Predicted satisfaction from simultaneous evaluation of prosocial and pro-self employee bonus schemes: towards a new form of management strategy for corporate social spending

Abstract

A prosocial bonus is money given to people with a condition that the amount needs to be spent on others. This article suggests a new way of implementing corporate social spending by involving ‘prosocial bonuses’. Such a policy can potentially serve a dual benefit of improving employee satisfaction and help organizations reach the mandate for social spending. This study examined predicted satisfaction from choosing between pro-self and prosocial bonuses, with both options being available concurrently. Previous discussions have stated that people predict higher satisfaction from spending on the self, compared to spending money on others. However, this study showed that predicted stated satisfaction from opting to spend on the poor can be higher (Experiment 1) or equal (Experiment 2) to spending a bonus on oneself. We argue that this is possible when spending options are evaluated simultaneously. The major motivation for spending on the poor was to positively impact lives. A prosocial employee incentive policy could be built into corporate social responsibility programmes in developing countries like India that benefit both the company and increase social welfare.