Although ideological messages are thought to inspire employee performance, research has shown mixed results. Typically, ideological messages are delivered by leaders, but employees may be suspicious of ulterior motives—leaders may merely be seeking to inspire higher performance. As such, we propose that these messages are often more effective when outsourced to a more neutral third party—the beneficiaries of employees’ work. In Study 1, a field quasi-experiment with fundraisers, ideological messages from a beneficiary—but not from two leaders—increased performance. In Study 2, a laboratory experiment with an editing task, participants achieved higher task and citizenship performance when an ideological message was delivered by a speaker portrayed as a beneficiary vs. a leader, mediated by suspicion. In Study 3, a laboratory experiment with a marketing task, the beneficiary source advantage was contingent on message content: beneficiaries motivated higher task and citizenship performance than leaders with prosocial messages but not achievement messages.
Our focus is on understanding how ideological messages from different sources influence employee performance—the effectiveness of employees’ efforts in achieving organizational goals (Campbell, 1990). Ideological messages are communications that emphasize how the organization’s work connects with employees’ deep or core values (Shamir et al., 1998), and often are discussed in the context of visionary (Stam, van Knippenberg, & Wisse, 2010), charismatic (Shamir, House, & Arthur, 1993), and transformational (Bass, 1985) leadership. In theories of visionary leadership, ideological messages are viewed as part of the process of communicating a vision, linking images of the past and future to important values and purposes (Stam et al., 2010; see also Conger & Kanungo, 1987). In theories of charismatic leadership, ideological messages are included as part of a broader set of “behaviors that emphasize collective values and ideologies and link a mission, its goals, and expected behaviors to those values and ideologies” (Shamir et al., 1998, p. 388). In theories of transformational leadership, ideological messages are associated with behaviors focused on inspirational motivation—creating a meaningful, compelling vision of the future (Piccolo & Colquitt, 2006). Whether these messages serve the function of inspiring employees, however, is an open question. Ideological and inspirational messages are communicative speech acts (Shamir et al., 1998), while inspiration is a psychological state experienced an employee involving transcendent motivation (Thrash & Elliot, 2003) that may or may not be evoked by an ideological or inspirational message.
We view an ideological message as a specific type of inspirational message. In general, inspirational messages involve articulating a vision with enthusiasm, confidence, optimism, and purpose (Bass, 1985, Joshi et al., 2009 and Yukl and Tracey, 1992). Within this category, ideological messages are a type of moral appeal (Chen et al., 2009 and Dorris, 1972) that emphasizes the link between the vision and core values or ideals (Shamir et al., 1998). Researchers have typically conceptualized ideological messages as focusing on values that transcend self-interest, communicating how the organization’s work advances a greater good or is beneficial to other people (Thompson & Bunderson, 2003).1
Our research has important practical implications for leaders and managers. Our findings suggest that the responsibility for inspiring employees may not always lie in the words of authority figures. When leaders and managers seek to show employees how their work benefits others, it may be most fruitful to ask beneficiaries to deliver these messages directly. This evidence may be particularly reassuring to leaders who lack charisma or introverted managers who feel uncomfortable speaking in public: rather than stepping outside their comfort zones, they can outsource the task to knowledgeable beneficiaries who can share their own personal experiences. Indeed, leaders and managers in a number of organizations have begun to recognize the advantages of inviting beneficiaries to deliver ideological messages directly. For example, at the medical technology company Medtronic, rather than attempting to convince salespeople that their products protect and promote patient health, leaders invite patients to an annual party to tell their stories directly to salespeople. Observers report that this practice enhances the credibility and emotional impact of ideological messages, creating “defining moments” in which salespeople come to believe in the important purpose that their work serves for the patients who depend on their products. As former CEO Bill George (2003: 89) explains, “As I heard T.J. tell his story that day, my eyes filled with tears… I saw the mission come to life. This one young life crystallized what our work at Medtronic was all about.” Our findings suggest that one of the best ways for leaders to create these “defining moments” for employees is to leverage beneficiaries’ capabilities to communicate credible messages about the impact of the organization’s products and services. In a slight departure from traditional leadership recommendations, when leaders are seeking to inspire employees by conveying how their work makes a difference, it may be productive for them to outsource aspects of their communications to beneficiaries.
