THE HOT AND COOL OF DEATH AWARENESS AT WORK: MORTALITY CUES, AGING, AND SELF-PROTECTIVE AND PROSOCIAL MOTIVATIONS

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姝 Academy of Management Review
2009, Vol. 34, No. 4, 600–622.

                            THE HOT AND COOL OF DEATH AWARENESS
                             AT WORK: MORTALITY CUES, AGING, AND
                                SELF-PROTECTIVE AND PROSOCIAL
                                         MOTIVATIONS
                                                                ADAM M. GRANT
                                                            University of Pennsylvania

                                                         KIMBERLY A. WADE-BENZONI
                                                              Duke University

                          Although death awareness is pervasive in organizations and can have powerful
                          effects on employees’ experiences and behaviors, scholars have paid little attention
                          to it. We develop a theoretical model of the nature, antecedents, and consequences of
                          death awareness at work. We differentiate death anxiety and reflection as distinct
                          states that strengthen self-protective versus prosocial motivations, examine how
                          mortality cues and aging processes trigger these states, and explore their impact on
                          withdrawal and generative behaviors.

   The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human                                Shapiro, 2005; Starbuck, 2002). Applications to
   animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of                                    helping professions soared as many employees
   human activity— designed largely to avoid the
   fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in                                    changed careers in order to make a greater dif-
   some way that it is the final destiny. . . . Of all                                ference in their communities and societies
   things that move man, one of the principal ones is                                 (Wrzesniewski, 2002). For example, in the month
   his terror of death (Becker, 1973: ix, 11).                                        and a half following the events, applications to
   The tragedies of September 11 had a dramatic                                       Teach For America tripled, and half of appli-
effect on work experiences and behaviors, both                                        cants polled attributed their decisions to pursue
for those who were directly involved (Bacharach                                       teaching to the events of September 11 (Good-
& Bamberger, 2007) and those who were not                                             nough, 2002). Similar trends occurred in other
(Johns, 2006). For some employees the terrorist                                       helping professions, such as firefighting and
attacks resulted in crippling anxiety, leading to                                     health care. For example, after narrowly escap-
stress and absenteeism from work (Byron &                                             ing from the World Trade Center, actress Amy
Peterson, 2002; Salgado, 2002). For others the at-                                    Ting reflected on death and the meaning of her
tacks inspired reflection about death and the                                         life. She walked away from a successful film
meaning of life, motivating remarkable efforts to                                     career to join the Air Force Medical Service: “Af-
contribute to other people and society. Organi-                                       ter September 11, my perspective on life
zational scholars began to reflect on how they                                        changed. I have always wanted to help people,
could best serve the public interest through their                                    so I decided to go back to pursuing the medical
research and their students through their teach-                                      field” (Wrzesniewski, 2002: 231; see also
ing (Greenberg, Clair, & MacLean, 2007; Rynes &                                       Pomeroy, 2002).
                                                                                         Although these reactions were particularly
                                                                                      pronounced and widespread, they are not
   We are grateful to former associate editor Linda Treviño                          unique to September 11. Employees are re-
and four anonymous reviewers for their insights and recom-
mendations. We also appreciate feedback from Jane Dutton                              minded of their mortality by an array of events
and Alison Fragale, as well as discussions with Josh Ber-                             that occur both outside of and inside organiza-
man, Tina Juillerat, Meagan Peters, Wendy Smith, Jim                                  tions. Many employees, such as police officers,
Walsh, and participants in the May Meaning Meeting (espe-                             soldiers, firefighters, miners, and nuclear power
cially Sue Ashford and Andy Molinsky) and the University of
Michigan Management & Organizations half-baked brown
                                                                                      plant employees, work in dangerous jobs that
bag series (particularly Wayne Baker, John Paul Stephens,                             place their lives on the line. Some studies sug-
and Lynn Wooten).                                                                     gest that dangerous work leads to anxiety about
                                                                                600
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2009                                      Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                     601

death, emotional exhaustion, and absenteeism           critical theoretical and practical issues organi-
(Chisholm, Kasl, & Eskenazi, 1983; Jermier,            zations face today (Greller & Simpson, 1999;
Gaines, & McIntosh, 1989), whereas others indi-        Hansson, DeKoekkoek, Neece, & Patterson, 1997;
cate that exposure to death in dangerous work          Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004; Warr, 2001).
motivates bonding and helping between co-                 Accordingly, organizational scholars have be-
workers (Elder & Clipp, 1988). Other employees,        gun to devote systematic attention to the role of
such as doctors, nurses, rescue workers, funeral       age in work motivation and behavior. Recently,
employees, paramedics, and grief counselors,           Kanfer and Ackerman (2004) developed an ele-
work in jobs that expose them vicariously to           gant theoretical framework to explain how work
death (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999). More generally,      motivation is influenced by age-related changes
employees in all jobs are susceptible to ill-          in cognitive ability, personality, self-concept,
nesses and accidents that can serve as remind-         values, affect, and interests. Although their
ers of mortality (e.g., Dutton, Worline, Frost, &      framework significantly advances existing
Lilius, 2006; Kivimäki, Vahtera, Elovaino, Lill-      knowledge about the role of age in work moti-
rank, & Kevin, 2002; Worrell, Davidson, Chandy,        vation, it does not address death awareness as a
& Garrison, 1986).                                     vital psychological change precipitated by ag-
   By making employees aware of death, all of          ing. Several decades of research in personality
these events have the potential to motivate sub-       and life-span developmental psychology high-
stantial changes in their behaviors. Indeed, two       lights that as adults reach midlife, they become
decades of social psychological research has           increasingly aware of their own mortality (Erik-
demonstrated that awareness of death has               son, 1963; McAdams, de St. Aubin, & Logan, 1993;
unique, surprisingly powerful effects on individ-      Stewart & Ostrove, 1998). However, in spite of
uals’ motivations and behaviors (Pyszczynski,          widespread agreement about the theoretical
Solomon, & Greenberg, 2003). However, we know          and practical importance of understanding the
little about how death awareness arises in or-         role of aging in work motivation, and despite
ganizations and why employees display diver-           evidence that death is increasingly salient and
gent reactions when they experience it. Organi-        motivationally potent as employees age, calls to
zational scholars have been silent about the role      incorporate death into work motivation theories
of death awareness in work motivation (Sievers,        have gone unanswered (Czarniawska-Joerges,
1986, 1993) and organizational life in general         1995; Sievers, 1993).
(Reedy & Learmonth, 2008).                                In this article we seek to answer these calls
   Understanding the role of death awareness in        with systematic theorizing about the nature, an-
organizations is of particular theoretical and         tecedents, and consequences of death aware-
practical significance, given that workforces          ness. We begin with a review of existing theory
worldwide are aging rapidly. In the United             and research about psychological and behav-
States the median age of employees is now              ioral reactions to death awareness, paying par-
above forty; the number of employees forty-five        ticular attention to theories of terror manage-
and older has increased by more than 35 percent        ment (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997)
in the past decade, and they now represent over        and generativity (McAdams & de St. Aubin,
40 percent of the entire U.S. workforce (Bureau of     1992). We build on this review to distinguish
Labor Statistics, 2007; Fullerton, 1999). Parallel     between two distinct forms of death aware-
trends have emerged in the European Union and          ness— death anxiety and death reflection—and
Canada, where employees forty-five and older           examine how they differentially engage dis-
now make up over 37 percent and 40 percent of          crete “hot” experiential versus “cool” cognitive
the workforce, respectively, reflecting sizable in-    psychological processing systems, thereby
creases in the past decade (Carone, 2005; Euro-        strengthening either self-protective or prosocial
pean Commission, 2007; Statistics Canada,              motivations. Second, we turn from the nature of
2006). This dramatic aging of domestic and in-         death awareness to its antecedents. We present
ternational workforces is attributable to in-          a typology of mortality cues, examine how they
creases in life expectancy, combined with de-          trigger death anxiety and death reflection, and
clines in early retirement and birth rates. In         explore the role of aging processes in influenc-
light of these trends, organizational scholars         ing employees’ responses to these cues. Third,
agree that the aging workforce is one of the most      we examine the behavioral consequences of
602                                Academy of Management Review                            October

