Practice the purpose preach! Experimental evidence on the effect of corporate purpose on workers' willingness to go the extra mile

Abstract

Commercial organizations increasingly (re)define their reason for being in terms of a corporate purpose that reaches beyond profit maximization to create value by contributing to the welfare of society and planet. In that context, this paper employs a two-phase natural field experiment to explore whether, when and how a corporate purpose affects workers' willingness to complete extra work. The main findings show that receiving information about an organization's corporate purpose causes workers to complete more extra work. Workers whose personal preferences match with the organization's purpose are most responsive. However, in case an organization does not authentically practice its purpose preach a backfiring effect can occur. Furthermore, the findings show that the underlying mechanism is driven primarily by a change in workers perceived meaning of work. In a broader context, the findings – that workers are willing to go the extra mile when working for an organization with purpose – provide some empirical indications in support of the theoretically proposed business case of purpose.