Transcript Who Am I?, Why Am I Here?, and Why Care?

Who Am I? Why Am I Here?
and Who Cares?
Michael G. Pratt
Boston College
May Meaning Meeting (In April)
2009
1
Setting the Stage

Very initial stages – would LOVE
comments
2
Other Studies in this Stream

Part of a larger stream of research that is all at the “messy” stage
about occupations and the meaning of work:
1.
Do callings work the same way for different professions? [with
Cardador & Dane]

Initial evidence of a “middle status effect” for healthcare workers –
callings as justification?
2.
How do occupations shape meaning of work? [with Cardador]
3.
How do individuals manage “professional discrepancies”? [with
Vough, Bednar, Cardador & Dane]
Setting the stage

Will begin in a nontraditional way –
original RQ, method, data, surprise, more
data, theory, more data, more theory, etc.
[Still looking for a more “traditional” way to
frame this for a paper]
4
Goal: Discussing important issues
(e.g., what does work mean to me?, who do I trust?)
Sometimes academics take very exciting, engaging and important work and
present it in such a way that it looks like a butterfly squashed between two
plates of glass.
Blake Ashforth, quoted in Bartunek (2003: 203)
5
Trusting Some “More
Equally” than Others:
Callings and Firefighters
(with Erik Dane)
6
Firefighting

All men are created equal, then a few become
firemen. ~Author Unknown
Firefighting

Brother when you weep for me / Remember that it was meant to be
Lay me down and when you leave /Remember I'll be at your sleeve
In every dark and choking hall/ I'll be there as you slowly crawl
On every roof in driving snow/ I'll hold your coat and you will know
In cellars hot with searing heat/ At windows where a gate you meet
In closets where young children hide/ You know I'll be there at your side
… As firemen we understand / That death's a card dealt in our hand
A card we hope we never play / But one we hold there anyway
That card is something we ignore/ As we crawl across a weakened floor
For we know that we're the only prayer/ For anyone that might be there
So remember as you wipe your tears/ The joy I knew throughout the years
As I did the job I loved to do /I pray that thought will see you through
Author Unknown
Study 1

RQ: Unpacking how various forms of
“experience” and learning facilitate
intuition and improvisation in firefighters.
9
Methods

30 interviews with firefighters at IFSI or local
firehouses



Informants represent a variety of stations throughout
Illinois
Experience ranged from a few months to 25 years
(roughly half under 10 years experience vs. over 10
years experience)
Analysis - inductive analytic approach [Miles &
Huberman; 1994; Strauss & Corbin, 1990 Locke, 2000].
10
Something odd came up when talking
about learning through experience

<data by request>
11
Finding: Two kinds of firefighters

<data by request>
12
Two kinds of firefighters

<data by request>
13
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation?

“The most basic distinction is between intrinsic motivation, which
refers to doing something because it is inherently interesting or
enjoyable, and extrinsic motivation, which refers to doing
something because it leads to a separable outcome.” [Ryan & Deci, 2000: 55]

Various types of extrinsic motivation ranging from external
regulation to integrated regulation. [Ryan & Deci, 2000; Gagne & Deci, 2005]

For some firefighters, fighting fires appeared to be intrinsically
motivating, for others, firefighting appeared more closely aligned
with higher goals (akin to integrated regulation).

To get at what was driving firefighters, I looked at what stories they
told about becoming a firefighter.
14
Why firefighting: Narratives

<data by request>
15
Why firefighting: Narratives

<data by request>
16
Why firefighting: Narratives

<data by request>
17
Why firefighting: Narratives

<data by request>
18
Sounds a lot like a calling

<data by request>
19
Calling: A brief history

Began as a religious vocation: “The only way of
living acceptably to God was …solely through
the fulfillment of the obligations imposed upon
the individual by his position in the world”
[Weber, 1958:
80]

Now more about how individuals derive
personal meaning from their work [Baumeister, 1991;
Bellah, et al., 1985; Hall & Chandler, 2005]

Two popular perspectives


Career perspective [Hall & Chandler, 2005; Dobrow, 2004]
Work orientation [Bellah, et al., 1985; Wrziesniewski, et al., 1997]
20
Calling as Work Orientation

Work orientation - expression of how an individual
views his/her work situation in terms of desires, and the
extent to which these desires are expected to be
achieved [Bennett 1974]

Calling Orientation – work is personally significant and
impacting society in some way

Job Orientation – work is source of monetary rewards
21
Callings in Firefighting

Most of our informants
described themselves as
having a calling.

Only about 17% did not
appear to describe
themselves that way
(and no one thought of
themselves as a ‘slug’.)
Traditional outcomes of callings

Non-work benefits* [see Wrzesniewski, et al., 1995 for
review]



Better health
Life satisfaction
Very limited research on work-related
benefits



Job satisfaction
Lower absenteeism
Occupational identification moral duty
23
What’s different here

Calling attributions of
others

Largely different
outcomes (with the
possible exception of
occupational
identification) when
looking at why callings
matter for firefighters
24
Callings matter for learning

<data by request>
25
Callings matter for performance

<data by request>
26
Callings matter for interpersonal relations
(ingroup-outgroup)

<data by request>
27
Callings matter for identity

<data by request>
28
For firefighters, callings matter for
TRUST

Trust is critical for firefighting, and to a
degree, you have to trust everyone you
work with.



I: Do you have equal amount of trust with
those folks?
FF: Yeah, I do. I mean I would trust all the
guys I work with. [1112]
However, those with callings were trusted
more.
29
Callings and Trust

<data by request>
30
Callings and Trust

<data by request>
31
This is critical given that
“brotherhood” is key to firefighting

<data by request>
32
Study 1: Main findings and theoretical
frames

Firefighters see co-workers (and themselves)
as either having callings or job orientations.

