Competitive altruism at work: An evolutionary psychology approach

'Competitive altruism' theory (Hardy & Van Vugt, 2006) sheds new light on why people behave altruistically in work organizations. Evidence shows that getting an altruistic reputation is profitable for employees in the long run. An experiment among employees was conducted to see if 'altruism' as a form of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors affects the reputation of the candidate employee and whether this behavior eventually gets them the job and a higher starting salary. Based on a hypothetical candidate employee, who was described as either altruistic or non-altruistic, participants evaluated his/her reputation, cooperation, attraction and starting salary. The findings confirmed that altruistic candidate employees have a better reputation than non-altruistic employees. As expected, people have a stronger preference to work with employees with an altruistic reputation, and they get a higher starting salary. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.