Materialism and Workplace Behaviors: Does Wanting More Result in Less?

Research indicates that a heightened value of materialism has negative outcomes for subjective well-being. But organizations may see materialism in employees as an important antecedent of productivity and utilize this value to achieve organizational goals. At issue is whether materialism results in negative effects on employee behavior at work, which in turn implies negative effects on fellow employees and the organization. This study investigates the relationship between materialism and two indicators of behavior at work: organizational citizenship behavior and workplace deviance. Results show a significant negative materialism-organizational citizenship behavior relationship and a positive materialism-interpersonal deviance relationship. Materialism was not significantly related to organizational deviance. These results support the concern that materialistic values lead to negative behavioral consequences, which in turn affect fellow employees and the organization. In supplementary analyses we failed to find evidence that materialism is significantly related to task performance, further questioning organizational attempts to create or utilize this value. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015