Appreciating social science research on gratitude: An integrative review for organizational scholarship on gratitude in the workplace

Abstract

Though gratitude research in organizational behavior (OB) is nascent, this emotion has a rich history in the social sciences. Research has shown gratitude to promote prosocial behaviors, encourage personal well-being, and foster interpersonal relationships. However, gratitude research has been siloed among these three outcomes of gratitude (moral, wellness, and relational). Similarly, past reviews of gratitude have focused on only one group of outcomes, one of its forms (trait, state, or expressed), or empirical findings without emphasis on the theoretical underpinnings. In contrast, this review recognizes that each type of gratitude, its functions, and outcomes are part of a single process model of gratitude. As such, in the current review, we provide a comprehensive assessment of gratitude in the social sciences by distilling and organizing the literature per our process model of episodic gratitude. Then, we translate the insights for management scholars, highlighting possible differences and synergies between extant research and workplace gratitude thereby helping advance "gratitude science" in the workplace. In all, this review (a) examines definitions and operationalizations of gratitude and provides recommendations for organizational research; (b) proposes a process model of episodic workplace gratitude as a conceptual map to guide future OB research on gratitude; (c) reviews empirical gratitude research through the lens of our process model; and (d) discusses the current state of the literature, important differences for workplace gratitude, and future directions for organizational scholars.

Gratitude in Organizations: Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test–Revised Short (GRAT–RS) in Workers

“…In the psychological realm, there is an increased interest in the study of gratitude [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. There are several reasons why gratitude could be an interesting and promising construct to explore [ 4 ], in particular, in the organizational field.…”

“…The 16-item GRAT-RS was developed by Thomas and Watkins [ 13 ] by reducing the original three factors of the 44-item Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT) [ 14 ]. According to the GRAT, grateful people are considered to have the following characteristics: firstly, they should not perceive feelings of deprivation regarding their lives and they should feel a sense of abundance; secondly, they should have a tendency to appreciate simple pleasures; finally, they should recognize the role of other people in their well-being [ 2 , 4 ]. Watkins et al [ 2 , 4 ] took these characteristics of individuals into account to create the items of their questionnaire to detect gratitude.…”

“…According to the GRAT, grateful people are considered to have the following characteristics: firstly, they should not perceive feelings of deprivation regarding their lives and they should feel a sense of abundance; secondly, they should have a tendency to appreciate simple pleasures; finally, they should recognize the role of other people in their well-being [ 2 , 4 ]. Watkins et al [ 2 , 4 ] took these characteristics of individuals into account to create the items of their questionnaire to detect gratitude. The questionnaire GRAT permits thus to individuate three dimensions of gratitude: (1) Lack of a sense of deprivation (sense of abundance) in relation to one’s own life; (2) Simple appreciation regarding simple pleasure; (3) Appreciation of others in terms of appreciation of the role of others in one’s own life [ 4 ].…”

“…In the psychological domain, gratitude was traditionally studied in the realm of positive psychology [ 21 ], especially in relation to well-being [ 4 , 7 , 22 , 23 ]. More recently, research has also concentrated on working environments [ 1 , 2 ], expanding research from the association between gratitude and well-being [ 24 ] to the associations with other constructs, particularly relational aspects, such as positive interpersonal interactions and social support at work [ 25 ]; prosocial organizational behaviors [ 26 , 27 ], organizational citizenship behaviors, teamwork and altruism [ 28 ]. Gratitude is also promising for job performance, efficiency, and productivity [ 24 , 29 ], thus permitting the promotion of better performances in healthy organizations [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Influence of distributive justice on organizational citizenship behaviors: The mediating role of gratitude

“…On the other, employees also assess whether the organization's distribution decisions went to deserving employees. In an organization, employees experience and express gratitude for a multitude of reasons (Locklear et al, 2022). Such reasons may include the opportunity to develop job-relevant technical skills, promotion to a higher grade, spot awards, exposure to working with top management teams, with senior members in the organization, or getting nominated for a marquee leadership development program.…”