ArticlePDF Available

The Grateful Workplace: A Multilevel Model of Gratitude in Organizations

February 2016
Academy of Management Review 42(2)

DOI:10.5465/amr.2014.0374

Authors:

Ashley Fulmer

J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University

Eli Awtrey

University of Cincinnati

Gratitude is a valuable emotion with an array of functional outcomes. Nonetheless, research on gratitude in organizations is limited. In this article we develop a multilevel model of gratitude composed of episodic gratitude at the event level, persistent gratitude at the individual level, and collective gratitude at the organizational level. We then consider the types of human resource initiatives that organizations can develop to cultivate employee gratitude and the contingencies of gratitude's emergence at the individual and organizational levels of analysis. Finally, we elucidate the benefits of gratitude for organizations and their employees. The result is a deeper understanding of how gratitude unfolds in organizations and the role that organizations themselves can play in influencing emotions at multiple levels in the workplace.

Content uploaded by Ashley Fulmer

Content may be subject to copyright.

The Grateful Workplace

: A Multilevel Model of Gratitude in

Organizations

Journal:

Academy of Management Review

Manuscript ID

AMR-2014-0374-STFIMT.R3

Manuscript Type:

Special Research Forum Integrating Affect and Emotion in Management

Theories

Keywords:

Affect, Emotions, Psychology (Social), Relationships, Multi-Level Theory

Abstract:

Gratitude is a valuable emotion with an array of functional outcomes.

Nonetheless, research on gratitude in organizations is limited. In this

paper, we develop a multilevel model of gratitude comprised of episodic

gratitude at the event level, persistent gratitude at the individual level, and

collective gratitude at the organizational level. We then consider the types

of human resource initiatives that organizations can develop to cultivate

employee gratitude and the contingencies of gratitude’s emergence at the

individual and organizational levels of analysis. Finally, we elucidate the

benefits of gratitude for organizations and their employees. The sum result

is a deeper understanding of how gratitude unfolds in organizations and

the role that organizations themselves can play in influencing emotions at

multiple levels in the workplace.

Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 1

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE:

A MULTILEVEL MODEL OF GRATITUDE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Ryan Fehr

University of Washington, Seattle

rfehr@uw.edu

Ashley Fulmer

National University of Singapore

afulmer@nus.edu.sg

Eli Awtrey

University of Washington, Seattle

eawtrey@uw.edu

Jared A. Miller

University of Washington, Seattle

jam236@uw.edu

Note: The authors would like to thank Associate Editor Ronald Humphrey and three anonymous

reviewers for their invaluable assistance throughout the review process. This research was

supported in part by a National University of Singapore Isaac Manasseh Meyer Fellowship to the

first author and a National University of Singapore start-up grant to the second author.

Page 1 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 2

ABSTRACT

Gratitude is a valuable emotion with an array of functional outcomes. Nonetheless, research on

gratitude in organizations is limited. In this paper, we develop a multilevel model of gratitude

comprised of episodic gratitude at the event level, persistent gratitude at the individual level, and

collective gratitude at the organizational level. We then consider the types of human resource

initiatives that organizations can develop to cultivate employee gratitude and the contingencies

of gratitude’s emergence at the individual and organizational levels of analysis. Finally, we

elucidate the benefits of gratitude for organizations and their employees. The sum result is a

deeper understanding of how gratitude unfolds in organizations and the role that organizations

themselves can play in influencing emotions at multiple levels in the workplace.

Keywords: emotion; gratitude; appreciation; multilevel; human resource practices

Page 2 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 3

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE:

A MULTILEVEL MODEL OF GRATITUDE IN ORGANIZATIONS

Organizations are often criticized as environments that cultivate egocentrism and

selfishness (Mueller, 2012; Vogel, 2006). Media reports on corporate greed and financial scandal

seem to reinforce this critique, with many observers lamenting employees’ growing sense of

entitlement (Twenge & Campbell, 2010). Organizations consequently suffer from a range of

troubles including increased conflict, incivility, deviance, and turnover (Fisk, 2010; Harvey &

Martinko, 2009). At the same time, there is evidence of an alternative. Some organizations

cultivate appreciation and thankfulness, promoting high-quality relationships and prosocial

behavior (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012). In these organizations, gratitude can play a critical role.

A growing body of work in the social sciences has shown that gratitude improves life

satisfaction (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002), reduces aggression (DeWall, Lambert,

Pond, Kashdan, & Fincham, 2012), and motivates prosocial behavior (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006;

Tsang, 2006). However, only a handful of studies have examined its role in organizations (Grant

& Wrzesniewski, 2010; Kaplan et al., 2014; Waters, 2012). Even in domains where gratitude

would seem to play a central role (e.g., servant leadership, organizational citizenship, and

customer service), it is scarcely mentioned.

An understanding of gratitude in organizations requires explicit attention to how the

organizational context shapes the emergence and functions of gratitude itself. Organizations are

not simply extensions of everyday social interactions. Rather, the organizational context

introduces a unique suite of constraints and affordances that influence how individual employees

feel, think, and act on a daily basis. As noted by House, Rousseau, and Thomas-Hunt (1995),

“Until general psychological theories are linked to organizational contextual variables they will

Page 3 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 4

remain inadequate to explain what goes on in organizations” (77; see also, Gelfand, Leslie, &

Keller, 2008). Research on the consequences of emotions in general and gratitude in particular

suggests that organizations can greatly benefit from an explicit consideration of how gratitude

emerges and influences workplace outcomes across multiple levels of analysis (McCullough,

Kilpatrick, Emmons, & Larson, 2001).

In this paper, we seek to accomplish several interrelated goals. First, we offer a multilevel

model of gratitude, examining its manifestations at the event, individual, and organizational

levels of analysis. Second, we explore the unique organizational antecedents of gratitude, with a

focus on human resource initiatives aimed at cultivating gratitude. Next, we identify key

contingencies of gratitude emergence, highlighting the challenges that organizations are likely to

face in their efforts to promote employee gratitude. Finally, we examine the consequences of

building gratitude within organizations at multiple levels of analysis. From a theoretical

perspective we offer insight into how gratitude unfolds at work, with broader implications for the

emergence and influence of other emotions in the workplace. From a managerial perspective, we

highlight both the utility of workplace gratitude and the challenges of fostering it, focusing on

organizational systems that can help practitioners build organizational change efforts aimed at

the cultivation of gratitude. A visual representation of the proposed model is given in Figure 1.

------------------

Insert Figure 1

------------------

CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS: GRATITUDE AT THREE LEVELS

The scholarly history of gratitude is extensive, spanning disciplines as diverse as

theology, philosophy, sociology, and psychology (Emmons & McCullough, 2004). Given this

Page 4 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 5

diverse history, it is perhaps no surprise to find that scholars have likewise conceptualized

gratitude in many different ways (McCullough et al., 2001). Focusing on the unique contours of

the organizational context, we propose a multilevel model that conceptualizes gratitude as (1) an

episodic emotion at the event level, (2) a persistent tendency to feel grateful at the individual

level, and (3) a shared sense of gratitude at the organizational level. As shown in Figure 1, we

conceptualize these phenomena as causally related, with gratitude at the event level emerging

over time at the individual and organizational levels.

Episodic Gratitude

At the event level, we define gratitude as a feeling of appreciation in response to an

experience that is beneficial to, but not attributable to, the self (Emmons & McCullough, 2004).

Gratitude at this level is an emotion in the classic sense – an affective phenomenon that persists

for a brief period of time (Elfenbein, 2008). Many different experiences can generate feelings of

gratitude. In its most prototypical form, people experience gratitude after receiving a tangible or

intangible benefit from a benefactor (McCullough et al., 2001). For example, an employee might

experience a feeling of gratitude when a coworker sacrifices her free time to help the beneficiary

meet a deadline. Similarly, an employee might experience gratitude when a manager spends an

afternoon helping her develop new skills. In each of these cases, the perceived benevolence and

sacrifice of the benefactor play critical roles. In this sense, episodic gratitude is not elicited by an

experience itself but rather by its interpretation, and thus requires a “willingness to recognize the

unearned increments of value in one’s experience” (Bertocci & Millard, 1963: 389).

In this paper we focus on gratitude that arises in the organizational context or due to an

employee’s membership in an organization. As with any emotion, episodic gratitude in

organizations can be expected to vary dramatically in its frequency and intensity (Frijda, Ortony,

Page 5 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 6

Sonnemans, & Clore, 1992). Low-intensity feelings of gratitude might arise from a small favor

from a coworker or customer. High-intensity gratitude might instead arise when a coworker

prevents an employee from getting fired or saves a project at the last minute. The frequency and

intensity of these experiences can in turn be expected to influence gratitude’s consequences, with

frequent, high-intensity gratitude facilitating the strongest effects (Frijda et al., 1992).

In Table 1 we distinguish gratitude from four related emotions: happiness, compassion,

pride, and elevation. As with other positive emotions, people generally enjoy feeling grateful

(Emmons & McCullough, 2003). However, gratitude can be distinguished from these other

emotions along three key dimensions: (1) the trigger event, (2) the impact of the trigger on the

self, and (3) the prosocial action tendency. For example, whereas gratitude is triggered by

personally relevant benefits, compassion is triggered by the suffering of a third party. As these

distinctions show, the nomological net of gratitude is unique. Any model of gratitude in

organizations must treat gratitude as a distinct phenomenon and avoid grouping it together with

other positive emotions (Hu & Kaplan, 2015).

------------------

Insert Table 1

------------------

Persistent Gratitude

Gratitude research has overwhelmingly adopted an episodic perspective. However, it is

unlikely that gratitude exists exclusively at the event level. More durable manifestations of

gratitude are likely at the individual and organizational levels (Ashkanasy & Ashton-James,

2007; Rosenberg, 1998). We argue that gratitude emerges at the individual level in the form of

persistent gratitude, defined as a stable tendency to feel grateful within a particular context.

Page 6 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 7

The idea of persistent gratitude is rooted in the existing multilevel emotion literature,

which notes that individuals differ in “the threshold for the occurrence of particular emotional

states” (Rosenberg, 1998: 249). Yet whereas most of the individual-level emotion literature

focuses on traits, our conceptualization of persistent gratitude focuses on the broader notion of a

schema. Schemas are mental structures that function as heuristics, directing attention and

regulating action. Especially when the available information is ambiguous, schemas enable quick

responses in a given domain through default strategies and behavior (Bargh & Ferguson, 2000).

Emotion schemas, in turn, are mental structures that specifically predispose individuals to

experience a particular emotion in a given domain (Jenkins & Oatley, 1996).

According to network theories of emotion (Bower, 1981; Leventhal, 1980), emotion

schemas develop linearly through repeated pairings of stimuli and emotions (Tomkins, 1995).

For example, an employee with an abusive supervisor might develop an anxiety-based emotion

schema at work, compiled over time as the product of repeated anxiety-producing episodes

(Hobman, Restubog, Bordia, & Tang, 2009). As one such emotion schema, persistent gratitude

can be expected to emerge in an organization when an employee experiences frequent and

intense episodic gratitude within the organization.

