Abstract
This study examines how and under what conditions recognition practices are related to employee behavioural involvement at work. Combining social cognitive theory, social information processing theory and self-concordance theory, we develop and test a moderated mediation model in which (a) manager recognition promotes behavioural involvement both directly and indirectly through the intervening role of meaningfulness and (b) coworker recognition strengthens the benefits of manager recognition to meaningfulness and subsequent behavioural involvement. The results of a study of 130 employees provided empirical support for our model. These findings help clarify how different sources of recognition can shape the effective behavioural involvement in the workplace; they also emphasize the role of meaningfulness as an important psychological mechanism that explains the recognition–behaviour relation. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Notes
1. The results of a one-way ANOVA indicated that there was no significant difference among the three industries in the levels of either employee meaningfulness (F(2, 127) = .15, ns) or behavioural involvement (F(2, 127) = 2.76, p < .001). This finding suggests that it was not necessary to control for the industrial sector.
2. The results are available upon requests.