death awareness. We explore how the effects of    when Hobbes (1950/1651) noted that humans nat-
death anxiety and death reflection on work be-    urally fear death and attempt to avoid it by
haviors are contingent on boundary preferences,   seeking peace. Although subsequent work in po-
work orientations, and the meaningfulness of      litical philosophy has elaborated on this basic
work. And we conclude by discussing theoreti-     assumption, the majority of scholarship on
cal contributions, future research directions,    death in the social sciences and humanities is
and practical implications. The contingency       based on existential philosophy. Building on the
model of death awareness at work that we de-      work of Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche, ex-
velop in this article is displayed in Figure 1.   istentialists such as Heidegger and Sartre
                                                  called attention to the anxiety, dread, and fear
                                                  that people experience when they become
      THE NATURE OF DEATH AWARENESS
                                                  aware of their own mortality (Appignanesi, 2006;
  We define death awareness as a psychologi-      Solomon, 2005). Near the turn of the twentieth
cal state—a mental experience triggered by ex-    century, existentialism informed the theories of
ternal events (Chaplin, John, & Goldberg,         a number of key thinkers in psychology, includ-
1988)—in which people are conscious of their      ing Allport, Dewey, Freud, James, and Wundt.
mortality. Scholarly attention to death aware-    However, as behaviorism began to dominate
ness was stimulated more than 300 years ago       psychology, existentialism fell out of favor

                                         FIGURE 1
                       A Contingency Model of Death Awareness at Work
2009                                     Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                     603

(Koole, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2006; cf.           writing about one’s own death, answering ques-
Frankl, 1959, and Yalom, 1980).                       tions about what will happen while dying or
   Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker set the      after death, watching videos of deadly automo-
stage for empirical attention to how individuals      bile accidents, walking past a cemetery, and
respond to death awareness with three books on        being subliminally exposed to death-related
the denial of death, one of which won the Pu-         words. For example, studies have shown that
litzer Prize (Becker, 1973). Becker argued that       death awareness increases preferences for
awareness of death is a uniquely human capa-          charismatic leaders (Cohen, Solomon, Maxfield,
bility and curse, and he focused on the role of       Pyszczynski, & Greenberg, 2004), strengthened
cultural belief systems in buffering against ex-      support for former President Bush and aggres-
istential anxiety about impending death (for a        sive counterterrorism policies (Landau et al.,
review see Liechty, 2002). In the 1980s three so-     2004), increases donations to national but not
cial psychologists discovered Becker’s work and       international charities (Jonas, Schimel, Green-
began to design experiments to test and elabo-        berg, & Pyszczynski, 2002), increases punish-
rate on his theories. Now, two decades later,         ment of criminal offenders who threaten one’s
terror management theory is among the most            world view (Arndt, Lieberman, Cook, & Solomon,
generative perspectives in social psychology.         2005), enhances optimism about unlikely victo-
Researchers have conducted well over 250 stud-        ries over opponents in soccer matches
ies to test and extend terror management theory       (Dechesne, Greenberg, Arndt, & Schimel, 2000),
predictions about how individuals deal with the       boosts overconfidence about future financial
cognizance of their own mortality (Greenberg,         worth (Kasser & Sheldon, 2000), amplifies dis-
Koole, & Pyszczynski, 2004; Pyszczynski et al.,       plays of physical strength among athletes but
2003).                                                not among individuals who do not value
                                                      strength (Peters, Greenberg, Williams, & Schnei-
                                                      der, 2005), and even motivates individuals to
Terror Management Theory: Death Awareness
                                                      allocate large quantities of hot sauce to world-
Increases Self-Protective Motivation
                                                      view-threatening outgroup members who do not
   The central premise of terror management           like spicy foods (McGregor et al., 1998). Re-
theory is that people face a basic existential        searchers have even demonstrated that people
dilemma: they desire life but know that their         express more nationalistic views—and believe
own death is inevitable. To defend and protect        charities are more important—when surveyed
themselves against existential anxiety, people        while walking past a funeral home (Jonas et al.,
create and cling to cultural world views—             2002).
collective understandings of reality that (1) ren-       Several studies have further shown that these
der existence meaningful, coherent, and perma-        efforts to defend cultural world views and per-
nent; (2) offer a set of standards for defining       sonal worth serve the anxiety-buffering function
what is valuable; and (3) confer either literal or    of protecting people against fears of their own
symbolic immortality through religious institu-       mortality. For example, researchers have found
tions that assure an afterlife or social institu-     that, after inducing death awareness, giving in-
tions that allow them to feel that they are con-      dividuals positive feedback reduces self-re-
nected to something larger, more powerful, and        ported death anxiety and objective measures of
more permanent than themselves (Pyszczynski,          physiological arousal (for a review see Pysz-
Greenberg, & Solomon, 1999; Wade-Benzoni,             czynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel,
2006). People defend against existential anxiety      2004). Perhaps most important, research sug-
through self-protective responses— connecting         gests that these effects of death awareness may
with and contributing to people and groups who        be unique; they do not occur in response to other
share their world views and showing hostility         forms of anxiety, such as worries about future
toward people and groups with alternative             plans and success, fears of public speaking,
world views that challenge the legitimacy of          concerns about intense physical pain or failing
their own.                                            a test, and actual poor performance on intelli-
   A large body of research has supported these       gence tests (Pyszczynski et al., 1999). Although
core propositions by manipulating death aware-        scholars have questioned whether the theory
ness with a range of situational cues, including      comprehensively explains the origins of motives
604                                  Academy of Management Review                                  October