Once formed, persistent gratitude operates in several interrelated ways. First, individuals

who develop persistent gratitude “have specific appraisal tendencies leading to gratitude-relevant

interpretations of the behavior of other people” (Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, & Joseph, 2008:

282) and thus are likely to become more attentive to gratitude-inducing stimuli in their

organizations (Compton, 2003). For example, they might notice a leader’s helpful advice where

employees without gratitude schemas would not. Second, they become better able to recall past

gratitude-inducing experiences and utilize them to interpret their environments (DeCoster &

Page 7 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 8

Claypool, 2004). For example, they might frequently recall the actions of a particularly helpful

supervisor during a challenging time. Third, they become more likely to interpret ambiguous

events through the lens of gratitude-inducing appraisals (Wilkowski, Robinson, Gordon, &

Troop-Gordon, 2007). For example, they might interpret help with a deadline as worthy of

gratitude, whereas another employee might perceive it as an act of reciprocated exchange or an

attempt to steal the spotlight. Persistent gratitude can thus be expected to exert effects that are

comparatively enduring, influencing how employees respond to a wide range of situations.

Proposition 1: Persistent gratitude at the individual level emerges from episodic

gratitude at the event level.

Collective Gratitude

Beyond the event and individual levels, gratitude can also emerge at the organizational

level. We term this organizational-level construct collective gratitude, defined as persistent

gratitude that is shared by the members of an organization. Collective gratitude occurs through

an emergent process, whereby individuals’ own experiences of persistent gratitude converge to

manifest as a shared organizational-level phenomenon (Rousseau, 1985). Put differently,

collective gratitude “is the result of bottom-up processes whereby phenomena and constructs that

originate at a lower level of analysis, through social interaction and exchange, combine,

coalesce, and manifest at a higher collective level of analysis” (Kozlowski, 2012: 267).

We conceptualize this emergence as compositional, in which emergence at the

organizational level stems from a high level of consensus in persistent gratitude at the individual

level. This is what Chan (1998) referred to as a direct consensus model, wherein the focus is on

agreement across individual employees’ experiences. Later in this paper we consider factors that

are likely to facilitate the emergence of gratitude at the organizational level. However, we also

Page 8 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 9

note that such emergence is likely to be facilitated by the uniquely relational nature of gratitude

itself. Unlike many other emotions, gratitude is highly social and other-oriented (Watkins, 2014).

Intersecting lines of research have noted that gratitude tends to be expressed explicitly, both

through words of thanks to one’s benefactors and through action (Eisenberg, Miller, Shell,

McNalley, & Shea, 1991). Thus, employees are likely to be particularly aware of others’

gratitude, facilitating emotion contagion and social learning.

The implications of a sustained, shared organizational-level gratitude are significant.

Once formed, collective gratitude acts as part of the social context of the organization (Ferris et

al., 1998). In other words, it becomes a defining feature of the organization itself, shaping the

way employees construe the organization and their place within it.

Proposition 2: Collective gratitude at the organizational level emerges from

persistent gratitude at the individual level.

Key Assumptions: Reciprocal Dynamics and Gratitude’s Targets

Although not formalized as propositions, two assumptions regarding the structure of

gratitude in organizations deserve attention. First, collective gratitude and persistent gratitude are

likely to have additional top-down effects that reinforce gratitude at the event and individual

levels. We presume that collective gratitude will exert a top-down positive effect on episodic and

persistent gratitude, consistent with the broader literature on the assimilative pressures of

organizations and their associated norms (Schein, 2010). Similarly, we presume that episodic and

persistent gratitude are reciprocally related. Second, we note that gratitude is likely to have many

distinct yet overlapping targets. A pay raise might lead an employee to feel grateful for both her

immediate supervisor and the organization’s upper level leadership. Similarly, an employee who

receives help meeting a deadline might experience gratitude toward the helpful coworker as well

Page 9 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 10

as the supervisor who encouraged the employees to work together. However, we adopt a more

holistic approach that encompasses multiple targets and presumes that they are interrelated.

ANTECEDENTS OF GRATITUDE

Gratitude’s antecedents are multifaceted and rest at multiple levels of analysis. Our focus

is on the organizational-level antecedents of gratitude, allowing for an understanding of the

precise role of the organization itself in gratitude emergence. At this level, the most direct path to

influencing employee gratitude is through gratitude-focused human resource (HR) practices,

which we term gratitude initiatives. Drawing from the HR and gratitude literatures, we identify

three initiatives particularly likely to facilitate employee gratitude—appreciation programs,

beneficiary contact, and developmental feedback—and examine their effects on episodic

gratitude (Ostroff, Kinicki, & Tamkins, 2003). Our goal is not to provide a comprehensive

account of initiatives that facilitate gratitude, but rather to provide concrete, illustrative examples

of how organizations might begin the process of fostering gratitude.

Appreciation programs. Everyday interactions with peers, supervisors, and subordinates

provide many opportunities for gratitude. Employees frequently go above and beyond their

assigned tasks by helping each other and engaging in proactive, prosocial behavior. These extra-

role efforts are typically aimed at improving their colleagues’ lives and the functioning of the

organization (Van Dyne, Cummings, & Parks, 1995). However, in fast-paced and performance-

driven work environments, beneficiaries may not always take the time to express gratitude,

leaving benefactors feeling as if their actions are overlooked and ignored. From an organizational

practice perspective, one path to addressing this issue and fostering gratitude is through

employee appreciation programs.

Page 10 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 11

Roberts, Dutton, Spreitzer, Heaphy, and Quinn (2005) conceptualize formal appreciation

programs as “occasions in which organizations have planned and institutionalized opportunities

to endow individuals with expressions of positive affirmation” (718). Common examples include

retirement events and celebrations of product launches (Mosley & Irvine, 2015). At one

consulting firm, top management emails descriptions of team members’ core strengths, and why

they are appreciated, to the head of the company. These emails are then shared with the entire

team (Roberts et al., 2005). Organizations can also benefit from the formalization of practices

that are typically less formal. Dutton (2003) details the story of a meeting that began with an

appreciative introduction whereby the meeting’s facilitator expressed appreciation for the

strengths of each person in the room. At the Administration and Finance office of the University

of California, Berkeley, an appreciation website allows employees to document each other’s

contributions. These documents are then shared with the entire organization (Smith, 2013).

Appreciation programs are most likely to foster gratitude when they focus on praising

employees and teams for their effort and perseverance. Conversely, they are less likely to foster

gratitude when they single out one employee’s performance at the expense of others, such as

rewarding a top sales associate at a car dealership (Brun & Dugas, 2008). From the recipient’s

perspective, appreciation programs have the potential to show employees that they are valued by

the organization, ensuring that they do not perceive themselves as taken for granted or otherwise

ignored by their coworkers and managers. From a third party perspective, these person-focused

programs can help employees recognize the integral role that their colleagues play in their own

success and the success of the organization as a whole, strengthen interpersonal relationships and

institutionalize gratitude by showing employees that the organization values grateful emotions.

Proposition 3: Appreciation programs increase episodic gratitude.

Page 11 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 12

Contact with beneficiaries. Although people frequently feel gratitude when they receive

help from others, past research has demonstrated that they also feel gratitude for the opportunity

to give help to others. For example, in a two-week study of hospital personnel, employees

frequently listed their ability to help their patients as an important source of daily gratitude

(Cheng, Tsui, & Lam, 2015). Although many organizations cite their positive impact on

customers’ lives as a core component of their missions, the link between employees’ actions and

the benefits they produce is often unclear (Grant, 2007). We argue that organizations can

inculcate gratitude by highlighting these connections through beneficiary contact programs.

Research has identified contact with beneficiaries as an important job design principle

(Grant, 2007; Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Some jobs, such as janitorial work, involve infrequent

direct contact with beneficiaries while other jobs, such as firefighting, involve more frequent and

meaningful contact (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Interest in these differences across

industries has sparked research on interventions that can increase employees’ contact with

beneficiaries. For example, Grant et al. (2007) instituted an organizational practice whereby

employees at a university donations call center directly interacted with their beneficiaries (in this

case, scholarship recipients). Among their effects, such interventions have been shown to

improve employees’ feelings of social worth, prosocial motivation, and job persistence (Grant &

Berg, 2012; Grant & Gino, 2010). Moreover, Dutton, Roberts, and Bednar (2010) suggest that

prosocial characteristics such as kindness, benevolence, and helpfulness become more accessible

through beneficiary contact.

Whereas past research has typically focused on the impact of beneficiary contact

programs for employee performance and commitment, beneficiary contact should also directly

impact employee gratitude. Individuals intrinsically enjoy helping each other (Schwartz &

Page 12 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 13

Sendor, 1999), actively seek out meaningful work when choosing their careers (Bunderson &

Thompson, 2009) and directly acknowledge their impact on others as a principle source of

gratitude in the workplace (Cheng et al., 2015). Grant, Dutton, and Rosso (2008) propose that

opportunities to help others serve a psychological benefit, promoting employee gratitude by

enhancing the fulfilment they find in their work. Anecdotal evidence likewise supports the link

between gratitude and beneficiary contact. In one example, a florist discussed her appreciation

for the opportunity to give her customers useful advice and help them pick the “right” bouquet

(Bowe, Bowe, & Streeter, 2009).

Proposition 4: Beneficiary contact interventions increase episodic gratitude.

Developmental feedback. Beyond the help received and given to others, employees may

also feel gratitude for the personal growth and competencies they develop on the job (Hackman

& Oldham, 1976). Unfortunately, in many organizations, leaders offer employees limited

feedback on their development, leaving them unaware of their progress (Kluger & DeNisi,

1996). For example, in one survey, 70% of employees indicated that they have never had a

meaningful discussion about performance with their managers (Schneier, 1995). As a result,

employees often feel anxious, unsure of their progress, and unsatisfied with their relationships

with their leaders. Developmental feedback can play a key role in addressing these issues,

providing employees with a clear understanding of their personal growth trajectories while

producing gratitude for the progress they have made.

Developmental feedback refers to a manager’s efforts to provide employees with useful

information that enables them to learn and develop their skills (Zhou, 2003). Unlike routine

performance evaluations, developmental feedback is future-oriented and focused on employees’

personal improvement (Li, Harris, Boswell, & Xie, 2011). It is designed to leverage employees’

Page 13 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 14

intrinsic motivation, helping them see how they are progressing and where they might go next.

At the broadest level, developmental feedback can be conceptualized as a component of high-

quality mentoring relationships, which “promote mutual growth, learning, and development”

(Ragins, 2012: 519). Past research has shown that developmental feedback, when delivered in a

context that emphasizes mutual trust and respect, helps employees be more creative (Zhou, 2003)

and more effective performers (Li et al., 2011).

Here we propose that developmental feedback is positively associated with employee

gratitude. For example, hospital employees expressed opportunities to develop new clinical skills

as a key source of gratitude (Cheng et al., 2015). As noted by Ragins (2012), interactions such as

mentoring are likely to be directly related to employees’ thriving at work, helping them develop

their skills and become the best people they can be (Moss & Sanchez, 2004). Developmental

feedback thus signals to employees that others in the organization care about their personal and

professional well-being, leading them to become aware of the benefits provided by the job and

the organization for their self-improvement.

Proposition 5: Developmental feedback increases episodic gratitude.

CONTINGENCIES OF GRATITUDE EMERGENCE

Although gratitude initiatives have the potential to positively impact employees, they also

exist within an institutional framework that presents challenges and risks. If perceived as a

means of pressuring employees to compete or work longer hours, appreciation programs and

beneficiary contact initiatives might lead to jealousy and envy (Smith & Kim, 2007) and increase

stress and burnout (Bunderson & Thompson, 2009). Similarly, developmental feedback

initiatives might produce cynicism when perceived as disingenuous, or otherwise lead to

excessive pride. These risks are not unique to gratitude initiatives. The effects of organizational

Page 14 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 15

practices are often inconsistent, hinging on a variety of moderating factors (Hong, Liao, Hu, &

Jiang, 2013). Similarly, many factors may moderate the emergence of gratitude across levels of

analysis (Fulmer & Ostroff, 2015). In this section, we highlight several key contingencies of

gratitude initiatives and gratitude emergence at individual and organizational levels. Each of

these contingencies and their associated risks is summarized in Table 2.

