Is it better to motivate workers with claims of actions being good for the environment or just acknowledging how they advance the organization’s bottom line?
The answer is not what most people may think, based on recent research by Matthew Amengual (University of Oxford) & Evan Apfelbaum, Fellow at the Susilo Institute and Associate Professor at BU Questrom.
Their research suggests that leaders should just say what comes across as most genuine. Acknowledging that actions help the organization’s bottom line is more effective at motivating people than preaching idealistic claims about environmental sustainability, if they are not seen as genuine.
Read the full research paper :
Amengual, M. & Apfelbaum, E. (2020). True Motives: Prosocial and Instrumental Justifications for Behavioral Change in Organizations. Management Science, forthcoming.