This paper introduces a dynamic model to illustrate how the self, the work, and the environment interactively influence the experience of work meaningfulness during the employment period. While individuals might enter an organization with intent to improve or protect others¡¦ well-being, their perceived degree of work meaningfulness might be strengthened or weakened within jobs. Other factors from their work and the environment could come into play. Specifically, the proposed model presents how the interplay between prosocial motivation, perceived task significance, and perceived external prestige of an organization affect the experienced meaningfulness of work jointly. This paper tests the model by surveying employees from the high-tech sector and the police sector using the questionnaire method. The results show that individuals who have prosocial motivation indeed experience a sense of work meaningfulness initially. Even when individuals are prosocially motivated, the perceived external prestige of their organizations positively affects their experience in meaningfulness of work. Furthermore, the perceived level of task significance of one¡¦s work overpowers the existing prosocial motivation when it comes to altering the perception of work meaningfulness. The findings indicate that factors from different dimensions could alter the experienced meaningfulness of work together, and the relation between prosocial motivation and work meaningfulness is dynamic.

In the past few years we have seen the near collapse of the world financial system, and we still have yet to find solutions for world poverty or the food crisis. People have started looking for new solutions in order to solve these problems and are considering new employment options besides the traditional for-profit business sector. Employees are increasingly looking for work in organizations that have a more sustainable approach to business. One organization type that fits these criteria is a social business. Most of the research in social entrepreneurship and social businesses, however, has concentrated on the social entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process so far. Only few studies have explored the employee side. Similarly, research on perceived employee motivation has mainly concentrated on the traditional for-profit businesses and on non-profit organizations. Although employee motivation is considered as crucial to the success of any business, perceived employee motivation in established social businesses has scarcely been researched yet. The purpose of this thesis is to understand why people choose to work in a social business, and what motivates them to work there. This research was conducted as a single case study following Stake (1995). It was carried out in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Centre Ltd in Finland. In order to achieve our goal, we have found it helpful to combine relevant motivation theories such as intrinsic motivation, task significance, prosocial motivation, value congruence, and meaningfulness, with current social business theories. As a result of our research, we have developed a model that elaborates how employees make their decision on employment and what influences their perceived motivation. Our findings suggest that both, the distinct business model and the mission of a social business have a great impact on people’s choice of employment. Moreover, the company values, which are partly derived from the mission of a social business, also influence prospective employees’ choice of employment. In addition, the employees’ educational background impacts their choice as their values reflect their education. They are also looking for such work, whose content fits their education. In our study we have tried to point out that perceived employee motivation in a social business is also strongly influenced by value congruence. Moreover, the perceived meaningfulness that derives from the social business’ mission has an impact on the perceived employee motivation. The employees feel that their work is positively affecting people, society, and the environment, which results in task significance and prosocial motivation. Finally, the flexibility of the work, the ability to influence the work content, and the work atmosphere, are also shown to exercise a great influence on perceived employee motivation.

Il lavoro, composto da tre articoli, si focalizza sulla relazione tra leadership e performance, indagata e osservata da molteplici punti di vista e attraverso differenti strategie di ricerca, ma sempre in un contesto pubblico o comunque mission-driven. In particolare, il primo articolo indaga la relazione tra leadership e performance organizzativa, con un duplice obiettivo: da un lato validare da un punto di vista metodologico la scala di misurazione più utilizzata, dall’altro verificarne la relazione con la performance organizzativa utilizzando una scala più parsimoniosa. Gli altri due articoli si focalizzano sulla relazione tra leadership e performance individuale: il primo esplora, attraverso un disegno di ricerca qualitativo, il ruolo del feedback fornito dal superiore nel processo di riflessione critica dei collaboratori, volto al cambiamento dei comportamenti e al miglioramento della propria performance; il secondo indaga, attraverso un disegno di ricerca sperimentale, gli effetti della credibilità dei leader sulla performance dei collaboratori, anche mediante la percezione da parte dei dipendenti dell’importanza e dell’utilità del proprio lavoro per gli altri. / The three papers included in the thesis focus on the relationship between leadership and performance, investigated and observed from multiple points of view and through different research strategies. All the papers are conducted in a public or mission-driven setting. The first article focuses on the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, with a twofold objective: on the one hand, to validate the most used measurement scale for leadership from a methodological point of view, and, on the other, to verify the relationship with organizational performance using a more parsimonious scale. The other two articles focus on the relationship between leadership and individual performance. One explores, through a qualitative research design, the role of feedback provided by the supervisor in employees’ critical reflection process, aimed at changing their behaviors and at improving their own performance. The last one investigates, through an experimental research design, the effects of leaders’ trustworthiness on the performance of employees, through the employees' perception of the task significance of their job.