for self-esteem and meaning (e.g., Heine, Proulx,    trove, 1998; Stewart, Ostrove, & Helson, 2001; Vail-
& Vohs, 2006; Leary, 2004, 2007; Navarette &         lant & Milofsky, 1980). Survey data and narrative
Fessler, 2005; Ryan & Deci, 2004), terror manage-    analyses of life stories suggest that generativity
ment research provides strong empirical evi-         emerges most prominently around midlife, result-
dence that death awareness has a broad array         ing from the strengthening of two motives by
of unique psychological and behavioral effects       death awareness: the desire to make lasting con-
on individuals. In sum, the core theme cutting       tributions and the desire to feel connected with
across terror management research is that            others (McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992, 1998). As
death awareness strengthens self-protective          Kotre explains, death awareness strengthens the
motivation—a desire to defend one’s identity         “desire to invest one’s substance in forms of life
and image (Ashford, Blatt, & VandeWalle, 2003;       and work that will outlive the self” (1984: 16). The
Larrick, 1993; Leary, 2007).                         desire to make lasting, self-transcendent contribu-
                                                     tions is an agentic desire that motivates individ-
                                                     uals to buffer against death by extending their
Generativity Theories: Death Awareness
                                                     contributions into the future, striving for symbolic
Increases Prosocial Motivation
                                                     immortality (Wade-Benzoni, 2006). The desire to
   Personality and life-span developmental psy-      feel connected with others is a communal desire
chologists have offered a different perspective      that motivates individuals to buffer against death
on death awareness. In his classic epigenetic        by linking their actions and identities to enduring
theory of development, psychologist Erik Erik-       relationships, groups, organizations, and institu-
son (1963, 1982) proposed that people progress       tions (Peterson & Stewart, 1996). As sociologist
through eight psychological stages of life, each     Morrie Schwartz explained it, “Death ends a life,
of which involves a developmental crisis. He         not a relationship” (Albom, 1997: 174).
dedicated the last two of his eight stages of life      By strengthening these agentic and communal
to issues related to death. He proposed that in      motives to meaningfully contribute and connect,
the final stage of life people become increas-       death awareness can lead individuals to take per-
ingly aware of death, which leads to a crisis        sonal responsibility for promoting the welfare of
between ego integrity and despair. Those who         other people and the next generation by seeking
overcome this crisis experience ego integrity,       out work as teachers, mentors, leaders, organizers,
finding coherence and meaning in their lives         and inventors (McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992).
and accepting death. Those who succumb to this       Consistent with this perspective, experimental re-
crisis experience despair, continuing to fear and    search indicates that death awareness can lead
dread death. Erikson proposed that, before           individuals with self-serving values to endorse
reaching this stage, in the penultimate stage of     more prosocial values (Joireman & Duell, 2005). As
life—which occurs throughout middle adult-           an illustration, Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio
hood—people grapple with the notion that their       vaccine, described the goal of his life as “to be a
lives are finite. They undergo a midlife crisis      good ancestor” (Weiner, 2008: 110). Similarly, con-
between generativity and stagnation— contrib-        sider the case of R. Buckminster Fuller, the inven-
uting to the next generation versus ceasing to be    tor, engineer, mathematician, architect, and pub-
a productive member of society. He proposed          lic intellectual often described as the “DaVinci of
that people who prevail over this crisis become      the twentieth century.” In 1922 his four-year-old
generative by performing socially valuable           daughter, Alexandra, died from complications of
work and mentoring members of younger gen-           polio and spinal meningitis. Devastated, he went
erations. People who fall victim to this crisis,     to the shore of frozen Lake Michigan to commit
however, become stagnant by withdrawing from         suicide. Contemplating his death led him to re-
socially valuable work and mentoring activities.     consider the meaning of his life, and instead of
   Erikson’s conceptualization of generativity has   committing suicide, he decided to embark on an
itself been generative, motivating several de-       experiment to learn what a single person can ac-
cades of research on the antecedents and conse-      complish at work to change the world and benefit
quences of generativity. Research supports the       all of humanity. This led him to work tirelessly
core hypothesis that generativity increases          and persistently to make lasting contributions to
around midlife (Keyes & Ryff, 1998; McAdams et       society (e.g., Edmondson, 1987; Sieden, 1989). Thus,
al., 1993; Peterson & Klohnen, 1995; Stewart & Os-   the core theme cutting across generativity re-
2009                                      Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                       605

search is that death awareness strengthens proso-      death is far off (Arndt, Greenberg, Solomon,
cial motivation—a desire to give, contribute, help,    Pyszczynski, & Simon, 1997; Simon et al., 1997).
benefit, make a difference, or protect and promote     They then avoid the paralyzing existential terror
the welfare of other people (Grant, 2007, 2008).       that death awareness can provoke by marshal-
                                                       ing distal defense mechanisms, seeking to pro-
                                                       tect themselves by affiliating with value-
Reconciling Terror Management and
                                                       congruent groups and criticizing value-
Generativity: Death Anxiety versus Death
                                                       incongruent groups (Greenberg et al., 1997;
Reflection
                                                       Pyszczynski et al., 2004). This evidence suggests
   Terror management and generativity theories         that individuals process death anxiety in a hot
appear to offer competing predictions about            experiential system to protect the self. Death
how individuals respond to death awareness.            anxiety can thus be thought of as an affect-
From a terror management perspective, death            driven (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996; Zajonc, 1980)
awareness strengthens self-protective motiva-          or reactive (Grant & Ashford, 2008) state in which
tion; from a generativity perspective, death           visceral emotional responses drive the process-
awareness strengthens prosocial motivation.            ing of mortality cues.
We reconcile these two theoretical perspectives           Death reflection describes a cognitive state of
by calling attention to two different forms death      death awareness, one in which individuals put
awareness can take. A significant limitation of        their lives in context, contemplate their meaning
both terror management and generativity theo-          and purpose, and review how others will look
ries is that they fail to differentiate between the    upon them after they have passed (Cozzolino et
two fundamentally distinct forms of death              al., 2004; Ring, 1984; Ring & Elsaesser Valarino,
awareness (Cozzolino, Staples, Meyers, & Sam-          1998). Death reflection is processed psychologi-
boceti, 2004; Lykins, Segerstrom, Averill, Evans,      cally in what is known as the “cool” or cognitive
& Kemeny, 2007). We integrate initial work on          system, which is characterized by deliberate,
death awareness by Cozzolino et al. (2004) and         analytical, rational reactions based on system-
Lykins et al. (2007) with theory and research on       atic processing that is subject to intentional con-
information processing systems (Metcalfe &             trol (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999; see also Bazer-
Mischel, 1999) to distinguish two discrete psy-        man, Tenbrunsel, & Wade-Benzoni, 1998;
chological pathways through which individuals          Epstein, 1994; Haidt, 2001). These cool psycholog-
can be conscious of mortality.                         ical processes form the basis of the self-
   Death anxiety describes an emotional state of       transcendent reactions depicted in generativity
death awareness in which individuals experi-           theory and research. Indeed, Simon et al. (1997)
ence fear, panic, and dread about their own mor-       found that when primed or instructed to think
tality (Cozzolino et al., 2004; Russac, Gatliff,       about their own deaths in a rational, analytical
Reece, & Spottswood, 2007). Death anxiety is pro-      mode, individuals did not display self-protective
cessed psychologically in what is known as the         reactions, and Cozzolino et al. (2004) found that
“hot” or experiential system, which is character-      when asked to engage in death reflection, indi-
ized by immediate, emotional, intuitive, vis-          viduals engaged in the prosocial, self-transcen-
ceral, and impulsive reactions based on heuris-        dent behavior of sharing raffle tickets and gift
tic processing (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999; see          certificates.
also Epstein, 1994, and Haidt, 2001). These hot           Similarly, studies of near-death experiences
psychological processes form the basis of the          have shown that as individuals reflect on death,
self-protective reactions depicted in terror man-      they become increasingly interested in helping
agement theory and research. Indeed, Simon et          others and often change their careers in this
al. (1997) presented empirical evidence that ter-      direction, as when an accountant becomes a
ror management responses occur in the hot ex-          nurse after contemplating death (Ring & El-
periential system. When individuals are re-            saesser Valarino, 1998). Illustrating this point, a
minded of their mortality after being primed or        woman described how seeing her four-year-old
instructed to share their natural, emotional re-       son narrowly survive being hit by a car led her
actions, they show strong self-protective reac-        to reflect on death and motivated her to become
tions. Initially, they deny their personal vulner-     an emergency medical technician in order to
ability by asserting their health and noting that      help others survive accidents: “I felt sure he was
606                                      Academy of Management Review                               October

