How to Motivate Employees to Go Beyond Their Jobs

How to Motivate Employees to Go Beyond Their Jobs

By Mark C. Bolina and Anthony C. Klotz

1 Every day, employees make decisions about whether they are willing to go the extra mile in ways that contribute to their organization’s success. These are important decisions because research shows that when employees are willing to go beyond their formal roles by helping out co-workers, volunteering to take on special assignments, introducing new ideas and work practices, attending nonmandatory meetings, putting in extra hours to complete important projects, and so forth, their companies are more efficient and effective. As a result, a critical task for successful managers is to motivate their employees to engage in these extra-role behaviors, which researchers call “citizenship behaviors”.

每天，员工都要决定是否愿意为公司的成功付出额外的努力。这些都是重要的决定，因为研究表明，当员工愿意超越自己的正式角色，帮助同事，自愿承担特殊任务，介绍新的想法和工作实践，参加“非强制性”会议，花额外的时间完成重要项目，等等，他们的公司会更有效率。因此，成功管理者的一项关键任务就是激励员工

2 Although the benefits of citizenship behaviors for organizational performance are clear, the implications for employees are more equivocal. On the one hand, many employees perform acts of citizenship because they feel committed to and connected to their peers, supervisors, and organizations. Being a good organizational citizen can also be personally and professionally rewarding because it makes work more meaningful and invigorating and contributes to better performance evaluations. On the other hand, some studies have also shown that employees sometimes feel pressured to be good organizational citizens and may do so only to enhance their image. Moreover, going the extra mile can deplete employees’ resources, contributing to stress, work-family conflict, and employee fatigue. Recent research further suggests that employees who feel pressured to engage in citizenship behaviors may start feeling entitled to act out by engaging indeviantbehaviors. Further, while employee citizenship is often associated with positive feelings, it can also
impede employees’ ability to get their jobs done, which can undermine their well-being.

虽然公民行为对组织绩效的好处是显而易见的，但对员工的影响则更加“模棱两可”。一方面，许多员工会履行公民行为，因为他们觉得自己与同事、上级和组织有责任感和联系。成为一名优秀的组织公民在个人和职业上都是有回报的，因为它使工作更有意义和“振奋人心”，并有助于获得更好的绩效评估。另一方面，一些研究也表明，员工有时会感到有压力要成为优秀的组织公民，他们这样做只是为了提升自己的形象。此外，“额外的努力”可能会“耗尽”员工的资源，导致压力、工作与家庭冲突以及员工“疲惫”。最近的研究进一步表明，感到有压力要履行公民行为的员工可能会开始“理所当然地”采取“不端”行为。此外，尽管员工公民行为通常与积极的感受有关，但它也可能“妨碍”员工完成工作的能力，从而“损害”他们的幸福感。

nonmandatory adj.非强制性的
citizenship behavior: (组织)公民行为
equivocal : adj.难以理解的,难以解释清楚的
invigorating adj.使人精力充沛的,充满活力的
deplete : v.耗尽;使枯竭
fatigue : n.劳累;疲劳
(be) entitled to : 有权;有…的资格
act out: 用行动来表现(或发泄) (受挫的心理,压抑的情绪等)
deviant : 不正常的;异常的
impede v.阻碍,阻止
undermine:逐渐削弱

As this work continues, a consensus is emerging that citizenship behaviors tend to have negative implications when employees go above and beyond at work not because they intrinsically want to but because they feel they have to, or when they can’t carry out their regular job duties and be good citizens at the same time. Given the importance of citizenship for organizational success, managers should help employees find better ways to go beyond the call of duty to help make work more meaningful and less depleting. One potentially effective way of doing this is something we call citizenship crafting.

随着这项工作的继续，人们逐渐达成共识：当员工在工作中表现得超出预期时，他们的公民行为往往会有负面影响，而不是因为他们“内在地”想要这样做，而是因为他们觉得必须这样做，或者因为他们无法同时完成自己的日常工作职责和成为合格的公民。鉴于公民行为对组织成功的重要性，管理者应该帮助员工找到更好的方式来超越“职责要求”，以帮助使工作更有意义并减少耗竭感。一种可能有效的实现这一目标的方法是我们称之为“公民行为塑造”的方法。

The idea of citizenship crafting is based on the concept of job crafting, in which people redesign their work by altering aspects of the job itself (task crafting), the people with whom they work (relationship crafting), and their mindset about their job (cognitive crafting) in ways that play to their strengths, motives, and passions. Whereas job crafting captures how employees redesign their formal role at work, citizenship crafting is based on the notion that employees can proactively shape the ways in which they go beyond the call of duty. They can contribute to the organization in ways that are personally meaningful, rewarding, and consistent with their strengths.