------------------

Insert Table 2

------------------

Contingencies of Episodic Gratitude Emergence

Gratitude can be a particularly challenging emotion to cultivate. People often acclimate to

the benefits they receive, causing gratitude to give way to indifference and even entitlement

(Harvey & Dasborough, 2015). To avoid such acclimation, scholars have argued that a

beneficiary must (a) be aware of the benefits she receives, (b) perceive the intentions of the

benefactor to be genuine (rather than instrumental), and (c) perceive the received benefits to be

costly to the benefactor (Tesser, Gatewood, & Driver, 1968; Wood et al., 2008). Drawing from

this literature, we argue that gratitude initiatives are most likely to facilitate gratitude in the

context of attentiveness to alternative outcomes, benevolent HR attributions, and humility.

Recognizing the benefit: Attentiveness to alternative outcomes. Gratitude initiatives

provide employees with many beneficial experiences. However, employees’ feelings of gratitude

are contingent upon their recognition of those benefits, which can be difficult to sustain.

According to Frijda’s (1988) “law of habituation”, people tend to become accustomed to their

situations and are likely to experience decreasingly intense emotional reactions to the benefits

they consistently receive over time.

Page 15 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 16

One of the most direct ways for employees to maintain a recognition of the benefits that

gratitude initiatives provide is to attend to possible alternatives. As noted by Frijda (1988),

“adaptation to satisfaction can be counteracted by constantly being aware of how fortunate one’s

condition is and how it could have been otherwise, or actually was otherwise before” (354).

Attention to alternative outcomes is consistent with the notion of counterfactual thought

(Kahneman & Miller, 1986) and is particularly relevant to gratitude when directed to less

desirable alternative outcomes, such as working for an organization with less helpful colleagues

or fewer opportunities (Epstude & Roese, 2008). Similarly, gratitude can be expected to emerge

by considering the challenges one has faced in the past (Fagley, 2012).

Although individuals can be expected to vary in their dispositional attentiveness to

alternative outcomes, social cognitive research suggests that these alternatives can also be made

more salient by the situation (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Evidence suggests that one of the most

reliable elicitors of attentiveness to an alternative outcome is the psychological closeness of that

outcome (Morris & Moore, 2000). For example, individuals who entered the workforce during

the recession (and therefore faced poor employment prospects) were particularly grateful for

their jobs (Bianchi, 2013). Beyond timing, research suggests that attentiveness to alternatives is

particularly likely when one’s situation is counter to the norms of a particular region, industry, or

organization (Buck & Miller, 1994).

Proposition 6: Attentiveness to alternative outcomes facilitates the emergence of

episodic gratitude from gratitude initiatives.

Recognizing the benefactor: Benevolent HR attributions. Another step in inculcating

gratitude is for employees to recognize that the benefactor is acting benevolently, rather than

instrumentally. To this end, HR attributions are likely to play a critical role. Nishii, Lepak, and

Page 16 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 17

Schneider (2008) define HR attributions as “causal explanations that employees make regarding

management’s motivations for using particular HR practices” (507). Employees’ attributions for

their organizations’ HR practices are a central contingency of their effects. Thus, “the effect of

HR practices is not likely to be automatic and always as expected; instead, their effect will reside

in the meanings that employees attach to those practices” (Nishii et al., 2008: 504).

In particular, we focus on benevolent HR attributions. Benevolent attributions reflect a

belief that an HR practice was enacted to improve employees’ well-being. Less benevolent HR

attributions conversely reflect a belief that an HR practice was enacted to extract more output

from employees. When attributed to benevolent motives, employees are likely to respond to

gratitude initiatives with enthusiasm and engagement. For instance, they might nominate their

coworkers for appreciation awards, attend events that provide beneficiary contact, and follow up

with their mentors after developmental feedback sessions. In contrast, when attributed to less

benevolent motives, employees are unlikely to engage with the initiatives. Instead, they might

feel manipulated and coerced, and experience negative emotions such as anger and contempt.

As with other attributional phenomena, HR attributions can be expected to emerge from

both dispositional and situational forces (Kelley, 1973). For example, some individuals are more

dispositionally cynical than others, and by association tend to hold more cynical attributions for

prosocial behavior (Rioux & Penner, 2001). Attributions can likewise be shaped by the signals

sent by the other party. Employees are particularly likely to develop benevolent HR attributions

when the organization treats them justly and management demonstrates its trustworthiness over

time (Ployhart & Ryan, 1997).

Proposition 7: Benevolent HR attributions facilitate the emergence of episodic

gratitude from gratitude initiatives.

Page 17 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 18

Recognizing the cost: Humility. As a third step in ensuring that organizations’ gratitude

initiatives are successful, employees must perceive that the benefits they receive carry more costs

for the benefactor than what might be reasonably expected. In this final contingency of episodic

gratitude, employee humility is likely to play a critical role.

At its core, humility entails a recognition and acceptance that “something greater than the

self exists” (Ou et al., 2014: 37). It connotes a willingness to view oneself accurately, an

appreciation of others’ strengths and contributions, and an openness to feedback and new ideas

(Owens, Johnson, & Mitchell, 2013), with positive implications for employee performance and

adaptiveness (Owens & Hekman, 2012).

Initiatives such as beneficiary contact provide many opportunities for employees to feel

gratitude, but also provide opportunities for employees to feel excessive pride. Employees might

become overly enamored with their impact on the organization’s stakeholders, improving their

self-efficacy but reducing their connectedness to others. As previously reviewed, gratitude only

emerges when individuals perceive that others have exerted effort and sacrificed to help them

(Wood et al., 2008). When the benefit that is received is perceived as wholly commensurate with

one’s own efforts, pride is more likely to emerge than gratitude (Hu & Kaplan, 2015). As noted

by Owens et al. (2013), humility “entails the recognition and appreciation of knowledge and

guidance beyond the self” (1518) and is thus uniquely situated to temper feelings of pride.

Humility has been characterized as a malleable interpersonal trait that is susceptible to

change over time (Owens & Hekman, 2015). Thus, although it is an individual difference, it can

be influenced by interventions. Owens et al. (2013) note that humility notably involves accurate

self-perception, including a reduction in overconfidence and a concomitant recognition that

forces beyond the self are a necessary component of success. Indeed, scholars have begun to

Page 18 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 19

examine the efficacy of humility interventions (Romanowska, Larsson, & Theorell, 2015) and

humility-based leadership training programs (Hayes & Comer, 2010).

Proposition 8: Humility facilitates the emergence of episodic gratitude from

gratitude initiatives.

Contingencies of Persistent Gratitude Emergence

As previously discussed, persistent gratitude entails the development of an emotion

schema, and thus is predicated on frequent and strong feelings of gratitude within the

organization. However, episodic gratitude by itself is unlikely to be sufficient for persistent

gratitude to readily emerge. To develop a gratitude schema, employees must also engage in

continual retroactive thought about their gratitude. Furthermore, disruptive experiences that run

counter to this schema must be minimized.

Reinforcing a schema: Rumination. Individuals differ in the extent to which they are

influenced by affective episodes, and one key predictor of these differences is rumination.

Whereas scholars typically discuss rumination within the context of negative emotions (Whitmer

& Gotlib, 2013), it is also possible to ruminate over positive emotions. This positive rumination

is defined as “the tendency to respond to the positive state with recurrent thoughts of one’s

positive emotional state and positive self-qualities” (Gilbert, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Gruber, 2013:

737). It is an internal, cognitive process that involves consciously thinking about a positive

emotion after it occurs, involving such terms as “reminiscing” and “basking” (Martin & Tesser,

1996), which continues over an extended period of time (Wang, Liao, Zhan, & Shi, 2011).

Research on positive rumination suggests that employees who tend to savor and focus on

their individual gratitude experiences will be most likely to translate their episodic gratitude into

persistent gratitude. Positive rumination enhances the benefits of individuals’ positive emotions,

Page 19 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 20

leading to higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of depression (Feldman, Joormann, &

Johnson, 2008). In contrast, a failure to ruminate over positive events can create persistent

negative moods and even depressive symptoms (Rottenberg, Kasch, Gross, & Gotlib, 2002).

Most directly, research has demonstrated that individuals who tend to ruminate over positive

emotions subsequently experience them more frequently than their peers (Quoidbach, Berry,

Hansenne, & Mikolajczak, 2010). In contrast, individuals who do not ruminate tend to dampen

their positive emotions, focusing on the low likelihood that the emotions will be experienced in

the future. Here, we hypothesize that rumination will facilitate the development of gratitude-

based emotion schemas, heightening the accessibility of individuals’ gratitude-inducing

experiences and ultimately strengthening the link between episodic and persistent gratitude.

Proposition 9: Rumination facilitates the emergence of persistent gratitude from

episodic gratitude.

Weakening a schema: Disruptive events. Emotion schemas develop from persistent

patterns of emotion in a given context. However, schema development may be compromised by

disruptive events (Morgeson, 2005; Morgeson, Mitchell, & Liu, 2015). Past research has

examined the notion of disruptive events in varied ways, typically focusing on how a variety of

exogenous shocks (Vergne, 2012) and unexpected disturbances (Yukl, 2002) interrupt employee

perceptions and outcomes. For example, Holtom, Mitchell, Lee, and Inderrieden (2005) found

that environmental shocks such as job offers, corporate mergers, layoffs, and high-intensity

arguments with coworkers dramatically shifted employees’ perceptions of their organizations

and ultimately exhibited a significant impact on employee turnover.

Disruptive events, particularly those that are of high intensity, are most likely to mitigate

the emergence of persistent gratitude when they directly counter the association between

Page 20 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 21

gratitude and the work environment. Examples include the arrival of a new CEO who encourages

transactional leadership principles and the introduction of new performance standards that pit

employees against one another. Such events are likely to introduce variability in employees’

experiences with gratitude in the organization, disrupting the emergence process for persistent

gratitude (Harvey & Dasborough, 2015). With mixed messages about the link between gratitude

and the organizational context, it no longer remains clear how to interpret ambiguous

information, and the gratitude-based emotion schemas employees develop are likely to be less

strong and stable.

Proposition 10: Disruptive events mitigate the link between episodic gratitude

and persistent gratitude.

Contingencies of Collective Gratitude Emergence

Following the development of persistent gratitude, an important question is whether

collective gratitude might emerge at the organizational level of analysis. Here, we argue that this

is most likely to occur when the organizational context facilitates a convergence of persistent

gratitude across individuals, induced through HR alignment and interdependent work practices.

Sending clear signals: HR alignment. The notion of HR alignment is rooted in the

strategic human resources management (SHRM) literature, which finds that HR practices are

most effective when thought of as “bundles” around a coherent culture or goal (Becker &

Huselid, 2006). For example, some HR bundles are oriented toward work-family balance (Perry-

Smith & Blum, 2000), with interrelated practices that ensure such balance through their

compensation systems, training programs, and leave policies.

Within the context of gratitude, an organization could be said to possess an aligned

system of gratitude-oriented practices if it deploys multiple distinct gratitude initiatives in

Page 21 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 22

tandem. An organization with strong HR alignment simultaneously employs appreciation

programs, contact with beneficiaries, developmental feedback policies, and related practices. In

contrast, an organization with weak HR alignment might utilize appreciation programs but offer

few opportunities for beneficiary contact. Similarly, an organization with weak HR alignment

might employ its practices inconsistently across people and time (Bowen & Ostroff, 2004).

