Identiteetti ja tunteet työssä yhteisen hyvän puolesta

In this doctoral dissertation, I investigate individuals in the pursuit of the greater good in their work. By delving into how advancing valued societal causes is connected to identity and emotions, I draw on literatures and theories across organizational behavior and organization and management theory. The overarching question I seek to disentangle is how identity and emotions interplay with the pursuit of societal causes in ones work. The first and the second essays contribute to the literature on psychological contracts (PC) capturing the implicit expectations between employees and employers. The first essay is a review that advances the understanding of PCs that include third-party beneficiaries and transcend self-interested goals. The essay clarifies the role of ‘purpose’ in the employee-employer exchange by reviewing and synthesizing the conceptualizations of purpose as well as its antecedents and outcomes across the PC literature and identifies five challenges and solutions for them that provide novel theoretical building blocks to advance PC research. The second conceptual essay theorizes on behaviors of employees in the aftermath of I-PC violation, that is, when employers are perceived to fail in providing employees the opportunity to pursue valued causes that transcend beyond self-interest. Drawing on the affect theory of social exchange and theories of moral affect, the essay argues that I-PC violation gives rise to the emotions shame, guilt, or resentment and discusses how they shape the behavioral outcomes of violation victims ranging from increased work effort to burnout. In the third essay, I empirically investigate identity work of newly elected Members of the Parliament in Finland. Drawing on longitudinal interview data, I show how enchantment embedded in flattery, privilege and legacy disciplines the identities of the newcomer MPs. Doing so, I show how enchantment facilitated the MPs conformist identity work, enacted in their talk around dignified conduct, collective harmony and devotion to duty. While this talk served the maintenance of status quo, it also enabled the concurrent experience of pride and unease. As the main contribution of this dissertation, I emphasize the dual, even paradoxical experience of individuals striving to make an impact through their work, which has to date remained under-theorized and under-examined in the literatures on PCs and identity work. Positive and negative experiences and emotions coexist when individuals seek to contribute to valued causes. That is, working for a greater good can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. To add, this dissertation contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the interplay of emotions and identity in the pursuit of valued causes in contemporary work, highlighting the role of moral emotions such as shame and guilt but also pride and gratitude in such pursuits. Third, I underscore the multidimensional motivations behind pursuing societal contributions in one’s work by illustrating societal contributions are driven by both other-and self-oriented dimensions that may co-exist.