Thinking Beyond the Self: Legacy Motives, Meaning, and Positive Workplace Outcomes

Abstract: In this paper, we integrate research on legacy motives with the literature on meaningful work to identify a previously unexplored pathway through which meaning is created in organizations: activating employees’ motivation to leave a legacy. Across four studies (N = 1,902), we show that activating legacy motives reliably increases experienced meaning at work. This increase in meaning, in turn, predicts higher job satisfaction, reflecting benefits to the self, and greater engagement in prosocial workplace behaviors, reflecting benefits to others in the organization. By identifying legacy activation as a psychological mechanism that links individual motivation to relational and organizational outcomes, this research contributes to understanding how meaning can shape cooperative and prosocial dynamics at work. Importantly, we demonstrate a simple, scalable intervention that can be readily implemented in organizational settings to promote meaningful work and improve both employee well-being and interpersonal functioning.

Keywords: Legacy Motives, Meaning, Job Satisfaction, Cooperation, Prosocial Acts