dying, and I didn’t know of anything I could do to        events, it tends to be a short-lived response
help him or to preserve his life. . . . [it] was a real   triggered by situational cues, lasting in many
turning point. . . . I served an ambulance service        circumstances for moments, hours, or days
for 10 years and have saved more than one life”           (Lykins et al., 2007). However, death anxiety
(McAdams et al., 1993: 228).                              can also linger for weeks and months (e.g.,
   Moreover, McAdams and de St. Aubin (1992,              Russac et al., 2007), at which point it is pro-
1998) reported extensive evidence from longitudi-         cessed more like a diffuse mood state than a
nal survey and narrative interview studies indi-          specific emotion (e.g., Weiss & Cropanzano,
cating that individuals make deliberate choices           1996). On the other hand, because death reflec-
and commitments to become generative and self-            tion is subject to greater intentional, effortful
transcendent. This evidence suggests that indi-           cognitive control, it can involve an extended
viduals process death reflection in a cool cogni-         contemplation and deliberation process that
tive system that they deliberately control so as to       extends for many months or even years (Lykins
find ways to contribute to others and have a last-        et al., 2007). Thus, death anxiety is likely to
ing impact. Death reflection can thus be thought of       produce faster, more intense psychological re-
as a cognition-driven (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996)          sponses, whereas death reflection is likely to
or proactive (Grant & Ashford, 2008) state in which       produce slower, less intense responses. Fi-
thoughts and anticipatory plans about the future          nally, in terms of focus of attention, death anx-
drive responses to mortality cues. Together, these        iety emphasizes protecting the self against
arguments and illustrative examples suggest the           negative outcomes, while death reflection em-
following proposition.                                    phasizes promoting positive outcomes for oth-
                                                          ers.
      Proposition 1: Death anxiety and
      death reflection represent distinct
      forms of death awareness with dis-                    THE EMERGENCE OF DEATH AWARENESS
      crete motivational consequences:                                  AT WORK
      (a) death anxiety engages the hot
                                                            Having developed the distinction between
      experiential processing system,
                                                          death anxiety and death reflection, we now turn
      strengthening self-protective motiva-
                                                          to the antecedents of these two forms of death
      tion, whereas (b) death reflection en-
                                                          awareness. When and how does death become
      gages the cool cognitive processing
                                                          salient to employees at work? Research sug-
      system, strengthening prosocial moti-
                                                          gests that death awareness is triggered by
      vation.
                                                          events— experiences or episodes that occur in a
   This understanding of death anxiety and                bounded time period and place (e.g., Weick &
death reflection as two distinct forms of death           Roberts, 1993)—that serve as “mortality cues” by
awareness provides the basis of the contin-               making death salient. To capture the range of
gency model of death awareness that we de-                events that can make employees aware of
velop in this article. To further unpack the dif-         death, we present a typology of mortality cues,
ferences between these two states of death                which we derived from a review of the terror
awareness, our preceding discussion suggests              management theory literature describing an ar-
that they can be differentiated in terms of three         ray of situational forces that increase death
dimensions: emotionality, duration, and focus of          awareness, as well as from research in organi-
attention.                                                zational studies referring to death. Our typology
   In terms of emotionality, death anxiety is             focuses on three core situational dimensions
characterized by extreme, vivid emotions,                 along which mortality cues vary: source, self-
such as fear, panic, and dread, while death               relevance, and exposure.
reflection is characterized by less emotional-              Source, the first dimension, captures the ori-
ity and calmer, more controlled thoughts. This            gin of the cue—internal or external. Internal
contrast in emotionality has important impli-             mortality cues are events that originate within
cations for understanding how the two states              the workplace, and external mortality cues are
differ in terms of duration. Because death anx-           events that originate outside the workplace.
iety engages the hot experiential system, like            Self-relevance, the second dimension, captures
other emotional states focusing on specific               how the individual is connected to the mortality
2009                                                Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                                        607

cue—personally or vicariously. Personal mortal-                        or acute. Chronic mortality cues are recurring,
ity cues are events that trigger death awareness                       lasting events, and acute mortality cues are
by exposing employees to direct threats to their                       short-lived, intermittent events. Figure 2 repre-
own lives, and vicarious mortality cues are                            sents these three core dimensions of mortality
events that trigger death awareness by expos-                          cues in a 2 ⫻ 2 ⫻ 2 diagram, provides examples
ing employees to others who are dead or in                             of each type, and describes their predicted im-
danger. Exposure, the third dimension, captures                        pacts on death anxiety and death reflection,
the frequency and duration of the cue— chronic                         which we detail below.

