu\/?p=17339"},"modified":"2019-09-11T11:43:39","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T15:43:39","slug":"humanitarian-or-hotshot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.uga.edu\/news\/humanitarian-or-hotshot\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanitarian or hotshot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can volunteering harm your workplace reputation? New research from UGA\u2019s Terry College of Business finds co-workers\u2019 attitudes can vary depending on their perception of someone\u2019s charitable efforts\u2014especially when they perceive a person is primarily volunteering to get ahead.<\/p>\n

As personal and professional lives continue to intermingle thanks to the constant connection of cellphones and social media, today\u2019s workers are often at the mercy of their colleagues\u2019 appraisal, said the study\u2019s lead author Jessica Rodell, an associate professor of management at the Terry College.<\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteering is a behavior that traditionally has little to do with work,\u201d Rodell said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that can be done with your kids\u2019 school or through your church, but it turns out that this behavior can have a real impact on how people view you at work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her research, co-authored with John Lynch, a former UGA graduate student and assistant professor of managerial science at University of Illinois-Chicago, finds that co-workers often have mixed feelings about their colleagues\u2019 charitable efforts.<\/p>\n

When volunteering is seen as intrinsically motivated, meaning the worker is seen as personally compelled to volunteer, both supervisors and co-workers tend to hold the volunteering employee in high esteem. However, if the worker is seen as a showboat who volunteers to enhance his or her image or score brownie points, colleagues and supervisors form a more negative opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use people\u2019s behaviors as signals of who someone is, and the more data we have, the more we know how to interact with them. Here, we are showing that volunteering is a piece of data that we use to determine someone\u2019s character, which affects how we treat them,\u201d Rodell said.<\/p>\n

And, as it turns out, the treatment that results can be rather important in the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, if you have two people who have the exact same performance ratings at their job, but one of them volunteered for what appeared to be good reasons, that person would be more likely to get a raise or promotion because that volunteering positively affects their reputation at work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although volunteering is an inherently pro-social behavior, there are several reasons it can have negative repercussions. Colleagues may find a volunteer to be smug or superior. They may feel volunteers forsake their office work in order to volunteer, or that they volunteer just to get credit.<\/p>\n

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Illustration by Missy Kulik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re very attuned to certain social cues that help us determine why people do certain things, like volunteering,\u201d Lynch said, \u201cand there are very real consequences for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most often, though, volunteering is a mixed bag that brings both positive and negative connotations. In addition to the potential negatives, volunteers may be seen as thoughtful, caring and good at time management, which can reflect well in the business environment.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, when it comes to volunteering, it appears the positive opinions tend to outweigh the negative ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs co-workers, we are OK with the fact that someone might personally benefit from their volunteer work,\u201d Rodell said, \u201cwith the caveat that they are also doing it for good reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly, we typically aren\u2019t aware that we judge people based on these things; it\u2019s something that happens without us really thinking about it. Reputations tend to be viewed generally as in \u2018he is a good person\u2019 or \u2018she\u2019s a good time manager.\u2019 What we\u2019ve shown with this research is that one reason you may think those things about your colleagues is because of their volunteer work.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explained that some people may not like that a co-worker could get promoted at work for doing something not related to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s why this finding is important,\u201d she said. \u201cEmployees should know that if they\u2019re going to volunteer, it\u2019s going to have consequences depending on how they manage it. And, if done for the right reasons, it\u2019s ultimately going to benefit them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can volunteering harm your workplace reputation? New research from UGA\u2019s Terry College of Business finds co-workers\u2019 attitudes can vary depending on their perception of someone\u2019s charitable efforts\u2014especially when they perceive a person is primarily volunteering to get ahead. As personal and professional lives continue to intermingle thanks to the constant connection of cellphones and social … <\/p>\n

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