IS THERE A "DARK SIDE" TO HELPING OTHERS? DR. GABRIELLA CACCIOTTI, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, ANALYZED DATA WITH COLLEAUGES TO FIND HOW PROSOCIAL MOTIVATION AFFECTS ENTREPRENEURS' OVERALL LIFE SATISFACTION.
THE STUDY FOUND THAT ENTREPRENUERS DESIRES TO HELP OTHERS CREATES STRESS AND IMPACTS THEIR WELLBEING. HOWEVER, THERE IS A WAY TO MITIGATE THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS.
We looked at how the prosocial motivation of commercial entrepreneurs had an impact on their psychological wellbeing. When you are a commercial entrepreneur, you have a core business to take care of which sets your priorities… you need to make money. But if you are also strongly pro-socially motivated, you struggle in deciding what to give priority to. Sometimes you may need to fire an employee, but you are killed by even the thought of letting the person down. Social entrepreneurs can go the other way… you're doing something to help others, but the businesses still have to make a profit.
PROSOCIAL ENTREPRENUERS NEED A BETTER UNDERSTANTING THAT FORM THE RELTIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL MOTIVATION AND WELLBEING IN ORDER TO CREATE PRO-SOCIAL BUSINESS VENTURES.
We saw that the impact is negative. However, when you perceive more autonomy in deciding how to allocate your work, that can mitigate the negative relationship.
THE BUSINESS REVIEW IS A PRODUCTION OF LIVINGSTON AND MCKAY AND THE HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BAYLOR UNIVERSITY.