                                                        FIGURE 2
                                               A Typology of Mortality Cues
                                     Chronic                                                       Acute
                      Internal                     External                       Internal                     External

             Definition: Extended          Definition: Extended           Definition: Time-           Definition: Time-
             workplace events that         outside events that            bounded workplace           bounded outside events
             threaten employees’           threaten employees’            events that threaten        that threaten employees’
             own lives                     own lives                      employees’ own lives        own lives

             Example: Dangerous            Example: Prolonged             Example: Workplace          Example: Crises
             jobs, where firefighters,     personal illness or            accidents (Hofmann &        affecting the self, such
             police officers, soldiers,    disease (Baldridge &           Stetzer, 1998; Perrow,      as natural disasters,
             ambulance drivers,            Veiga, 2001)                   1984; Weick & Roberts,      automobile accidents,
             astronauts, pilots, mine                                     1993)                       and terrorist attacks
 Personal    workers, infectious                                                                      (Pearson & Clair, 1998)
             disease specialists, and
             intelligence agents are
             responsible for tasks that
             directly place their lives
             on the line (Jermier,
             Gaines, & McIntosh, 1989)

             Impact: Low death             Impact: Low death              Impact: High death          Impact: Moderate death
             anxiety, high death           anxiety, moderate death        anxiety, low death          anxiety, low death
             reflection                    reflection                     reflection                  reflection

             Definition: Extended          Definition: Extended           Definition: Time-bounded    Definition: Time-bounded
             workplace events that         outside events that            workplace events that       outside events that
             place employees in            threaten the lives of          threaten the lives of       threaten the lives of
             contact with others dead      others in physical or          others in physical or       others in physical or
             or in danger                  emotional proximity to         emotional proximity to      emotional proximity to
                                           employees                      employees                   employees

             Example: Dirty work and       Example: Aging or ill          Example: Executive          Example: Crises
             necessary evils, as           parents (Goodstein, 1995;      death (Worrell, Davidson,   affecting other people or
             experienced by                Ingram & Simons, 1995)         Chandy, & Garrison,         organizations, such as
             physicians, nurses,                                          1986)                       terrorist attacks and
             hospice workers,                                                                         natural disasters
             paramedics, soldiers,                                                                    (Pearson & Clair, 1998)
 Vicarious
             executioners, firefighters,
             police officers, disaster
             and rescue workers,
             trauma and crisis
             counselors, and funeral
             workers (Ashforth &
             Kreiner, 1999; Clark &
             LaBeff, 1982; Molinsky &
             Margolis, 2005)

             Impact: Low death             Impact: Low death              Impact: Moderate death      Impact: Moderate death
             anxiety, moderate death       anxiety, moderate death        anxiety, low death          anxiety, low death
             reflection                    reflection                     reflection                  reflection
608                                     Academy of Management Review                                October

The Effects of Mortality Cues on Death Anxiety               ity cues to increase (a) death anxiety
and Death Reflection                                         and (b) death reflection at work.
   Source. We first propose that internal mortal-
ity cues are more likely than external mortality        The Moderating Role of Exposure
cues to increase both death anxiety and death
reflection at work. We base this prediction on             We further propose that these effects of inter-
evidence of the encoding specificity principle in       nal and personal mortality cues on death anxi-
                                                        ety and death reflection are moderated by expo-
memory theory and research, which demon-
                                                        sure. More specifically, we propose that whether
strates that memory is context dependent: indi-
                                                        mortality cues trigger death anxiety or death
viduals are most likely to recall events in the
                                                        reflection is a function of exposure. When em-
domains in which they occurred (Baddeley,
                                                        ployees face acute exposure to mortality cues,
1982). For example, employees will be most
                                                        these cues will be more likely to elicit death
likely to think of death at work when they are
                                                        anxiety and less likely to elicit death reflection
exposed to mortality cues at work, whether
                                                        (Lykins et al., 2007). In the face of acute cues,
through performing a dangerous task, having             such as accidents, natural disasters, and terror-
contact with others in danger or death, or en-          ist attacks, employees are often overwhelmed
countering accidents and disasters in the work-         by fear of the unknown (Pyszczynski et al., 2003).
place. Accordingly, when mortality cues origi-          We predict the opposite, however, when employ-
nate within the workplace, they will be more            ees are chronically exposed to mortality cues;
accessible to employees while working and,              these cues will be less likely to elicit death
thus, have greater potential to elicit both death       anxiety and more likely to elicit death reflection.
anxiety and death reflection.                              We propose that chronic exposure increases
      Proposition 2: Internal mortality cues            awareness of death but enables employees to
      are more likely than external mortal-             process mortality cues with reflection in the cool
      ity cues to increase (a) death anxiety            cognitive system, instead of with anxiety in the
      and (b) death reflection at work.                 hot experiential system. Why would chronic ex-
                                                        posure to mortality cues change the nature of
   Self-relevance. Next, we propose that per-           death awareness from anxiety to reflection,
sonal mortality cues are more likely than vicar-        rather than reducing the salience of death alto-
ious mortality cues to increase both death anx-         gether? Although one might expect that chronic
iety and death reflection at work. As discussed         exposure would enable employees to ignore
previously, terror management research reveals          mortality cues or disengage cognitive process-
that individuals often dismiss vicarious mortal-        ing, theory and research on social cognition re-
ity cues by asserting their own health, longevity,      veals that chronic exposure to information tends
or immunity to the triggering events (Arndt et          to increase the accessibility of that information
al., 1997; Simon et al., 1997). In contrast, personal   (Higgins, 1996; Schwarz, 1999). Such increases in
mortality cues are more difficult to disregard          accessibility under chronic exposure are partic-
since employees are confronted with direct evi-         ularly common when the information is self-
dence that their lives are at risk. For example,        threatening (Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000), which is
physicians and nurses treating sick patients can        a defining feature of mortality cues (Baumeister,
more easily distance themselves from death              1991). Because mortality cues are self-threaten-
than police officers and rescue workers who are         ing events, they are extremely difficult to ignore
risking their own lives. When employees per-            or suppress (Arndt et al., 1997; Wenzlaff & Weg-
form dangerous jobs or are injured in accidents         ner, 2000). Thus, under chronic exposure, em-
or disasters, they will find it difficult to deny the   ployees will still be conscious of mortality, but
threats that they have experienced. As such,            they will process it differently: instead of react-
personal mortality cues have greater potential          ing emotionally with anxiety, they will respond
                                                        cognitively with reflection.
to elicit both death anxiety and death reflection
                                                           Indeed, research on coping with harm doing,
than vicarious mortality cues.
                                                        trauma, and death suggests that, over time, ex-
      Proposition 3: Personal mortality cues            posure facilitates a process of emotional habit-
      are more likely than vicarious mortal-            uation, or desensitizing, through which mortal-
2009                                       Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                       609

