Doing good, doing harm, being well and burning out: The interactions of perceived prosocial and antisocial impact in service work

Service employees often perceive their actions as harming and benefiting others, and these perceptions have significant consequences for their own well-being. We conducted tw os tudies to test the hypothesis that perceptions of benefiting others attenuate the detrimental effects of perceptions of harming others on the well-being of service employees. In Study 1, as urve yo f3 77 transportation service employees and 99 secretaries, perceive dp rosocial impact moderated the negative association between perceived antisocial impact and job satisfaction, such that the association decreased as perceived prosocial impact increased. In Study 2, as urve yo f7 9s chool teachers, perceived prosocial impact moderated the association between perceived antisocial impact and burnout, and this moderated relationship was mediated by moral justification; the results held after controlling for common antecedents of burnout. The results suggest that perceptions of benefiting others ma yp rotect service employees against the decreased job satisfaction and increased burnout typically associated with perceptions of harming others. Implications for research on burnout, job satisfaction, positive organizational scholarship and job design ar e discussed.