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The “lasso effect” – toward the development of a theory of motivational contagion

Christopher B. Neck, Christopher P. Neck, Michael G. Goldsby, Elizabeth A. Goldsby

Journal of Managerial Psychology

ISSN: 0268-3946

Article publication date: 24 January 2025

21

Abstract

Purpose

Despite turning a recent eye toward work teams, motivation research has largely treated the group as a contextual influence affecting an individual’s motivation, leaving explanations of motivational forces within a group cached in theories of intrapersonal motivation. As a result, our understanding of the processes of motivation that operate beyond the individual remains lacking. Moving beyond this individual paradigm, the present paper seeks to clarify a process through which the motivational forces circulating within a team per se produce nascent member motivation through a motivational contagion. Specifically, we examine how motivational dynamics within a group serve as a unique motivational stimulus for its members and thereby operate as a process-altering collective effort as a consequence of its presence.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is a conceptual analysis.

Findings

Either through an intrinsically driven adoption that promotes member persistence in effortful action or an extrinsic compelling that engenders intensity of effort, apparent motivation may spread through a connected social network.

Originality/value

Through providing a top-down explanation of how broader group-level motivation in and of itself may serve as an impetus for future motivation within the group, this paper takes an important first step to clarify how team-level motivation operates beyond a mere contextual influence on pre-existing individual motivation.

Keywords

Citation

Neck, C.B., Neck, C.P., Goldsby, M.G. and Goldsby, E.A. (2025), "The “lasso effect” – toward the development of a theory of motivational contagion", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-04-2024-0258

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited

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