ity becomes less terrifying and paralyzing              The Moderating Role of Aging Processes
(Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999; Molinsky & Margolis,
                                                           Thus far, our analysis has focused on how
2005; Palmer, 1983; Regehr, Goldberg, & Hughes,
                                                        situational variations in the source of, self-
2002). Through exposure, employees gain access
                                                        relevance of, and exposure to mortality cues will
to supportive occupational ideologies and col-
                                                        influence death anxiety and death reflection.
leagues and are able to learn cognitive strate-
                                                        We now consider the impact of aging processes,
gies for coping with death, thus rendering mor-
                                                        which play a fundamental role in shaping
tality less terrifying and unpredictable. As a
                                                        whether employees react to mortality cues with
manager of morticians remarked, “A group of
                                                        death anxiety or death reflection. As noted pre-
funeral directors . . . could sit around in the res-
                                                        viously, workforces worldwide are aging rap-
taurant talking about the most gory details and
                                                        idly, and organizational scholars have begun to
it doesn’t bother them a bit” (Ashforth, Kreiner,
                                                        call for theory and research to explain how ag-
Clark, & Fugate, 2007: 149).
                                                        ing affects employees’ experiences and behav-
   In other words, chronic exposure to mortality
                                                        iors (e.g., Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004; Warr, 2001).
cues enables employees to shut down the hot
                                                        However, little theory and research has explored
experiential system that governs death anxiety,
                                                        the linkages between aging and death aware-
processing death instead in the cool cognitive
                                                        ness.
system, where they are able to think and reflect
                                                           We propose that as employees age, mortality
about mortality in a deliberate, rational, con-
                                                        cues are decreasingly likely to trigger death
trolled fashion. By facilitating emotional habit-
                                                        anxiety and increasingly likely to trigger death
uation and desensitization, chronic exposure
                                                        reflection. It is not a coincidence that the vast
softens employees’ visceral anxiety reactions,
                                                        majority of support for the predictions of terror
enabling them to engage the cool cognitive sys-
                                                        management theory has been provided by ex-
tem to reflect on the meaning of life and their
                                                        periments involving college students, for whom
potential contributions. For example, firefight-
                                                        mortality cues tend to elicit death anxiety (Max-
ers often enter their jobs seeking excitement,
                                                        field et al., 2007), whereas the bulk of research
danger, and job security and benefits (Smith,
                                                        on generativity has focused on adults at midlife
1988). However, through chronic exposure to
                                                        and beyond, for whom mortality cues tend to
death, they often come to think of saving lives as
                                                        elicit death reflection (McAdams & de St. Aubin,
a central source of meaning. As one firefighter
                                                        1998). Indeed, Maxfield et al. (2007) found that
explained it, “I can look back and say, ‘I helped
                                                        younger adults, but not older adults, displayed
put out a fire. I helped save somebody.’ It shows
                                                        the anxiety-driven self-protective reactions to
something I did on this earth” (Terkel, 1972: 589).
                                                        death awareness predicted by terror manage-
   Thus, we expect that mortality cues elicit high
                                                        ment theory. Consistent with these findings,
death anxiety and low reflection for employees
                                                        several studies suggest that death anxiety
with acute exposure and—reversing the pat-
                                                        peaks when individuals are in their twenties
tern—low death anxiety and high reflection for
                                                        and declines in a relatively linear fashion there-
employees with chronic exposure. From a dy-
                                                        after (Cicirelli, 2002; Fortner & Neimeyer, 1999;
namic viewpoint, this prediction implies that as
                                                        Gesser, Wong, & Reker, 1988), and that, over
employees have repeated exposures to acute
                                                        extended periods of death exposure, individu-
mortality cues, they may experience these cues
                                                        als’ psychological reactions shift away from
as chronic, thereby experiencing less death anx-
                                                        anxiety and toward reflection (Lykins et al.,
iety and greater reflection (see Lykins et al.,
                                                        2007).
2007).
                                                           Accordingly, we expect that as employees
       Proposition 4: Exposure moderates the            age, they are increasingly likely to respond to
       effect of mortality cues on death                mortality cues with death reflection rather than
       awareness such that (a) acute expo-              death anxiety. Research identifies two interre-
       sure increases death anxiety and de-             lated mechanisms through which aging shifts
       creases death reflection while (b)               reactions to mortality cues away from anxiety
       chronic exposure decreases death                 and toward reflection. First, aging gives rise to a
       anxiety and increases death reflec-              process of selective optimization and compensa-
       tion.                                            tion, in which individuals adapt to age-related
610                                  Academy of Management Review                                 October

changes by prioritizing interests, choosing          vancing career stages, achievement of higher
meaningful and realistic goals, adjusting stan-      levels of organizational and occupational ten-
dards, and finding new methods to complete           ure, and retirement planning programs are ex-
tasks and accomplish goals (Baltes &                 amples of symbolic aging processes that can
Carstensen, 1996; Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004).          strengthen employees’ tendencies to reflect on
Several decades ago Kübler-Ross (1969) argued       death by serving as reminders of time passed
that as they gain exposure to death, individuals     and by highlighting that time left is finite and
move through stages of denial, anger, bargain-       decreasing. In some organizational and occupa-
ing, and depression, toward eventual accep-          tional settings, these symbols may be particu-
tance. Indeed, recent research suggests that in-     larly salient, as in the case of air traffic control-
dividuals are increasingly likely to reflect on      lers, who face a mandatory retirement age of
death as they age, which leads them to select        fifty-six (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). We expect
value-congruent, personally significant goals        that these types of symbolic aging processes,
that reduce death anxiety (Lykins et al., 2007),     not only chronological aging processes, can trig-
typically by becoming generative through con-        ger death reflection.
tributing to other people or to future generations
                                                          Proposition 5: Aging processes moder-
(McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992; Midlarsky &
                                                          ate the effect of mortality cues on
Hannah, 1989). As they age, rather than fearing
                                                          death awareness such that as employ-
death, individuals find value in reflecting on
                                                          ees age chronologically and symboli-
“time passed” and getting the most out of “time
                                                          cally, they tend to respond to mortality
left” (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999;
                                                          cues with (a) decreasing death anxiety
Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004).
                                                          and (b) increasing death reflection.
   Second, aging enhances employees’ capacity
for self-control, which has been shown to de-
crease death anxiety (Gailliot, Schmeichel, &
                                                       BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES OF DEATH
Baumeister, 2006). Research on personality de-
                                                              AWARENESS AT WORK
velopment reveals that as they age, individuals
show dominant trends toward becoming in-                Now that we have explained how mortality
creasingly emotionally stable and conscien-          cues and aging processes interact to influence
tious (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005), two traits   death anxiety and death reflection, we can ex-
that play a central role in self-control and will-   amine the consequences of these two psycho-
power (Metcalfe & Mischel, 1999; Olson, 2005).       logical states for work behavior, an important
Accordingly, aging equips employees with a           issue that has rarely been addressed in organi-
heightened capacity for controlling thoughts         zational scholarship (Sievers, 1986, 1993). We fo-
and feelings that allow them to override the         cus on two core classes of work behavior: with-
visceral, impulsive, emotional death anxiety re-     drawal behaviors, which involve behavioral
actions triggered by the hot experiential system     disengagement from work through absenteeism,
and to activate the deliberate, rational, analyti-   tardiness, and turnover (Harrison, Newman, &
cal processing guided by the cool cognitive sys-     Roth, 2006), and generative behaviors, which are
tem. Thus, we propose that employees’ re-            actions taken to make meaningful, lasting con-
sponses to mortality cues are age dependent          tributions that benefit other people and groups
such that aging decreases death anxiety reac-        (McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992). We focus on
tions and increases death reflection reactions.      these behaviors not only because they can have
   It is important to note that these predictions    destructive versus constructive implications for
apply to both chronological and symbolic aging       job performance but also because they have
processes. As employees age chronologically,         been linked directly to aging processes (Ng &
they are increasingly likely to experience ob-       Feldman, 2008) and to different psychological
servable physical and psychological changes          states that closely parallel our distinction be-
that promote death reflection, such as graying       tween death anxiety triggering self-protective
hair and losses in vision, hearing, and memory.      motivation and death reflection triggering
However, organizational life is replete with sym-    prosocial motivation. More specifically, re-
bolic signals that draw attention to aging and       searchers have found that withdrawal behav-
can thus promote increased death reflection. Ad-     iors are often driven by stress and negative
2009                                     Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                       611