A fundamental assumption of the HR literature is that HR systems send stronger signals

to employees when they are aligned (Schneider, Salvaggio, & Subirats, 2002). Following this

logic, HR alignment should strengthen the link between persistent gratitude and collective

gratitude. A single HR initiative aimed at employee gratitude conveys weak and ambiguous

signals, and is therefore likely to create high variability in persistent gratitude across employees.

For example, whereas some employees might develop persistent gratitude through their

experiences with a beneficiary contact program, others might fail to do so due to their

experiences with a poor feedback system. Thus, HR systems aligned toward employee gratitude

are most likely to send strong signals that will facilitate collective gratitude emergence.

Proposition 11: HR alignment facilitates the emergence of collective gratitude

from persistent gratitude.

Facilitating interaction: Interdependent work practices. Organizations vary

dramatically in how they structure their work. One important component of this variation is

interdependence (Wageman, 1999). In some organizations, work is highly independent:

communication is minimal among employees and reward systems emphasize individual

achievement. Prototypical examples include real estate agencies and car dealerships, where

employees are given independent responsibility for particular sales and paid a commission based

on their individual performance. In other organizations, work is highly interdependent:

Page 22 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 23

employees communicate frequently and must rely on each other to achieve the desired outcome.

Common examples include medical teams and advertising agencies, where employees must rely

on each other’s expertise and are collectively judged on group outcomes such as patient mortality

(Klein, Ziegert, Knight, & Xiao, 2006; Wageman, 1995).

Interdependent work practices have a wide range of implications for group processes and

performance. For example, they tend to increase information sharing (Crawford & Haaland,

1972) and help groups leverage the benefits of informational diversity (Jehn, Northcraft, &

Neale, 1999). Here, we propose that interdependent work structures also increase the likelihood

that persistent gratitude will emerge at the organizational level as collective gratitude. In

interdependent work structures, employees must rely on each other as a fundamental aspect of

daily work. They become more emotionally connected and attuned to each other’s actions

(Kanov et al., 2004). As a result, employees in interdependent organizations will be more likely

to discuss their feelings of gratitude, as well as demonstrate their gratitude nonverbally. Such

interactions and communications facilitate the spread of emotions within the organization (Kelly

& Barsade, 2001). Thus, persistent gratitude is most likely to become a shared feature of the

organization when interdependent work structures are in place (Lissack & Letiche, 2002).

Proposition 12: Interdependent work practices facilitate the emergence of

collective gratitude from persistent gratitude.

CONSEQUENCES OF GRATITUDE

Past research has argued that “emotions not only make us feel something, they make us

feel like doing something” (Gross & Thompson, 2007: 5). Here, we suggest that gratitude results

in a targeted set of outcomes for employees, their relationships, and the organization. As shown

in Figure 1, gratitude at each level of analysis is likely to have outcomes at the same level.

Page 23 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 24

Nonetheless, we recognize that cross-level effects are likely. For instance, it is reasonable to

suspect that grateful emotions will produce momentary shifts in well-being (Watkins, 2014).

Episodic Gratitude and Citizenship

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) refer to employee behaviors that indirectly

contribute to the functioning of the organization, but are less formally rewarded and more

discretionary than in-role job tasks (Organ, Podsakoff, & MacKenzie, 2006). Examples include

filling in for a coworker during an emergency and making new employees feel welcome. These

OCBs in turn make organizations more attractive places to work (Organ et al., 2006), facilitate

effective organizational functioning (Bolino, Turnley, & Bloodgood, 2002), and have direct links

to organizational performance (Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009).

Scholars have long argued that feelings of gratitude encourage prosocial behavior,

facilitating interpersonal exchange and acts of sacrifice (Algoe, Haidt, & Gable, 2008). Several

mechanisms for this effect have been posited. Despite its brevity, feelings of gratitude can shift

how beneficiaries perceive their benefactors as well as other people in general. Specifically,

research suggests that gratitude draws beneficiaries’ attention to others’ positive qualities. As a

result, they are more willing to associate with other people when they feel grateful than when

they do not (Algoe et al. 2008). Individuals also become more approach-oriented and report

greater interest in spending time with others and strengthening their relationships when feeling

grateful (Watkins, 2004). They similarly become more motivated to enhance others’ reputations

(Algoe et al., 2008). One recent study provided empirical support for these arguments,

demonstrating that daily changes in employees’ feelings of gratitude are positively associated

with daily OCBs (Spence, Brown, Keeping & Lian, 2014).

Proposition 13: Episodic gratitude increases organizational citizenship.

Page 24 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 25

Persistent Gratitude and Well-being

Subjective well-being is a multifaceted phenomenon, broadly defined by individuals’

evaluations of their lives as a whole (Diener, Diener, & Diener, 1995: 851). Individuals who

report high levels of subjective well-being tend to exhibit low levels of anxiety, depression, and

social dysfunction (Diener, Lucas, & Scollon, 2006), with positive implications for employee

behavior and performance (Ford, Cerasoli, Higgins, & Decesare, 2011).

Several streams of research converge to support the effects of persistent gratitude on

well-being. The most compelling work has employed experimental designs, examining the

causal effect of gratitude. Lambert, Fincham, and Stillman (2012) experimentally demonstrated

that gratitude decreases depressive symptoms through positive reframing. Kaplan et al. (2014)

similarly demonstrated a direct effect of a gratitude writing intervention on employee well-being.

Research on the mechanisms underlying these effects indicates that gratitude draws attention to

positive events (Lambert, Graham, & Fincham, 2009) and facilitates the persistent use of

effective coping strategies, including support-seeking behavior and a tendency to identify growth

opportunities (Wood et al., 2008; Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). As gratitude experiences

coalesce into a persistent schema, individuals become more consistently attuned to positive life

events, and better able to cope with the challenges they face, with lasting implications for

individuals’ long-term well-being (Lambert et al., 2009).

Proposition 14: Persistent gratitude increases well-being.

Persistent Gratitude and Communal Exchange

Employees possess many different types of relationships with their coworkers, managers,

and other organizational stakeholders. One way to differentiate these relationships is according

to their reliance on a communal norm versus an exchange-based norm. Exchange-based norms

Page 25 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 26

are characterized by a short-term focus, whereby benefits are given in exchange for benefits

received. Communal norms, in contrast, are need-based and do not clearly specify obligations.

Whereas communal norms are characterized by trust and closeness, exchange norms are not

(Clark & Mills, 2011). As noted by Cropanzano and Mitchell (2005), communal norms evolve

within organizations when employees develop future-orientated relationships characterized by

high levels of trust between parties.

Drawing from this literature, we argue that persistent gratitude is likely to fundamentally

shift how employees think about workplace relationships, moving from an exchange-based norm

toward a communal-based norm. Scholars have demonstrated that over time, gratitude is

associated with the development of high-quality relationships (Kaplan et al., 2014; Lambert,

Clark, Durtschi, Fincham, & Graham, 2010). From the beneficiary’s perspective, gratitude draws

attention to the benevolence and affection of the benefactors, providing a supportive context for

their relationship (Clark, 1983). From the benefactor’s perspective, gratitude draws attention to

the beneficiary’s future intentions, letting the benefactor know that the recipient values the

benefactor and is likely to engage in future relationship maintenance behaviors (Algoe, 2012). In

this manner, gratitude drives a positive spiral of reciprocity and altruistic norms in relationships.

Proposition 15: Persistent gratitude increases communal exchange.

Collective Gratitude and Organizational Resilience

Organizations face many threats to their long-term survival. Fluctuating market

conditions, changing consumer demands, and many other forces constantly challenge

organizations’ viability. In the face of such adversity, some organizations thrive. Many even

utilize adversity as an opportunity for growth and development (Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003). Caza

and Milton (2012) refer to this capacity of an organization to exhibit effective adaptation in the

Page 26 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 27

face of adversity as resilience. In resilient organizations, employees respond to new demands

with optimism and persistence. For example, Meyer (1982) details the story of a hospital that

exhibited resilience by successfully adapting to a strike. In less resilient organizations, adversity

leads to lasting problems with employee stress, counterproductive work behavior, and turnover.

Sutcliffe and Vogus (2003) explicate a number of factors that predict organizations’

capacities for resilience and suggest a direct link to collective gratitude. First, resilience is most

likely to occur in organizations with significant relational capital. As already reviewed, gratitude

is closely aligned with the maintenance of such capital (Watkins, 2014). Gratitude initiatives set

the stage for high-quality relationships, strengthening employees’ dedication and increasing their

willingness to voice their concerns (Lambert & Fincham, 2011). Second, resilience is most likely

to occur in organizations when employees see a direct link between the organization and their

personal growth. This aspect of resilience is directly associated with employees’ shared gratitude

for developmental opportunities embedded in organizations’ HR systems. Finally, resilience is

most likely to occur in organizations where employees enjoy high levels of trust, which past

research has directly linked to gratitude (Dunn & Schweitzer, 2005). Thus, collective gratitude

can be theorized to promote organizational resilience by ensuring sustained relational capital,

opportunities for personal growth, and interpersonal trust.

Proposition 16: Collective gratitude increases organizational resilience.

Collective Gratitude and Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been defined as “the commitment of a business

to contribute to sustainable economic development, working with employees, their families, and

the local community and society at large to improve their quality of life.” (World Business

Council for Sustainable Development, 2004). The scope of CSR initiatives is broad. CSR might

Page 27 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 28

include the development of a sustainable supply chain, a community engagement program, or a

customer safety initiative. Whereas CSR research has traditionally remained in the purview of

business ethicists and corporate strategists, scholars have increasingly displayed an interest in the

microfoundations of CSR (Jones, Willness, & Madley 2013). Within this literature, scholars have

emphasized that CSR depends upon employees, who engage in extra-role behavior aimed at

acting in a socially responsible manner (Vlachos, Panagopoulos, & Rapp, 2014).

Converging lines of research suggest a direct link between collective gratitude and CSR.

As previously reviewed, gratitude promotes an other orientation characterized by enhanced

connection to others and prosocial behavior, including a pay-it-forward distribution of benefits to

third parties (McCullough, Kimeldorf, & Cohen, 2008). This suggests that when gratitude

emerges as a collective organization-level phenomenon, the organization will become

increasingly receptive to an organizational strategy aimed at promoting others’ well-being.

Consistent with this notion, grateful employees show a higher concern with the organization’s

social responsibility than less grateful employees (Andersson, Giacalone, & Jurkiewicz, 2007).

As one anecdotal example of this link, Panasonic both lists gratitude among its core values and

invests heavily in CSR (Panasonic, 2015). In sum, CSR represents an expansive prosocial

response to gratitude at the organizational level. It extends throughout and beyond the

organization, even to individuals with whom employees seldom directly interact.

Proposition 17: Collective gratitude increases corporate social responsibility.

DISCUSSION

Gratitude is a powerful force with a wide array of desirable consequences, reflected by its

prominence in philosophy, literature, and religions throughout the world. Whereas societies have

long recognized the benefits of gratitude, little is known about its role in modern organizations.

Page 28 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 29

As noted by Emmons (2003), “there is virtually no hard research on gratitude in organizations”

(84), highlighting the need for theoretical development. Unfortunately, little progress has been

made since Emmons’ original comment more than a decade ago. In this paper, we proposed a

model that begins to examine how organizations can develop employee gratitude, and identifies

some of the key benefits and challenges of this effort.