“Calling attributions” are linked to perceptions of
learning, performance, “prototypicality” and
trust.

Attributional theory – expectations about behaviors
(Kelley & Michela, 1980 for review)

May be indicative of firefighter’s “implicit personality
theory” (Bruner &Tagiuri, 1954).
33
Study 1: Main findings and theoretical
frames

Trust (and who is trustworthy) appears
central:


Considerable evidence linking trust and
competency [Colquitt, et al., 2007; Dirks & Ferrin, 2002]
Emerging work on leader prototypicality &
fairness [Ulrich, et al., 2009]
Contributions

Importance of calling vs. job attributions

Extant research focuses on effects of having work
orientations, not on beliefs about others’ work
orientations

Attributions opens door to a heretofore underexplored set of outcomes and raises the issue of
work orientation diversity

Calling attributions may ease sensemaking and
facilitate trust
35
Contributions

Calling attributions (CA) and trust

CA might be shorthand for competence (e.g., more likely to continue
learning, better performance)

CA and identity/ prototypicality – new motive or related to integrity
findings?

CA may facilitate or signal “unconditional trust” (Jones & George,
1998) whereby “individuals abandon the ‘pretence’ of suspending
belief, because shared values now structure the social situation and
become the primary vehicle through which those individuals
experience trust.”


Some relevant proposed theoretical outcomes (e.g., subjugation of
individual needs for common good, high confidence, help-seeking
behavior)
Any empirical work on this?
Questions from Study 1
1.
2.
Are there really issues of trust for people
without callings? If so, who has them?
Are these attributions accurate?


Are firefighters with callings really better
performers and learners? Do they act
differently than those without callings?
Do they see themselves as being more like
a true firefighter (identity)?
37
Study 2: Sample

381 firefighters from the state of California




80.3% paid / 19.7% volunteer
9.4% were department chiefs
Survey sponsored by the California State
Firefighters’ Association; web-survey sent to CSFA
members (chance to win prizes via random
drawings)
Demographically representative (94% male; ave
age: 44.5; 61.4% has associates degree or higher;
34.1% had a bachelor’s degree or higher)
38
38
Study 2: Variables


Work orientation: Job vs. calling
Work orientation trustworthiness – degree to which
firefighters find those with job and calling orientations
trustworthy (1-7 scale)
Performance / Behavioral Outcomes
[adapted from Wrzesniewski, et al., 1997 and Study 1]
[adapted from Wrzesniewski, et al., 1997].






Valor Award Nomination
Altruism [Podsakoff, et al., 1990]
Likelihood to engage in volunteer training
Occupational Identification
Controls: paid vs. volunteer; years in firefighting &
EMS; total number of fires; age & gender
[adapted from Mael & Ashforth, 1992]
39
Results: Do firefighters trust those with callings
more than those with job orientations?
40
Results: Do those with callings learn more?, perform
better, act differently (more altruistic), and are more
strongly identified?
Performance/ Behavioral
Variable
Valor
Altruism
Training
Prof. Ident.
Volunteer vs Paid
-0.05
0.09†
0.02
0.03
Occupational Tenure
0.14*
-1.20*
-0.21***
0.11*
Total Fires Fought
-0.07
0.01
-0.04
0.03
Calling
0.11*
0.30***
0.09†
0.40***
R2
0.03
0.11
0.06
0.17
F
2.40*
11.73***
5.93***
19.09***
† p < 0.10; * p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
41
Implications

Calling attributions were largely verified

First empirical evidence (that we are aware of)
between callings and performance

Critical nature of callings and trust:


Callings as proxy for trust via competence/ ability and
prototypicality?
Trustworthiness & performance (Dirks & Skarlicki,
2009)
42
Any Questions?
43
Descriptive statistics: Firefighters
Mean
s.d.
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
(11)
(1) Gender (0=male, 1=female)
0.06
0.24
--
(2) Age
44.52
11.73
-.07
--
(3) Volunteer (0) vs. Paid (1)
0.80
0.40
-.07
.14**
--
(4) Yrs. Emerg. Services
4.04
1.83
-.12*
.75**
.35**
--
(5) Total Fires Fought
560.68
1260.29
-.09
.35**
.15**
.36**
--
(6) Calling
5.86
0.97
-.07
-.05
-.08
-.12*
.04
--
(7) Trust in Job Firefighters
2.81
1.66
.05
.01
-.07
-.01
-.04
-.09
--
(8) Trust in Calling Firefighters
6.12
1.07
-.08
-.03
-.08
-.08
.01
.22**
-.13*
--
(9) Valor (1=nominated)
0.27
0.44
-.03
.09
-.01
.09
-.02
.09
-.10*
-.04
--
(10) Altruism
6.22
0.73
-.02
-.06
.03
-.12*
-.01
.31**
-.06
.28**
.00
--
(11) Training
4.97
2.44
.09
-.32**
-.06
-.22**
-.11*
.11*
.01
.06
.02
--
(12) Prof. Ident.
5.65
1.08
-.18**
.10
.04
.08
.09
.39**
-.07
.14**
.35**
.09
.31**
.01
(12)
(13)
--
* p < .05; ** p < .01
44
Similarity Effects?

Examining firefighters who were one standard
deviation above the mean (N=47) and one
standard deviation below the mean (N=49)



Those who were one standard deviation above the
mean trusted calling firefighters (Mean = 6.62) more
than job firefighters (Mean = 2.87).
Those who were one standard deviation below the
mean also trusted calling firefighters (Mean = 5.82)
more than job firefighters (Mean = 3.10).
For each group, the differences are highly significant
(p < .001).
45
All work orientations and trust