公民塑造的概念是基于工作塑造的概念，在这个概念中，人们通过改变工作本身的各个方面（任务塑造），与他们一起工作的人（关系塑造），以及他们对工作的“心态”（认知塑造）来重新设计他们的工作，以发挥他们的优势，动机和激情。工作塑造捕捉的是员工如何重新设计自己在工作中的正式角色，而公民塑造则是基于这样一种“观念”，即员工可以“主动”塑造自己超越职责召唤的方式。他们可以为组织做出贡献

When crafting their citizenship behaviors, ideally employees will consider not only their own needs but also those of their managers and colleagues. For this reason, we encourage managers to let their employees know what types of citizenship behaviors are most important for their work group, while recognizing that asking employees to engage in too much citizenship can be counterproductive. Employees should also be forthright in communicating to their managers what types of citizenship behaviors are most consistent with their strengths, motives, and passions. For instance, an introverted engineer who dreads socializing but does not mind pulling the occasional all-nighter might feel less obligated to take part in every social event, knowing that she can take charge when someone has to stay late to complete a critical project. Or a salesperson who cannot stand to sit through meetings but relishes opportunities to coach others can ask to be spared tedious committee work in exchange for making extra time to shadow and informally mentor new recruits. And employees should feel comfortable consciously deciding to voluntarily assist colleagues who are appreciative and generous in return so that offering assistance is not burdensome.

在塑造公民行为时，理想的员工会考虑的不仅仅是自己的需求，还有上级和同事的需求。因此，我们鼓励管理者让员工知道哪些公民行为对他们的团队最重要，同时要认识到要求员工过多地参与公民行为可能是“适得其反”的。员工也应该坦率地与管理者沟通，哪些公民行为最符合他们的优势、动机和激情。例如，一个讨厌社交但不介意偶尔加班的内向工程师，在知道有人必须在完成关键项目后留下来加班时，可能会觉得不必参加每次社交活动。或者，一个讨厌开会但喜欢指导别人的销售人员，可以要求免除乏味的委员会工作，以便腾出时间“影子跟随”和非正式指导新员工。员工应该感到放心，可以有意识地自愿帮助那些懂得感激和回报的同事，这样提供帮助就不会成为一种“负担”。

consensus : n.一致的意见;共识
intrinsically: adv.本质地,内在地
call of duty : 使命召唤
mindset: 观念模式;思维倾向
notion : 观念;信念;理解
proactively: adv.主动地
be consistent with 与…一致
counterproductive: 产生相反效果的,适得其反的
forthright: 直率的;直截了当的;坦诚的
introverted : adj: 内向的;不喜欢交往的 i人 e人extroverted
pull an all-nighter : 开夜车;熬夜通宵
obligated : adj.(道义或法律上)有义务的;有责任的;必需的
relish: v.享受;从…中获得乐趣.
shadow : 跟踪,跟随…实地学习(或参观)
recruit.新成员
burdensome: 负担沉重的;难以承担的

6 Although citizenship crafting is a new idea, prior research indicates that it should benefit employees and managers alike. First, when jobs contain tasks that align with employees’ intrinsic motives rather than tasks employees feel forced to complete, job performance tends to be significantly better; as such, citizenship crafting should result in higher-quality and more impactful acts of citizenship. Second, employees who can engage in citizenship behaviors that play to their strengths and passions should feel less stressed and worn-out from contributing more. By realizing that not all good citizens look alike, and allowing employees to tailor their citizenship to fit their unique interests and talents, managers can simultaneously enhance employee well-being and work group productivity. Finally, citizenship crafting should reduce the need for managers to rely on extrinsic sticks and carrots to motivate employees to go the extra mile. This should not only conserve financial resources but, given evidence that extrinsic rewards can sometimes undermine intrinsic motivation, also help employees stay internally driven to do more.

尽管公民行为塑造是一个新概念，先前的研究表明它应该对员工和管理者都有益处。首先，当工作包含与员工的内在动机相一致的任务，而不是那些让员工感到被迫完成的任务时，工作表现往往会显著提高；因此，公民行为塑造应能带来更高品质和更有影响力的公民行为。其次，能够从事符合自己优势和热情的公民行为的员工，在贡献更多时应会感到压力较小且不易疲惫。通过认识到并非所有好公民都是一样的，并允许员工根据自己的独特兴趣和才能定制他们的公民行为，管理者可以同时提升员工福祉和工作组生产力。最后，公民行为塑造应减少管理者依赖外部奖励和惩罚来激励员工额外付出的需求。这不仅能够节省财务资源，而且鉴于有证据显示外部奖励有时会削弱内在动机，也有助于保持员工内部驱动力去做更多的事情。

7 The bottom line is that managers’ and employees’ efforts to enhance the meaningfulness of work by redesigning employees’ jobs should not stop where the formal job description ends. Instead, we encourage employees to more thoughtfully and proactively craft their citizenship behavior in ways that their extra-role contributions lead to more meaning and fulfillment while, at the same time, enhancing their firm’s performance. (907 words)

归根结底，管理者和员工为了通过重新设计员工的工作来增强工作的意义所做的努力不应该止步于正式职位描述的边界。相反，我们鼓励员工更加深思熟虑和主动地塑造他们的公民行为，使他们超出职责范围的贡献能够带来更多意义和满足感，同时提升其公司的绩效。

intrinsic : 内在的
as such : 同样的
impactful : 有效的,有力的
worn-out: 疲惫不堪的;精疲力竭的
tailor: 调整
extrinsic : 非本质的,外在的
sticks and carrots : 大棒与胡萝卜;威逼与利诱
(be) driven to : 被驱动,被驱使
fulfillment: 满足感

which of the following would motivate you to work harder? Choose your top five and rank them in order of priority,and then explain your reasons.

bonus
high salary
perks or fringe benefits
commission
no threat of redundancy
flexible working hours
a pleasant working environment
good colleagues
less stress
working for a successful company
a sense of achievement
more responsibility & challenges
interesting work
praise & recognition
hardworking boss
meaningful work
promotion opportunities
personal growth