Theoretical Contributions

Our paper makes a number of theoretical contributions. First, we broaden scholars’

understanding of gratitude itself, and argue that a multilevel approach to gratitude in

organizations is vital (Ashkanasy & Ashton-James, 2007; Rosenberg, 1998). The most widely

examined form of gratitude—episodic gratitude—is at the event level. However, over time,

gratitude can emerge at the individual level in the form of persistent gratitude and as a collective

gratitude that is shared by the organization’s members. Second, we contribute to research by

moving beyond the gratitude literature’s primary focus on its event-level antecedents, and

proposing that organizations can reap the benefits of gratitude by implementing gratitude-

targeted HR initiatives. In doing so, we situate gratitude research squarely within the

organizational sciences. By highlighting the benefits of a set of coherent organizational practices,

we also complement past research on positive organizing around phenomena such as compassion

(Dutton, Worline, Frost, & Lilius, 2006) and forgiveness (Fehr & Gelfand, 2012).

Third, we contribute to the literature by considering the contingencies of gratitude

emergence across levels and, in doing so, further explicating patterns of gratitude emergence at

the event, individual, and organizational levels. Looking beyond its antecedents and

contingencies, we contribute to the literature by considering gratitude’s consequences. Research

on the outcomes of emotion-based phenomena is limited within the organizational sciences,

Page 29 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 30

especially with respect to positive emotions (Hu & Kaplan, 2015). As a result, practitioners are

left with little guidance as to the likely long-term implications of employees’ workplace

emotions. Our model connects gratitude to critical outcomes such as employee citizenship and

organizational resilience. In this way we emphasize that gratitude can exert influences on the

micro, meso, and macro aspects of organizations.

Finally, we note that our research has implications for understanding the role of other

emotions in organizations. Beyond gratitude, organizations interested in cultivating emotions

such as pride, hope, and compassion can benefit from examining how their organizational

practices facilitate these emotions. For example, organizations characterized as “dirty work”

might benefit from practices that increase employees’ pride (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999).

Similarly, organizations facing difficult challenges and low odds of success might benefit from

cultivating hope. A complete understanding of the emotional life of employees requires a

nuanced approach that differentiates discrete emotions across levels of analysis.

Practical Considerations

Balancing the benefits and risks of gratitude. In this paper, we have painted a

primarily positive view of gratitude in organizations. Nonetheless, it is important to note that

efforts to cultivate gratitude come with risks and challenges. If launched in a cynical

environment or with an over-emphasis on instrumental outcomes, appreciation programs might

lead employees to develop feelings of jealousy and anger. Beneficiary contact programs might

lead to employee burnout if they increase employees’ perceived workloads, and developmental

feedback sessions could lead to resentment if employees view them cynically. Even the

consequences of gratitude may come with risks. Scholars have shown that the desire to engage in

organizational citizenship can lead to unethical behavior, such as lying on behalf of the

Page 30 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 31

organization (Umphress, Bingham, & Mitchell, 2010). Similarly, CSR programs might

negatively impact financial performance if launched without a consideration of an organization’s

strategic mission (Porter & Kramer, 2006). From these risks, it is clear that although gratitude

presents many opportunities, it also requires careful management.

Maintaining gratitude over time. For organizations seeking to cultivate long-term

gratitude, a central challenge is ensuring that employees maintain their gratitude over time. To

address this challenge, we emphasize the practical importance of focusing on gratitude’s

contingencies both within the episodic level and across levels. For example, if employees begin

to react to gratitude initiatives with cynicism, the organization might need to examine its culture,

and work to create a more trusting environment. Similarly, if employees begin to react to

gratitude initiatives with indifference, the organization might need to examine employees’

attentiveness to alternative outcomes, and minimize the presence of disruptive events.

Presumably, employee gratitude is most likely to be sustained over time when it successfully

emerges at the individual level as an emotional schema as well as at the organizational level.

How should gratitude be measured? As an important next step in organization-based

gratitude research, scholars must give careful consideration to gratitude measurement. Looking

first to episodic gratitude, gratitude can be measured with emotion checklists in a manner similar

to other emotions such as anger and compassion. In this process, scholars should be particularly

careful to distinguish gratitude from other related emotions such as inspiration and awe (Haidt,

2003). To measure persistent gratitude, scholars must assess the frequency with which

employees tend to experience gratitude in the workplace. An example item, for instance, might

state: “While at work, I often feel a sense of gratitude.” Scholars might also adopt a more

granular approach, examining the tendency to feel gratitude within a particular unit of the

Page 31 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 32

organization or while interacting with a particular colleague. When examining persistent

gratitude, researchers must also carefully differentiate the construct from related phenomena,

such as perceived organizational support. At the organizational level, we recommend that

collective gratitude be measured via a direct consensus approach (Chan, 1998), and encourage

scholars to explore patterns of collective gratitude across subgroups (Harrison & Klein, 2007).

We also note the importance of measuring gratitude’s emergence across levels. There is a

dearth of quantitative research on emergence in general (Kozlowski & Chao, 2012), largely due

to its methodological challenges. For researchers to document emergence, longitudinal research

is necessary (Fulmer & Ostroff, 2015). To examine emergence from episodic gratitude to

persistent gratitude, researchers can utilize experience sampling methods. To examine emergence

from persistent to collective gratitude, researchers can measure persistent gratitude within an

organization and assess its convergence over time. Ideally, researchers can survey employees at

key points in time, such as when a new unit forms or a new initiative is enacted. Such research

can provide valuable information about the length of time needed for collective gratitude to

emerge and assess the role of specific situational constraints and affordances.

Conclusion

Most people believe that gratitude is a desirable positive emotion (Gallup, 1999).

Nonetheless, there is a fundamental lack of attention to what gratitude “looks like” in

organizations and to the organizational practices that enable employees to experience gratitude

on a daily basis. As noted by McCraty and Childre (2004), “In the absence of conscious efforts

to engage, build, and sustain positive perceptions and emotions, we all too automatically fall

prey to feelings such as irritation, anxiety, worry, frustration, judgmentalness, self-doubt, and

Page 32 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 33

blame” (242). By making gratitude a fundamental part of the employee experience, leaders and

managers can leverage the benefits of gratitude for employees and the organization as a whole.

Page 33 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 34

REFERENCES

Algoe, S. B. 2012. Find, remind, and bind: The functions of gratitude in everyday relationships.

Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6: 455-469.

Algoe, S., Haidt, J., & Gable, S. 2008. Beyond reciprocity: Gratitude and relationships in

everyday life. Emotion, 8: 425-429.

Andersson, L. M., Giacalone, R. A., & Jurkiewicz, C. L. 2007. On the relationship of hope and

gratitude to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 70: 401-409.

Ashforth, B. E., & Kreiner, G. E. 1999. “How can you do it?”: Dirty work and the challenge of

constructing a positive identity. Academy of Management Review, 24: 413-434.

Ashkanasy, N. M., & Ashton-James, C. E. 2007. Positive emotion in organizations: A multi-

level framework. In C. L. Cooper & D. Nelson (Eds.), Positive organizational behavior:

Accenting the positive at work: 57-73. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons.

Bargh, J. A., & Ferguson, M. J. 2000. Beyond behaviorism: on the automaticity of higher mental

processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126: 925-945.

Bartlett, M. Y., & DeSteno, D. 2006. Gratitude and prosocial behavior: Helping when it costs

you. Psychological Science, 17: 319-325.

Becker, B. E., & Huselid, M. A. 2006. Strategic human resources management: where do we go

from here? Journal of Management, 32: 898-925.

Bertocci, P. A., & Millard, R. M. 1963. Personality and the good: Psychological and ethical

perspectives. New York: David McKay.

Bianchi, E. C. 2013. The bright side of bad times: The affective advantages of entering the

workforce in a recession. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58: 587-623.

Page 34 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 35

Bolino, M. C., Turnley, W. H., & Bloodgood, J. M. 2002. Citizenship behavior and the creation

of social capital in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 27: 505-522.

Bowe, J., Bowe, M., & Streeter, S. 2009. Gig: Americans talk about their jobs. New York:

Broadway Books.

Bowen, D. E., & Ostroff, C. (2004). Understanding HRM–firm performance linkages: The role

of the “strength” of the HRM system. Academy of Management Review, 29: 203-221

Bower, G. H. 1981. Mood and memory. American Psychologist, 36: 129-148.

Brun, J. P., & Dugas, N. 2008. An analysis of employee recognition: Perspectives on human

resources practices. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19: 716-

730.

Buck, M. L., & Miller, D. T. 1994. Reactions to incongruous negative life events. Social Justice

Research, 7: 29-46.

Bunderson, J. S., & Thompson, J. A. 2009. The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings, and the

double-edged sword of deeply meaningful work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54:

32-57.

Cameron, K. S., & Spreitzer, G. M. 2012. What is positive in positive organizational scholarship.

In K.S. Cameron & G.M. Spreitzer (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive organizational

scholarship. New York: Oxford University Press.

Caza, B. B., Milton, L. P. 2012. Resilience at work. Building capability in the face of adversity.

In K.S. Cameron, G.M. Spreitzer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive

organizational scholarship, 895-908. New York: Oxford University Press.

Page 35 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 36

Chan, D. 1998. Functional relations among constructs in the same content domain at different

levels of analysis: A typology of composition models. Journal of Applied Psychology,

83: 234-246.

Cheng, S. T., Tsui, P. K., & Lam, J. H. 2015. Improving mental health in health care

practitioners: Randomized controlled trial of a gratitude intervention. Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83: 177-186.

Clark, M. S. 1983. Reactions to aid in communal and exchange relationships. In J. D. Fisher, A.

Nadler, & B. M. DePaulo (Eds.), New directions in helping: 281-304. New York:

Academic Press.

Clark, M. S., & Mills, J. 2011. A theory of communal (and exchange) relationships. In P. A. M.

Van Lange, A. W. Kruglanski, & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social

psychology, 232-250. Los Angeles: Sage.

Compton, R. J. 2003. The interface between emotion and attention: A review of evidence from

psychology and neuroscience. Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Reviews, 2: 115-

129.

Crawford, J. L., & Haaland, G. A. 1972. Predecisional information-seeking and subsequent

conformity in the social inﬂuence process. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 23: 112-119.

Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. 2005. Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review.

Journal of Management, 31: 874-900.

DeCoster, J., & Claypool, H. M. 2004. A meta-analysis of priming effects on impression

formation supporting a general model of informational biases. Personality and Social

Psychology Review, 8: 2-27.

Page 36 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 37

DeWall, C. N., Lambert, N. M., Pond, R. S., Kashdan, T. B., & Fincham, F. D. 2012. A grateful

heart is a nonviolent heart: Cross-sectional, experience sampling, longitudinal, and

experimental evidence. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3: 232-240.

Diener, E., Diener, M., & Diener, C. 1995. Factors predicting the subjective well-being of

nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69: 851-864.

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., & Scollon, C. N. 2006. Beyond the hedonic treadmill: Revising the

adaptation theory of well-being. American Psychologist, 61: 305–314.

Dunn, J. R., & Schweitzer, M. E. 2005. Feeling and believing: The influence of emotion on trust.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88: 736-748.

Dutton, J. E. 2003. Energizing your workplace: Building and sustaining high quality

relationships at work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Dutton, J., Roberts, L., & Bednar, J. 2010. Prosocial practices, positive identity, and flourishing

at work. In S. Donaldson, M. Csikszentmihalyi & J. Nakamura (Eds.), Applied positive

psychology: Improving everyday life, schools, work, health, and society: 427-431. New

York: Routledge.

Dutton, J. E., Worline, M. C., Frost, P. J., & Lilius, J. 2006. Explaining compassion organizing.

