Impact of Meaningful Work on Altruistic Behavior of Employees

Abstract

Altruism plays a vital role in human relationships and it promotes satisfaction in both personal and professional life. Some individuals are inherently altruistic, but some may not. However, in the corporate world, willingly or unwillingly employees are bound to help each other at any given cost for the betterment of the organization. But over the past few months, COVID-19 has reset the behaviors of employees in a different way. Majority of the employees worried only about their survival and exploited COVID-19 crisis as an excuse for selfishness. However, scholars proved that employees who exhibit altruistic behaviors are the ones who can effectively survive even in crisis situations. Therefore, the ultimate objective of this study was to investigate the impact of meaningful work on altruistic behavior of private sector banking employees in Sri Lanka. Further, organizations need identify an effective strategy which can encourage employees to exhibit more altruistic behaviors at workplace. By nature, employees have an inner desire to accept tasks, duties and responsibilities which gives a meaning to their work life. Meaningful work drives employee’s momentum, even when the situation is worse. In Sri Lankan context, there is no evidence to date investigating the extent to which meaningful work can support employers to nurture employees with altruistic behaviors. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of meaningful work on altruistic behavior of employees. Study was aligned with cross sectional survey strategy and through convenience sampling technique researcher gathered data from 149 private sector banking employees in Sri Lanka. The analysis of the data was done using simple regression with the support of SPSS version twenty. The results of regression analysis proved that meaningful work has a significant impact on altruistic behaviors of private sector banking employees in Sri Lanka. Further, meaningful work can account for 34.1% of variance in altruistic behavior of employees. These findings contributed to limited literature available to understand the nexus between meaningful work and altruism. Further, it provides an opportunity for industry experts to rethink the importance of meaningful work in promoting altruistic behaviors and the possible strategies that can be utilized to make work meaningful for employees.

Keywords: Altruistic Behavior, Meaningful Work, Private Sector Banking Employees