It's Not Always Sunny in Relationally Rich Jobs: The Influence of Negative Beneficiary Contact

Although contact with beneficiaries has been described as the most important job characteristic for increasing the salience of meaningful work, our understanding of the effects of beneficiary contact have primarily been limited to positive experiences with beneficiaries. To increase our understanding of negative beneficiary contact, we draw from identity theory to propose that negative experiences with beneficiaries have a dual effect on employees. Whereas negative contact may make employees feel unappreciated (low perceived social worth), it may also lead employees to believe they are engaging in self-sacrifice for worthy cause–a relatively positive interpretation of such experiences. In a sample of 234 in-patient nurses and their supervisors, these hypotheses were supported. Further consistent with our theorizing, the effect of perceived self-sacrifice on job satisfaction and performance was found to be contingent on the level of co-worker support reported by the employee: at high levels of support, perceived self-sacrifice exhibited a more positive relationship with both outcomes, whereas at low levels of support perceived self-sacrifice was more detrimental to both outcomes. Together, our findings indicate that contact with the beneficiaries of meaningful work may be both a blessing and a curse.