Administrative Science Quarterly, 51: 59–96.

Eisenberg, N., Miller, P. A., Shell, R., McNalley, S., & Shea, C. 1991. Prosocial development in

adolescence: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 27: 849-857.

Elfenbein, H. A. 2008. Emotion in organizations: A review and theoretical integration. Academy

of Management Annals, 1: 315-386.

Page 37 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 38

Emmons, R. A. 2003. Acts of gratitude in organizations. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E.

Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: 81-93. San Francisco: Berrett-

Koehler Publishers.

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. 2003. Counting blessings versus burdens: An

experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 84: 377-389.

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (Eds.). 2004. The psychology of gratitude. New York:

Oxford University Press.

Epstude, K., & Roese, N. J. 2008. The functional theory of counterfactual thinking. Personality

and Social Psychology Review, 12: 168–192.

Fagley, N. S. 2012. Appreciation uniquely predicts life satisfaction above demographics, the Big

5 personality factors, and gratitude. Personality and Individual Differences, 53: 59-63.

Fehr, R., & Gelfand, M. J. 2012. The forgiving organization: A multilevel model of forgiveness

at work. Academy of Management Review, 37: 664-688.

Feldman, G. C., Joormann, J., & Johnson, S. L. 2008. Responses to positive affect: A self-report

measure of rumination and dampening. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32: 507-525.

Ferris, G. R., Arthur, M. M., Berkson, H. M., Kaplan, D. M., Harrell-Cook, G., & Frink, D. D.

1998. Toward a social context theory of the human resource management-organization

effectiveness relationship. Human Resource Management Review, 8: 235-264.

Fisk, G. M. 2010. “I want it all and I want it now!” An examination of the etiology, expression,

and escalation of excessive employee entitlement. Human Resource Management

Review, 20: 102-114.

Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. 1991. Social cognition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Page 38 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 39

Ford, M. T., Cerasoli, C. P., Higgins, J. A., & Decesare, A. L. 2011. Relationships between

psychological, physical, and behavioral health and work performance: A review and

meta-analysis. Work & Stress, 25: 185-204.

Frijda, N. H. 1988. The laws of emotion. American Psychologist, 43: 349-358.

Frijda, N. H., Ortony, A., Sonnemans, J., & Clore, G. L. (1992). The complexity of intensity:

Issues concerning the structure of emotion intensity. In M. Clark (Ed), Review of

Personality and Social Psychology vol 13: Emotion: 90-121. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Fulmer, C. A., & Ostroff, C. 2015. Convergence and emergence in organizations: An integrative

framework and review. Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Gallup. 1999. Survey results on “gratitude,” adults and teenagers. Emerging trends, 20: 4-5, 9.

Gelfand, M. J., Leslie, L. M., & Keller, K. M. (2008). On the etiology of conflict cultures.

Research in Organizational Behavior, 28: 137-166.

Gilbert, K. E., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Gruber, J. 2013. Positive emotion dysregulation across

mood disorders: How amplifying versus dampening predicts emotional reactivity and

illness course. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51: 736-741.

Grant, A. M. 2007. Relational job design and the motivation to make a prosocial difference.

Academy of Management Review, 32: 393-417.

Grant, A. M., & Berg, J. M. 2012. Prosocial motivation. In K. S. Cameron, G. M. Spreitzer

(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship: 28-44. New York,

NY, US: Oxford University Press.

Grant, A. M., Campbell, E. M., Chen, G., Cottone, K., Lapedis, D., & Lee, K. 2007. Impact and

the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on

Page 39 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 40

persistence behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 103:

53-67.

Grant, A. M., Dutton, J. E., & Rosso, B. D. 2008. Giving commitment: Employee support

programs and the prosocial sensemaking process. Academy of Management Journal, 51:

898-918.

Grant, A. M., & Gino, F. 2010. A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude

expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

98: 946-955.

Grant, A. M., & Wrzesniewski, A. 2010. I won’t let you down... or will I? Core self-evaluations,

other-orientation, anticipated guilt and gratitude, and job performance. Journal of

Applied Psychology, 95: 108-121.

Gross, J. J., & Thompson, R. A. 2007. Emotion regulation: Conceptual foundations. In J. J.

Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation: 3-24. New York: Guilford Press.

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. 1976. Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory.

Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16: 250–279.

Haidt, J. 2003. The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.),

Handbook of affective sciences: 852-870. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Harrison, D. A. and Klein, K. J. 2007. What’s the difference? Diversity constructs as separation,

variety, and disparity in organization. Academy of Management Review, 32: 1199–228.

Harvey, P., & Dasborough, M. T. 2015. Entitled to solutions: The need for research on

workplace entitlement. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36: 460-465.

Page 40 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 41

Harvey, P., & Martinko, M. J. 2009. An empirical examination of the role of attributions in

psychological entitlement and its outcomes. Journal of Organizational Behavior,

30: 459-476.

Hayes, M. A., & Comer, M. D. 2010. Start with humility: Lessons from America’s quiet CEOs

on how to build trust and inspire followers. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf.

Hobman, E. V., Restubog, S. L. D., Bordia, P., & Tang, R. L. 2009. Abusive supervision in

advising relationships: Investigating the role of social support. Applied Psychology: An

International Review, 58: 233-256.

Holtom, B., C., Mitchell, T. R., Lee, T. W., & Inderrieden, E. J. 2005. Shocks as causes of

turnover: What they are and how organizations can manage them. Human Resource

Management, 44: 337-352.

Hong, Y., Liao, H., Hu, J., & Jiang, K. 2013. Missing link in the service profit chain: A meta-

analytic review of the antecedents, consequences, and moderators of service climate.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 98: 237-267.

House, R. J., Rousseau, D. M., & Thomas-Hunt, M. 1995. The meso paradigm: A framework for

the integration of micro and macro organizational behavior. In L. L. Cummings & B. M.

Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior, 17: 71-114. Greenwich, CT: JAI

Press.

Hu, X. & Kaplan, S. 2015. Is “feeling good” good enough? Differentiating discrete positive

emotions at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36: 39-58.

Jehn, K. A., Northcraft, G. B., & Neale, M. A. 1999. Why differences make a difference: A ﬁeld

study of diversity, conﬂict, and performance in workgroups. Administrative Science

Quarterly, 44: 741-763.

Page 41 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 42

Jenkins, J. M. & Oatley, K. 1996. Emotional episodes and emotionality through the lifespan. In

C. Magai & S. H. McFadden (Eds.), Handbook of emotion, adult development, and

aging: 421-437. San Diego: Academic Press.

Jones, D., Willness, C., & Madey, S. 2013. Why are job seekers attracted by corporate social

performance? Experimental and field tests of three signal-based mechanisms. Academy

of Management Journal, 57: 383-404.

Kahneman, D., & Miller, D. T. 1986. Nor theory: Comparing reality to its alternatives.

Psychological Review, 93: 136–153.

Kanov, J. M., Maitlis, S., Worline, M. C, Dutton, J. E., Frost, P., & Lilius, J. M. 2004.

Compassion in organizational life. American Behavioral Scientist, 47: 808-827.

Kaplan, S., Bradley-Geist, J. C., Ahmad, A., Anderson, A., Hargrove, A., & Lindsay, A. 2014. A

test of two positive psychology interventions to increase employee well-being. Journal

of Business and Psychology, 29: 367-380.

Kelley, H. H. 1973. The process of causal attributions. American Psychologist, 28: 107–128.

Kelly, J. R., & Barsade, S. G. 2001. Mood and emotions in small groups and work

teams. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86: 99-130.

Klein, K. J., Ziegert, J. C., Knight, A. P., & Xiao, Y. 2006. Dynamic delegation: Shared,

hierarchical, and deindividualized leadership in extreme action teams. Administrative

Science Quarterly, 51: 590-621.

Kluger, A. N., & DeNisi, A. 1996. The effects of feedback interventions on performance: A

historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory.

Psychological Bulletin, 119: 254-284.

Page 42 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 43

Kozlowski, S. W. J. 2012. Groups and teams in organizations: Studying the multilevel dynamics

of emergence. In A. B. Hollingshead, & M. S. Poole (Eds.), Methods for studying small

groups: A behind-the-scenes guide: 260-283. New York: Routledge.

Kozlowski, S. W. J., & Chao, G. T. 2012. The dynamics of emergence: Cognition and cohesion

in work teams. Managerial and Decision Economics, 33: 335-354.

Lambert, N. M., Clark, M. S., Durtschi, J., Fincham, F. D., & Graham, S. M. 2010. Benefits of

expressing gratitude: Expressing gratitude to a partner changes one’s view of the

relationship. Psychological Science, 21: 574-580.

Lambert, N. M., & Fincham, F. D. 2011. Expressing gratitude to a partner leads to more

relationship maintenance behavior. Emotion, 11: 52-60.

Lambert, N. M., Fincham, F. D., & Stillman, T. F. 2012. Gratitude and depressive symptoms:

The role of positive reframing and positive emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 26: 615-

633.

Lambert, N. M., Graham, S. M., & Fincham, F. D. 2009. A prototype analysis of gratitude:

Varieties of gratitude experiences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35:

1193-1207.

Leventhal, H. 1980. Toward a comprehensive theory of emotion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.),

Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 13: 139-197. New York: Academic

Press.

Li, N., Harris, T. B., Boswell, W. R., & Xie, Z. 2011. The role of organizational insiders'

developmental feedback and proactive personality on newcomers' performance: An

interactionist perspective. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96: 1317-1327.

Page 43 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 44

Lissack, M. R., & Letiche, H. 2002. Complexity, emergence, resilience, and coherence: Gaining

perspective on organizations and their study. Emergence: 4, 72-94.

Martin, L. L., & Tesser, A. 1996. Some ruminative thoughts. Advances in Social Cognition, 9:

1-47.

McCraty, R., & Childre, D. 2004. The grateful heart: The psychophysiology of appreciation. In

R. A. Emmons & M. E. McCullough (Eds.), The psychology of gratitude: 230-256. New

York: Oxford University Press.

McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J. A. 2002. The grateful disposition: A conceptual

and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82: 112-127.

McCullough, M. E., Kilpatrick, S. D., Emmons, R. A., & Larson, D. B. 2001. Is gratitude a

moral affect? Psychological Bulletin, 127: 249-266.

McCullough, M. E., Kimeldorf, M. B., & Cohen, A. D. 2008. An adaptation for altruism the

social causes, social effects, and social evolution of gratitude. Current Directions in

Psychological Science, 17: 281-285.

Meyer, A. D. 1982. Adapting to environmental jolts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27: 515-

537.

Morgeson, F. P. 2005. The external leadership of self-managing teams: intervening in the context

of novel and disruptive events. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90: 497-508.

Morgeson, F., Mitchell, T., & Liu, D. 2015. Event system theory: An event-oriented approach to

the organizational sciences. Academy of Management Review, 40: 515-537.

Morris, M. W., & Moore, P. C. 2000. The lessons we (don't) learn: Counterfactual thinking and

organizational accountability after a close call. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45:

737-765.

Page 44 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 45

Mosley, E., & Irvine, D. 2015. The power of thanks: How social recognition empowers

employees and creates a best place to work. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Moss, S. E., & Sanchez, J. I. 2004. Are your employees avoiding you? Managerial strategies for

closing the feedback gap. Academy of Management Executive, 18: 32-44.

Mueller, M. P. 2012 March 23. How to manage (and avoid) entitled employees. New York

Times. http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/managing-and-avoiding-entitled-

employees/, accessed August 2014.