emotions (e.g., Podsakoff, LePine, & LePine, 2007;    haviors. However, several studies provide
Spector & Fox, 2002), whereas generative behav-       indirect evidence of this effect by linking acute
iors are often driven by the desire to help others    mortality cues to withdrawal behaviors through
(e.g., Grant, 2008; McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992;     stress processes. One study showed that the
Rioux & Penner, 2001; Spector & Fox, 2002). In the    death of a family member predicted higher lev-
following sections we develop propositions that       els of sickness absenteeism among municipal
explain how both individual and contextual con-       employees in the following year (Kivimäki et al.,
tingencies moderate the effects of death anxiety      2002). Another study showed that employees’ re-
on withdrawal behaviors and death reflection on       ports of strain from the acute events of Septem-
generative behaviors in the work domain.              ber 11 predicted higher levels of absenteeism in
                                                      subsequent weeks (Byron & Peterson, 2002). And
                                                      a third study showed that employees who per-
Death Anxiety and Stress-Related Withdrawal
                                                      ceived high levels of danger in their jobs were
Behaviors at Work
                                                      likely to report strong intentions to quit (Zaccaro
   We expect that, in general, death anxiety is       & Stone, 1988). Accordingly, we propose that
likely to increase withdrawal behaviors at work.      death anxiety, particularly when it is intense or
The logic behind this prediction is provided by       long-lasting, will lead employees to protect
theory and research on stress, which suggests         themselves from stress by withdrawing from
that death anxiety is a cause of stress and           work.
strain, and stress and strain can result in feel-
                                                           Proposition 6: Death anxiety increases
ings of emotional exhaustion. The consequence
                                                           stress-related withdrawal behaviors
of stress and strain caused by death anxiety can
                                                           of absenteeism, tardiness, and turn-
be short-term withdrawal behaviors, such as ab-
                                                           over.
senteeism and tardiness, since employees lack
the emotional energy to attend work or find             However, there are conditions under which
themselves distracted from work-related               death anxiety is more versus less likely to in-
thoughts (Byron & Peterson, 2002). In the case of     crease withdrawal behaviors. Our earlier prop-
particularly intense or long-lasting levels of        ositions suggested that employees will experi-
death anxiety that employees find emotionally         ence greater death anxiety at work when
overwhelming, the consequence can be the              mortality cues are internal rather than external
longer-term withdrawal behavior of turnover, as       to the workplace. This suggests that internal
employees seek to protect themselves by transi-       mortality cues are generally likely to cause
tioning to jobs with less exposure to mortality       death anxiety at work and, therefore, stress and
cues (e.g., Zaccaro & Stone, 1988).                   withdrawal behaviors. But when mortality cues
   The proposed linkages among death anxiety,         are external, different employees may display
stress, and withdrawal behaviors are supported        different patterns of responses. Work-family re-
by several studies. With respect to the effect of     search indicates that employees differ in their
death anxiety on stress, a naturally occurring        boundary preferences: “integrators” prefer to
quasi-experiment showed that the deadly Three         blur the boundary between work and other life
Mile Island nuclear accident predicated higher        domains, whereas “segmenters” prefer to sepa-
levels of employee tension (Chisholm et al.,          rate work from other domains of life (Edwards &
1983). Similarly, a study of physical danger in       Rothbard, 1999; Rothbard, Phillips, & Dumas,
police work linked objective hazards to fear of       2005). Because integrators choose not to com-
death, which was associated with higher emo-          partmentalize their lives, external mortality
tional exhaustion and disaffection with the or-       cues are likely to spill over and influence their
ganization (Jermier et al., 1989), and a study of     thoughts and feelings about death at work, pre-
New York city firefighters showed that involve-       cipitating higher death anxiety, which will lead
ment in the traumatic September 11 events was         to more withdrawal behaviors.
associated with higher levels of depression and         Segmenters, on the other hand, are motivated
stress (Bacharach & Bamberger, 2007).                 to draw sharp boundaries between work and
   Because few researchers have explicitly mea-       other life domains. For segmenters, then, work
sured death anxiety, there is little direct evi-      may provide a respite from external mortality
dence that death anxiety causes withdrawal be-        cues, promoting task focus and reducing the ten-
612                                  Academy of Management Review                                October

