Why do we perform acts of kindness? Imagine holding the door for someone, even though you are running late or giving up a seat in a crowded meeting. We like to think these actions are driven by selflessness or altruism, and research shows that there is certainly some truth to this. However, we also know that other, less altruistic motives operate as well. One of these is a self-interested desire to build a reputation for being generous and cooperative.
Decades of research across social psychology, evolutionary biology and behavioural economics has shown that a reputation for being generous and cooperative is hugely important. It can determine the support you receive for a promotion, the help you receive when facing a tough challenge at work, and even the amount of financial support you receive for a cause you care about.
Given the importance of building this sort of reputation, it is not surprising that people sometimes offer kindness for selfish reasons. They may stay late to help someone out or offer to take on extra work, not so much to help the colleague, but to become known as a good person.
Interestingly, when we think about examples of this sort of behaviour at work, we often think of subordinates trying to ingratiate their bosses—polishing the apple, as it were. Think of that person who always volunteers to make the boss a cup of coffee, or who constantly offers to work overtime to get projects finished on time.
It is undoubtedly the case that subordinates do try to ingratiate their bosses. However, my work with Prof. Kim Rios at the University of Illinois revealed an additional, more surprising pattern. When people seek to build a positive reputation, they are more likely to offer kindness to their subordinates than their bosses. We found this pattern across three pre-registered studies.
In one experiment, we gave participants real money and tested who they would choose to share this money with – if anyone. The options were to share the money with their boss, with an assistant – or to keep it all and not share any. Overall, people were more generous when their actions were known to a broader audience. But importantly, assistants gained most. In other words, people are more likely to offer kindness to lower-power colleagues than to their bosses when others will see their actions.
In another experiment, participants could engage in volunteer work with either their assistant or their boss – or not volunteer at all. For half of the participants, they would need to discuss logistics publicly in an open-plan office space – meaning that others would hear about it. For the other half, they would finalise logistics over email. The results showed that participants were more likely to volunteer with an assistant, and less likely to volunteer with their boss, when others in the office would know about it. They did so because they believed volunteering with their assistant would be more effective in bolstering their reputation in the group.
Consider the example of a manager staying late to help a junior employee with a project. On the surface, this appears altruistic. However, the manager may be motivated by a desire to be seen as a supportive and generous leader, which can enhance their reputation within the organisation.
Another example can be seen in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Companies often engage in CSR activities that benefit lower-power groups, such as underprivileged communities. While these actions are undoubtedly beneficial, they also serve to enhance the company’s reputation as a socially responsible entity, which can attract customers, investors, and talented employees.
An important question to ask is: do motives matter? Does it matter if a person helps their assistant out of altruism or selfishness? After all, the benefit for the assistant is the same. It’s not an easy question to answer. On one hand, you could say that social groups should be invested in supporting only those who are altruistically motivated – because a person’s underlying motives are a strong predictor of future behaviour. Those who offer strategic acts of kindness at one point in their career may stop doing so once their goals are met. On the other hand, it has been suggested that reputation is the reason that cooperation exists at all. So if the potential for gaining personal benefits through a good reputation motivates higher levels of kindness, then maybe it’s functional overall and we shouldn’t care too much about motives.
Regardless, it is important for managers to consider the role of reputation in driving extra-role kindness within work teams. Termed “organisational citizenship behaviours”, these actions are consequential for organisational effectiveness. By setting up work environments that facilitate reputation development, organisations may be helping not only the employee succeed, but the team and organisation more broadly.
Ena Inesi is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. Her research focuses on power and how it affects relationships and decision-making. She is co-author of the research ‘How prosocial actors use power hierarchies to build moral reputation’ referenced above, alongside Kimberly Rios, Associate Professor of Psychology at Ohio University.
