Organizational Pride: A Multi-Method Examination of the Nature, Emergence, and Function of Pride in the Workplace

A multi-method study was conducted to provide greater conceptual clarity around the construct of organizational pride (i.e., an employee’s pride in the organization for which he or she works). Study 1 investigated the nature, emergence, and role of organizational pride in the workplace. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted among employees across four industries (advertising/marketing; financial services; food & beverage; healthcare). Analysis of these interviews revealed the distinct affective nature of organizational pride, how employees come to experience it, and its influence on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Study 2 was designed to develop a psychometrically valid measure of organizational pride. This study, which included data from four samples of working adults, provided empirical support for a new nine item, three-dimensional measure of organizational pride. The measure demonstrated strong reliability at the global construct and dimension level and confirmatory factor analysis validated the construct’s higher-order and three-factor structure. This study also provided evidence of construct distinctiveness from affective commitment and organizational identification. In terms of incremental validity, the new measure of organizational pride explained variance in key employee attitudes and behaviors when controlling for Blader and Tyler’s (2009) measure of pride. While the study design did not allow for casual interpretations, the results suggest that organizational pride influences employees’ engagement at work, their extra-role performance, as well as their intentions to remain with their organization. Overall, this research was designed to advance our understanding of organizational pride and lay the foundation for future research.