dency to display such withdrawal behaviors as        for cues about how to prioritize tasks, goals, and
absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover. Indeed,        activities (Lykins et al., 2007). For example, Ap-
terror management research has shown that            ple founder Steve Jobs explained that being di-
some individuals seek to escape death anxiety        agnosed with cancer led him to pursue more
by fleeing from the source of the anxiety and        value-congruent projects: “I have looked in the
focusing intensely on another domain (McGre-         mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today
gor, Gailliot, Vasquez, & Nash, 2007; McGregor &     were the last day of my life, would I want to do
Marigold, 2003). This is a pattern that we expect    what I am about to do today?’ . . . Remembering
to see among segmenters: their motivation to         that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool
compartmentalize their lives will lead them to       I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big
respond to external mortality cues by increasing     choices in life” (Jobs, 2005).
their focus on work tasks, which will reduce the        We expect that whether death reflection
stress and distraction of death anxiety and          drives employees to express their prosocial mo-
thereby prevent withdrawal behaviors. Thus, in       tivation in generative behaviors within or out-
the event of external mortality cues, death anx-     side the domain of work depends on their orien-
iety is more likely to influence withdrawal be-      tations toward work, which capture the values
haviors among integrators than segmenters.           they attach to work (Wrzesniewski, Dutton, &
      Proposition 7: When mortality cues are         Debebe, 2003). Psychologists and sociologists
      external to the workplace, work                have argued that employees typically hold one
      boundary preferences moderate the              of three orientations toward work—job, career,
      effect of death anxiety on withdrawal          or calling (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, &
      behaviors such that segmenters en-             Tipton, 1985; Schwartz, 1986). Job-oriented em-
      gage in fewer withdrawal behaviors             ployees see work as a means to fulfill the values
      than integrators.                              of supporting oneself, one’s family, and one’s
                                                     leisure time. Career-oriented employees see
                                                     work as a means to fulfill the values of status,
Death Reflection and Generative Behaviors            promotions, achievement, and challenge. Call-
at Work                                              ing-oriented employees see work as an end in
                                                     and of itself, as an intrinsic source of personal
   As noted previously, death reflection is likely
                                                     meaning, and as a means to fulfil the value of
to trigger prosocial motivation, which has been
linked to higher levels of generative behaviors,     helping others.
such as helping, mentoring, and effort and ini-         We draw on theories of resource allocation
tiative in tasks that benefit others (Grant, 2008;   and value congruence to propose that these
Rioux & Penner, 2001). However, rather than dis-     work orientations play a critical role in influenc-
playing generative behaviors at work, employ-        ing employees’ behavioral reactions to death
ees can choose to express their prosocial moti-      reflection. By enhancing the salience of mortal-
vations in generative behaviors outside the          ity, death reflection increases employees’
domain of work (McAdams & de St. Aubin, 1992).       awareness that time is finite, motivating them to
In this section we consider the individual and       make decisions about where to allocate their
contextual contingencies that shape whether          energy and attention (Becker, 1965; Hobfoll,
death reflection drives employees to express         2002). Theories of value congruence explain
prosocial motivation in generative behaviors         these responses with reference to values: to de-
within or outside the domain of work.                termine where to allocate scarce resources, em-
   From the perspectives of theories of resource     ployees turn to their values, or guiding princi-
allocation (Becker, 1965; Hobfoll, 2002) and value   ples, for information about how to prioritize their
congruence (Cable & Edwards, 2004; Schwartz,         options (Cable & Edwards, 2004; Schwartz, 1992;
1992), when employees reflect on death, they         Vroom, 1964). Indeed, terror management re-
become increasingly aware that time is finite        search indicates that when death is salient, in-
and turn to their values in order to make deci-      dividuals invest more time and energy in activ-
sions about how to allocate their resources. In-     ities that are reflective of their personal values
deed, recent research shows that death reflec-       and identities (McGregor, Zanna, Holmes, &
tion motivates individuals to turn to their values   Spencer, 2001).
2009                                        Grant and Wade-Benzoni                                           613

   The moderating role of work orientations. We            For calling-oriented employees, work is a po-
propose that work orientations provide a set of          tential source of meaning, identity expression,
principles to guide the decision about how to            and social contribution. We expect that death
allocate time and energy. Research on work ori-          reflection will motivate calling-oriented em-
entations shows that job-oriented employees              ployees to express their prosocial motivations at
tend not to define their identities strongly in          work by engaging in generative behaviors. If
terms of work (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001;              they recognize opportunities to help and mentor
Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz,               others, they will be likely to take initiative in
1997). Accordingly, we expect that employees             crafting their jobs to provide more help and
with job orientations will choose to express their       mentoring (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). They
prosocial motivations outside the work domain,           also will be likely to display high levels of effort
since they do not expect to find meaning in work         and persistence in tasks that benefit others
(Wrzesniewski et al., 1997). Thus, death reflec-         (Grant, 2007). For example, psychologists have
tion will motivate job-oriented employees to             discovered surges in objective contributions as
pursue generative activities outside of work,            creative workers, such as artists, composers,
such as childrearing and volunteering, and to            and writers, reach retirement age in their 60s,
invest less time and energy in the work domain.          70s, and even 80s (Simonton, 1988). One expla-
For instance, consider a funeral home director           nation for this pattern is the “swan-song” phe-
who explains that she has a job orientation to-          nomenon: reflecting on death strengthens the
ward work: “I didn’t want to go into the funeral         motivation of calling-oriented individuals to
businesses. . . . I had some choices, some               leave behind a meaningful contribution. In a
chances to do other things, but, well, it’s a family     study of nearly 2,000 works of composition by 172
business. . . . It’s not something that I picked”        classical composers, Simonton (1989) found that
(Bowe, Bowe, & Streeter, 2000: 663, 668). She de-        last works had higher objective popularity and
scribes how chronic mortality exposure in her job        expert ratings of aesthetic significance, even af-
leads to death reflection, which motivates her to        ter controlling for age and eminence:
spend more time with her family: “I know that
seeing so much death firsthand . . . I appreciate          As people approach their last years, they may
                                                           undergo a life assessment, a reflection on where
life more because I do this . . . because I know it        they have been and on how little time remains to
could all end like that. . . . I appreciate family and     travel, and so may feel that the limited future
get-togethers more doing this” (Bowe et al., 2000:         must be exploited to the utmost. . . . For creative
668).                                                      individuals, the outcome of this life review may
   Employees with career and calling orienta-              be a significant reshaping of the content and
                                                           form of those works selected as the career’s coda,
tions, on the other hand, will choose to express           rendering them qualitatively distinct from other
their prosocial motivations in the work domain.            works. Last-works effects hinge not on the cre-
These employees invest their identities more               ator’s chronological or even career age but rather
strongly in work than job-oriented employees,              on the perceived proximity of death (Simonton,
thereby attaching more meaning and impor-                  1989: 42).
tance to work as a life domain (Wrzesniewski et
                                                           Together, these arguments and examples sug-
al., 1997). For career-oriented employees, work is
                                                         gest that death reflection will increase the gen-
a central source of status and prestige
                                                         erative behaviors of calling-oriented and ca-
(Wrzesniewski et al., 1997). Moreover, research
                                                         reer-oriented employees while it will decrease
on near-death experiences shows that death re-
                                                         the generative behaviors of job-oriented em-
flection can broaden individuals’ focus of atten-
                                                         ployees in the work domain.
tion beyond their own narrow career goals to-
ward a consideration of helping others and                    Proposition 8: Work orientations mod-
doing good (Cozzolino et al., 2004; Lykins et al.,            erate the effect of death reflection on
2007). These findings suggest that death reflec-              generative behaviors in the work do-
tion will motivate career-oriented employees to               main such that death reflection (a) in-
engage in higher levels of generative behavior                creases work generativity for career-
in order to simultaneously achieve their agentic              oriented and calling-oriented employees
and communal goals of improving their own                     and (b) decreases work generativity for
reputation and contributing to other people.                  job-oriented employees.
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