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Who Am I? Why Am I Here? and Who Cares?

Michael G. Pratt

Boston College

May Meaning Meeting (In April)2009

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Setting the Stage Very initial stages – would LOVE

comments

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]

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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]

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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)

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Trusting Some “More Equally” than Others: Callings and Firefighters (with Erik Dane)

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 sleeveIn every dark and choking hall/ I'll be there as you slowly crawlOn every roof in driving snow/ I'll hold your coat and you will knowIn cellars hot with searing heat/ At windows where a gate you meetIn 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 handA card we hope we never play / But one we hold there anywayThat card is something we ignore/ As we crawl across a weakened floorFor we know that we're the only prayer/ For anyone that might be thereSo remember as you wipe your tears/ The joy I knew throughout the yearsAs I did the job I loved to do /I pray that thought will see you through Author Unknown

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Study 1 RQ: Unpacking how various forms of

“experience” and learning facilitate intuition and improvisation in firefighters.

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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].

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Something odd came up when talking about learning through experience <data by request>

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Finding: Two kinds of firefighters <data by request>

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Two kinds of firefighters <data by request>

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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.

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Why firefighting: Narratives <data by request>

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Why firefighting: Narratives <data by request>

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Why firefighting: Narratives <data by request>

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Why firefighting: Narratives <data by request>

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Sounds a lot like a calling <data by request>

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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]

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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

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’.)

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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

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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

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Callings matter for learning <data by request>

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Callings matter for performance <data by request>

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Callings matter for interpersonal relations (ingroup-outgroup)

<data by request>

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Callings matter for identity <data by request>

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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.

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Callings and Trust <data by request>

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Callings and Trust <data by request>

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This is critical given that “brotherhood” is key to firefighting <data by request>

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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).

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]

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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 under-explored set of outcomes and raises the issue of work orientation diversity

Calling attributions may ease sensemaking and facilitate trust

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?

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Questions from Study 11. Are there really issues of trust for people

without callings? If so, who has them?

2. 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)?

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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)

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Study 2: Variables Work orientation: Job vs. calling [adapted from Wrzesniewski, et al., 1997 and Study 1]

Work orientation trustworthiness – degree to which firefighters find those with job and calling orientations trustworthy (1-7 scale) [adapted from Wrzesniewski, et al., 1997].

Performance / Behavioral Outcomes Valor Award Nomination Altruism [Podsakoff, et al., 1990]

Likelihood to engage in volunteer training Occupational Identification [adapted from Mael & Ashforth, 1992]

Controls: paid vs. volunteer; years in firefighting & EMS; total number of fires; age & gender

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Results: Do firefighters trust those with callings more than those with job orientations?

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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

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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)

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Any Questions?

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Descriptive statistics: Firefighters Mean s.d. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13)

(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* -.07 .01 .06 .02 --

(12) Prof. Ident. 5.65 1.08 -.18** .10 .04 .08 .09 .39** -.14** .35** .09 .31** .01 --

* p < .05; ** p < .01

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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).

All work orientations and trust