Nishii, L. H., Lepak, D. P., & Schneider, B. 2008. Employee attributions of the “why” of HR

practices: Their effects on employee attitudes and behaviors, and customer satisfaction.

Personnel Psychology, 61: 503-545.

Organ, D. W., Podsakoff, P. M., & MacKenzie, S. B. 2006. Organizational citizenship

behavior: Its nature, antecedents, and consequences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ostroff, C., Kinicki, A. J., & Tamkins, M. M. 2003. Organizational culture and climate. In W. C.

Berman, D.R. Ilgen, & R. J. Klimoski (Eds.) Handbook of psychology, Volume 12: I/O

Psychology. New York: Wiley & Sons.

Ou, A. Y., Tsui, A. S., Kinicki, A. J., Waldman, D. A., Xiao, Z., & Song, L. J. 2014. Humble

chief executive officers’ connections to top management team integration and middle

managers’ responses. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59: 34-72.

Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. 2012. Modeling how to grow: An inductive examination of

humble leader behaviors, contingencies, and outcomes. Academy of Management

Journal, 55: 787-818.

Page 45 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 46

Owens, B., & Hekman, D. R. 2015. How does leader humility influence team performance?

Exploring the mechanisms of contagion and collective promotion focus. Academy of

Management Journal.

Owens, B. P., Johnson, M. D., & Mitchell, T. R. 2013. Expressed humility in organizations:

Implications for performance, teams, and leadership. Organization Science, 24: 1517-

1538.

Panasonic. 2015. Code of conduct. http://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/management/

code-of-conduct.html, accessed May 2015.

Perry-Smith, J. E., & Blum, T. C. 2000. Work-family human resource bundles and perceived

organizational performance. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 1107-1117.

Ployhart, R. E., & Ryan, A. M. 1997. Toward an explanation of applicant reactions: An

examination of organizational justice and attribution frameworks. Organizational

Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 72: 308-335.

Podsakoff, N. P., Whiting, S. W., Podsakoff, P. M., & Blume, B. D. 2009. Individual-and

organizational-level consequences of organizational citizenship behaviors: A meta-

analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94: 122-141.

Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. 2006. Strategy and society: The link between competitive

advantage and corporate social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 84: 78–92.

Quoidbach, J., Berry, E. V., Hansenne, M., & Mikolajczak, M. 2010. Positive emotion regulation

and well-being: Comparing the impact of eight savoring and dampening strategies.

Personality and Individual Differences, 49: 368-373.

Page 46 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 47

Ragins, B. R. 2012. Relational mentoring: A positive approach to mentoring at work. In K. S.

Cameron & G. M. Spreitzer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive organizational

scholarship: 519-536.

Rioux, S. M., & Penner, L. A. 2001. The causes of organizational citizenship behavior: A

motivational analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86: 1306-1314.

Roberts, L. M., Dutton, J. E., Spreitzer, G. M., Heaphy, E. D., & Quinn, R. E. 2005. Composing

the reflected best-self portrait: Building pathways for becoming extraordinary in work

organizations. Academy of Management Review, 30: 712-736.

Romanowska, J., Larsson, G., & Theorell, T. 2015. An art-based leadership intervention for

enhancement of self-awareness, humility, and leader performance. Journal of Personnel

Psychology.

Rosenberg, E. L. 1998. Levels of analysis and the organization of affect. Review of General

Psychology, 2: 247–270.

Rottenberg, J., Kasch, K. L., Gross, J. J., & Gotlib, I. H. 2002. Sadness and amusement reactivity

differentially predict concurrent and prospective functioning in major depressive

disorder. Emotion, 2: 135-146.

Rousseau, D. M. 1985. Issues of level in organizational research: Multi-level and cross-level

perspectives. Research in Organizational Behavior, 1-38.

Schein, E. H. 2010. Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schneider, B., Salvaggio, A. N., & Subirats, M. 2002. Climate strength: a new direction for

climate research. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87: 220-229.

Schneier, C. E. 1995. Capitalizing on performance management, recognition and rewards

systems. In Shaw, D.G, Schneier, C. E., Beatty, R. W., & Lloyd, S. B. (Eds.),

Page 47 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 48

Performance measurement, management and appraisal sourcebook, 360-368. Amherst,

MA: Human Resource Development Press.

Schwartz, C. E., & Sendor, R. M. 1999. Helping others helps oneself: Response shift effects in

peer support. Social Science and Medicine, 48: 1563-1575.

Siegel, J. T., Thomson, A. L., & Navarro, M. A. 2014. Experimentally distinguishing elevation

from gratitude: Oh, the morality. Journal of Positive Psychology, 9: 414-427.

Smith, J. A. 2013. Five ways to cultivate gratitude at work. Greater Good Science Center.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_to_cultivate_gratitude_at_work.

Smith, R. H., & Kim, S. H. 2007. Comprehending envy. Psychological Bulletin, 133: 46-64.

Spence, J. R., Brown, D. J., Keeping, L. M., & Lian, H. 2014. Helpful today, but not tomorrow?

Feeling grateful as a predictor of daily organizational citizenship behaviors. Personnel

Psychology, 67: 705-738.

Sutcliffe, K. M., & Vogus, T. J. (2003). Organizing for resilience. In K.S. Cameron, J.E. Dutton,

& R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new

discipline, 94-110. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Tesser, A., Gatewood, R., & Driver, M. 1968. Some determinants of gratitude. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 9: 233-236.

Tomkins, S. S. 1995. Exploring affect: The selected writings of Silvan S. Tomkins. E. V.

Demos, Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tsang, J. 2006. Gratitude and prosocial behaviour: An experimental test of gratitude. Cognition

and Emotion, 20: 138-148.

Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. 2010. The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of

entitlement. New York: Atria Paperback.

Page 48 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 49

Umphress, E. E., Bingham, J. B., & Mitchell, M. S. 2010. Unethical behavior in the name of the

company: The moderating effect of organizational identification and positive reciprocity

beliefs on unethical pro-organizational behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95:

769-780.

Van Dyne, L., Cummings, L. L., & Parks, J. M. 1995. Extra-role behaviors: In pursuit of

construct and definitional clarity. Research in Organizational Behavior, 17: 215-285.

Van Maanen, J., & Kunda, G. 1989. Real feelings – Emotional expression and organizational

culture. Research in Organizational Behavior, 11: 43–103.

Veenhoven, R. 2000. Freedom and happiness: A comparative study of forty-four nations in the

early 1990s. In E. Diener & E. M. Suh. (Eds.), Culture and Subjective Well-being, 257-

288. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Vergne, J. P. 2012. Stigmatized categories and public disapproval of organizations: A mixed-

methods study of the global arms industry, 1996–2007. Academy of Management

Journal, 55: 1027-1052.

Vlachos, P. A., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. A. 2014. Employee judgments of and

behaviors toward corporate social responsibility: A multi-study investigation of direct,

cascading, and moderating effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Vogel, C. 2006. A field guide to narcissism. Psychology Today, 39: 68-74.

Wageman, R. 1995. Interdependence and group effectiveness. Administrative Science

Quarterly, 40: 145-180.

Wageman, R. 1999. The meaning of interdependence. In M. Turner (Ed.), Groups at work:

Advances in theory and research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates.

Page 49 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 50

Wang, M., Liao, H., Zhan, Y., & Shi, J. 2011. Daily customer mistreatment and employee

sabotage against customers: Examining emotion and resource perspectives. Academy of

Management Journal, 54: 312–334.

Waters, L. 2012. Predicting job satisfaction: Contributions of individual gratitude and

institutionalized gratitude. Psychology, 3: 1174-1176.

Watkins, P. C. 2004. Gratitude and subjective well-being. In R. A. Emmons & M. E.

McCullough (Eds.), The psychology of gratitude: 167-192. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Watkins, P. C. 2014. Gratitude and the good life: Toward a psychology of appreciation. New

York: Springer.

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Shackman, A. J., Stodola, D. E., Caldwell, J. Z. K., Olson, M. C.,

Rogers, G. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural

responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24: 1171-1180.

Whitmer, A. J., & Gotlib, I. H. 2013. An attentional scope model of rumination. Psychological

Bulletin, 139: 1036-1061.

Wilkowski, B. M., Robinson, M. D., Gordon, R. D., & Troop-Gordon, W. 2007. Tracking the

evil eye: Trait anger and selective attention within ambiguously hostile scenes. Journal

of Research in Personality, 41: 650-666.

Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. 2010. Gratitude and well-being: A review and

theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30: 890-905.

Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Gillett, R., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. 2008. The role of gratitude in the

development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal

of Research in Personality, 42: 854-871.

Page 50 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 51

World business council for sustainable development. 2004. Corporate Social Responsibility.

Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. 2001. Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters

of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26: 179-201.

Yukl, G. 2002. Leadership in organizations (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Zhou, J. 2003. When the presence of creative coworkers is related to creativity: role of

supervisor close monitoring, developmental feedback, and creative personality. Journal

of Applied Psychology, 88: 413-422.

Page 51 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 52

Table 1. Definitions and comparisons among gratitude and related emotions

Positive

Emotion

Definition

Distinguishing Features

Trigger event Impact of trigger

on the self*

Prosocial action

tendency

Gratitude

A feeling of appreciation in response

to an experience that is beneficial to,

but not attributable to, the self.

Receipt of

benefits from

outside the self

High High

Happiness

“The degree to which someone

evaluates positively the overall quality

of his or her present 'life as a whole.’”

(Veenhoven, 2000: 267)

A broad array of

positive forces High Low

Compassion

"The emotional response of caring for

and wanting to help those who are

suffering."

(Weng et al., 2013: 1171)

Others’ suffering

Low

High, but

limited to

suffering

individuals

Pride

“A pleasurable emotion resulting from

actions that indicate that the self is

indeed good, competent, and virtuous."

(Haidt, 2003: 860)

Positive outcomes

attributed to the

self

High Low

Elevation

“An emotion a person may experience

when seeing an action the person

deems morally virtuous.”

(Siegel et al., 2014: 414)

Observation of

a moral exemplar Low High**

*As discussed by Haidt (2003), whereas some emotions are primarily elicited by events that directly impact the self (e.g. gratitude arises from a

direct benefit to the self), others are more easily elicited by simply observing a third party (e.g. compassion).

**But see Siegel et al. (2014) for evidence that gratitude entails a broader prosocial action tendency than elevation.

Page 52 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 53

Table 2. Contingencies of gratitude emergence

Contingency Effect on gratitude

emergence

Level of gratitude

affected

Risks if not addressed

Attentiveness to

alternative outcomes

Positive Episodic Employees will habituate to the benefits

they receive from gratitude initiatives

Benevolent HR

attributions

Positive Episodic Gratitude initiatives will produce feelings of

anger and contempt

Humility Positive Episodic Gratitude initiatives will produce feelings of

pride and envy

Rumination Positive Persistent Employees will lose sight of the times they

recently felt grateful

Disruptive events Negative Persistent Employees will begin to focus on

competition and entitlement instead of

gratitude

HR alignment Positive Collective Only a small number of employees who

engage in specific HR practices will

develop persistent gratitude

Interdependent work

practices

Positive Collective Persistent gratitude will not be reinforced

across employees due to a lack of sharing

and social learning

Page 53 of 56 Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE 54

Figure 1. A Multilevel Model of Gratitude in Organizations

Page 54 of 56Academy of Management Review

THE GRATEFUL WORKPLACE

Biographical Sketches:

Ryan Fehr (rfehr@uw.edu) is an assistant professor of management at the Michael G. Foster

School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle. He received his PhD in organizational

psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. His current research interests include

ethics, morality, and conflict management.

Ashley Fulmer (afulmer@nus.edu.sg) is an assistant professor of psychology at the National

University of Singapore. She received her PhD from the University of Maryland. Her research

centers on trust in organizations, international management, and levels of analysis issues.

Eli Awtrey (eawtrey@uw.edu) is a doctoral candidate in organizational behavior at the Michael

G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle. His current research interests

center on the dyadic processes that influence performance in teams and collectives, including

collaborative behaviors, interpersonal emotions, and diversity.

Jared A. Miller (jam236@uw.edu) is currently completing his doctoral training in

organizational behavior at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington,

Seattle. His current research focuses on behavioral ethics, decision making, and prosocial

behavior.

Page 55 of 56 Academy of Management Review

Page 56 of 56Academy of Management Review

The Meaning of Gratitude in Civil Servants

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

A B S T R A C T Gratitude refers to the subjective emotions of awe, appreciation, and recognition for everything that has been obtained. Forms of gratitude can also be found in one's satisfaction at work and job satisfaction is also an indicator of work attitude, which refers to employees' overall views and feelings about their work environment and working conditions. The purpose of this study is to analyze the meaning of gratitude in civil servants and how this attitude can affect the job satisfaction of civil servants at the Civil Service Agency and Human Resources Development of Sanggau Regency. This research uses a phenomenological qualitative research method, which is an approach that focuses on individual experiences and perceptions of the phenomenon under study. Data collection in this study used 3 data collection methods, namely direct observation, interviews, field documentation. While the data analysis process in this qualitative research consists of three stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. Based on the research, it is concluded that gratitude greatly influences civil servants at work and also affects the level of job satisfaction. Gratitude is not only a feeling but also an attitude, moral trait, habit, nature, and personality, it can affect a person's response to a situation.

Effect of Mistreatment and Poor Leadership on Employees' Morale with Moderating Role of Gratitude Intervention

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023

The aim of the study is to examine the relation between mistreatment, poor leadership and employee morale along with moderating role of gratitude intervention of employees of district judiciary of southern Punjab. Respondents of the study are employees of district judiciary of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Collection of data is through structured questionnaire. Target population is the lower judiciary system employees with sample size of 316. SPSS is used for measurement and analysis. Key findings of the study revealed that there is significant impact between mistreatment, poor leadership and employees’ morale. Results of the study also depicts that gratitude intervention has a positive impact on employee morale as moderator.

I feel morally elevated by my organization’s CSR, so I contribute to it

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023
J BUS RES

While research addressing the micro-foundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has often built on the deontic theory of justice to explain why employees care about their organization’s CSR, the mechanisms underlying this deontic path have seldom been examined. Therefore, we study moral elevation, an other-directed moral emotion that, according to deontic theory of justice, could help us understand why employees may react positively to their organization’s CSR even when it does not offer employees significant self-centered benefits. We advance that moral elevation substantiates the deontic mechanism put forward to explain why CSR translates into employees’ behavior supporting this CSR. We carry out an experiment and a survey that provide support for this hypothesis. By identifying moral elevation as a mechanism underlying the deontic path, our research provides empirical support for the deontic argument in micro-CSR research that employees care about CSR because CSR is the moral thing to do.

Introduction de la pratique de la méditation au travail : quel cheminement ? Le cas du groupe Humanis

Article

Sep 2023

Initiée aux États-Unis, l’introduction de la pratique de la méditation en entreprise a gagné la France ces dernières années, et de nombreuses études ont permis d’analyser l’effet de ces pratiques au niveau individuel ou organisationnel. Toutefois, peu de travaux sont consacrés aux processus d’introduction de la pratique de la méditation en entreprise. Nous menons ici une exploration de ce processus en nous intéressant aux mécanismes et logiques qui le sous-tendent. Pour ce faire, nous avons conduit une recherche inductive qualitative à visée compréhensive, à l’appui d’une étude de cas approfondie. Le cas renvoie à un secteur pionnier, à savoir le secteur des mutuelles, au travers de la mutuelle Humanis avec laquelle nous avons signé un partenariat de recherche qui couvre la période 2017-2021. À l’appui de nos résultats, nous interprétons le processus d’introduction de la pratique de la méditation comme un enchevêtrement de logiques individuelles et collectives, qui suivent chacune leur cheminement sans qu’il ne soit observée de planification souhaitée ou maîtrisée. De plus, nous montrons que l’introduction de la pratique de la méditation n’est ni l’expression d’une volonté performative assumée et relayée par l’organisation, ni celle d’une volonté d’instrumentaliser la pratique de la méditation.

The role of discrete emotions in job satisfaction: A meta‐analysis

Article

Sep 2023

The relationship between emotions and job satisfaction is widely acknowledged via affective events theory (AET). Despite its widespread use, AET was not designed to address why specific emotions might differentially relate to job satisfaction. We utilize appraisal theory of emotion to refine AET and provide this nuanced theorizing. We meta‐analytically test our ideas with 235 samples across 99 883 individuals and 22 600 intra‐individual episodes. We test two approaches—specific emotion experiences (16 discrete emotions) versus general emotion experiences (positive or negative emotions)—and present empirical evidence of their similarities and differences with job satisfaction. Our findings suggest that specific emotions with circumstance‐agency appraisals (e.g., depression and happiness) have the strongest associations with job satisfaction compared to emotions with self‐ and other‐agency appraisals and general emotion experiences. However, more variability is observed for negative emotions and job satisfaction compared to positive emotions. Further, we address and even challenge influential critiques of emotions and job satisfaction via a meta‐analytic test of five moderators—emotion intensity versus frequency, target of emotion, job satisfaction measure, level of analysis, and time referent for emotion and job satisfaction recall. In sum, we advance academic and practitioner understanding of the relationship between emotions and job satisfaction.

Validation of the existential gratitude scale (EGS) in India and its relationship with spiritual well-being and distress

Article

Mar 2023
BRIT J GUID COUNS

This research aimed to investigate psychometric properties of the Existential Gratitude Scale (EGS) in India. Study 1 examined the factorial validity of EGS using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, which suggested a two-factor structure. Study 2 examined reliability and validity of the scale derived after CFA (referred to as Indian EGS). Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability estimates provided evidence for internal consistency reliability of the Indian EGS. Adequate AVE values indicated convergent validity of the scale. Further, the EGS score reported significant positive correlations with GRAT-16 and spiritual well-being scores and a negative association with distress scores, confirming criterion validity of the Indian EGS. These results establish reliability and validity of the two-factored twelve-item EGS scale in the Indian context.

What Went Right? A Mixed-Methods Study of Positive Feedback Data in a Hospital-Wide Mortality Review Survey

Article

Sep 2023

Toxic work culture contributes to healthcare worker burnout and attrition, but little is known about how healthcare organizations can systematically create and promote a culture of civility and collegiality. To analyze peer-to-peer positive feedback collected as part of a systematized mortality review survey to identify themes and recognition dynamics that can inform positive organizational culture change. Convergent mixed-methods study design. A total of 388 physicians, 212 registered nurses, 64 advanced practice providers, and 1 respiratory therapist at four non-profit hospitals (2 academic and 2 community). Providing optional positive feedback in the mortality review survey. Key themes and subthemes that emerged from positive feedback data, associations between key themes and positive feedback respondent characteristics, and recognition dynamics between positive feedback respondents and recipients. Approximately 20% of healthcare workers provided positive feedback. Three key themes emerged among responses with free text comments: (1) providing extraordinary patient and family-centered care; (2) demonstrating self-possession and mastery; and (3) exhibiting empathic peer support and effective team collaboration. Compared to other specialties, most positive feedback from medicine (70.2%), neurology (65.2%), hospice and palliative medicine (64.3%), and surgery (58.8%) focused on providing extraordinary patient and family-centered care (p = 0.02), whereas emergency medicine (59.1%) comments predominantly focused on demonstrating self-possession and mastery (p = 0.06). Registered nurses (40.2%) provided multidirectional positive feedback more often than other clinician types in the hospital hierarchy (p < 0.001). Analysis of positive feedback from a mortality review survey provided meaningful insights into a health system’s culture of teamwork and values related to civility and collegiality when providing end-of-life care. Systematic collection and sharing of positive feedback is feasible and has the potential to promote positive culture change and improve healthcare worker well-being.

Measuring grateful climate at the sports team

Article

Sep 2023

Generalized generosity: Lessons from a social and educational organization

Article

Sep 2023

While the personal and social benefits of generosity have been demonstrated in sociological studies, little is known about the levers and mechanisms of generosity within organizations. This article explores how members of a social and educational organization can participate in the culture of generosity. Based on an analysis of 89 semi‐structured interviews with members of five different institutions oriented toward youth education, the authors provide insight into the different ways to contribute to disseminating generosity. Our study reveals how certain managerial practices can be effective levers for developing generalized generosity within an educational organization. We also show that each member of this type of organization is assigned specific roles of giver and receiver to enable their participation in the educational project.

Psychosocial safety climate for building restaurant employees’ meaning of work and resilience

Article

Sep 2023

Haemi Kim

Some ruminative thoughts

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1996

Freedom and happiness: A comparative study in 44 nations in the early 1990s

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2000

Ruut Veenhoven

Extra-role behaviors: In pursuit of construct and definitional clarity

Article

Full-text available

Jan 1995
RES ORGAN BEHAV

Exploring Affect: The Selected Writings of Silvan S Tomkins

Book

Jan 1995

Silvan Tomkins was one of the most influential theorists on emotion and emotional expression. Over a period of 40 - some years - until his death in 1991 - he developed a set of original, important ideas about the nature of affect and its relationship to cognition and personality. Tomkins dealt with fundamental questions in a fresh and provocative way, establishing affect as a separate, biological system, and providing compelling data on discrete affect expressions. Several years before his death, Professor Tomkins agreed to bring his papers (unpublished and published) together into Exploring Affect for Cambridge Studies in Emotion and Social Interaction. He worked with Paul Ekman and Klaus Scherer to develop a structure for the book that would synthesize his theory of emotion. Unfortunately, he died before he was able to complete the process. Virginia Demos, who knew Professor Tomkins well, took on the enormous task of compiling the papers and writing connective material for the book. This volume of Tomkins selected writings on affect brings together his works of four decades and makes them available at a more receptive time in the field. It is a treasure trove of provocative, insightful and relevant ideas.

Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life

Article

Feb 2003

The effect of a grateful outlook on psychological and physical well-being was examined. In Studies 1 and 2, participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 experimental conditions (hassles, gratitude listing, and either neutral life events or social comparison); they then kept weekly (Study 1) or daily (Study 2) records of their moods, coping behaviors, health behaviors, physical symptoms, and overall life appraisals. In a 3rd study, persons with neuromuscular disease were randomly assigned to either the gratitude condition or to a control condition. The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the 3 studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.

The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography

Article

Jan 2002

In four studies, the authors examined the correlates of the disposition toward gratitude. Study 1 revealed that self-ratings and observer ratings of the grateful disposition are associated with positive affect and well-being prosocial behaviors and traits, and religiousness/spirituality. Study 2 replicated these findings in a large nonstudent sample. Study 3 yielded similar results to Studies 1 and 2 and provided evidence that gratitude is negatively associated with envy and materialistic attitudes. Study 4 yielded evidence that these associations persist after controlling for Extraversion/positive affectivity, Neuroticism/negative affectivity, and Agreeableness. The development of the Gratitude Questionnaire, a unidimensional measure with good psychometric properties, is also described.

7 Emotion in Organizations: A Review and Theoretical Integration

Article