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The Acceptance Speech Theory of Leadership
An Assessment of Gratitude, Organizational Citizenship, and Managing Perceptions
Hunter Hudsmith
Miami University
Farmer School of Business
Management and Leadership Department
Author’s note: This paper was written as an undergraduate independent study advised
by Megan Gerhardt.
Abstract

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The question put forth in this research is effectively, “Does a person being grateful as a
general tendency increase the likelihood of them acting in a way that other’s would be
grateful for?” When put into an organizational context, this question transformed to also
include considering behaviors above and beyond expectations that benefit the business
instead of just an individual like a co-worker. Using validated measures of gratitude and
behaviors done out of kindness instead of necessity, the answer to these questions
revealed itself and provoked further thought about the role of the virtue of gratitude in
individual’s lives, in organizational success, and in society as a whole.

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Introduction
The initial intention of this research was to consider what impact an unexpected
expression of gratitude has on the perceptions of both the giving and receiving parties in
an organizational context. This is, however, a rather complicated matter. Given the
limitations of time and resources the purpose was narrowed to capture the relationship
between the level of gratitude in one individual’s personality and their participation in
organizational citizenship behaviors.1 This was measured by administering two surveys
that have already been validated by previous researchers, the GQ-6 (McCullough,
Emmons, and Tsang, 2001) and the OCB-C (Fox, Spector, Goh, Bruursema, & Kessler,
2012).
This topic surfaced as something of interest during a fraternity chapter meeting
when someone stepped up for a leadership role that they were perhaps the only person
qualified for but clearly did not want to be involved in regardless. He did this to fulfill his
duty to the chapter and offer his loyalty to the organization, but it was noted by multiple
members of the chapter that his motivation in this role was lower than desired. It was
decided that an expression of gratitude was in order, and this was carried out in the
fashion typical of this organization which was knocking on the table. Not only did this
member’s motivation increase in his own role, but this expression of gratitude seemed
to make him go well above and beyond his responsibilities even in other roles than his
assignment. This unexpected expression of gratitude had rapidly created an enduring
increase in this member’s motivation.
Upon further thought, every President of this fraternity in it’s four year history has
been the person who has gained the most personally from the organization before their
tenure as president. These people were all extraordinarily grateful people because of
this, and they desired to return the value to the organization in the form of leadership
and work. This begged the question, how does gratitude relate to each member’s
performance in an organization? There are many more interesting questions yet to be
asked relating to this one that will be discussed later in suggestions for future research,
but some researchers have already begun to investigate similar issues which
established a framework for the approach taken in this research.
1
Organizational citizenship behavior is defined in Dennis Organ’s 1988 article “Organizational citizenship
behavior: The good soldier syndrome” where organizational citizenship behavior was first mentioned as
“individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system,
and in the aggregate promotes the efficient and effective functioning of the organization" (p.4).

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Theoretical Background
The role of gratitude has been examined in psychology a great deal more than it
has in business. One study of particular interest to me was entitled “More Gratitude,
Less Materialism: The Mediating Role of Life Satisfaction” (Lambert, Finchman,
Stillman, & Dean, 2009). The researchers found by inducing a sense of gratefulness in
subjects they were able to reduce the level of materialism in them, which actually lead
to an increase in their overall satisfaction with life. Thus a unique loop is created that
continues to propagate and thrive by sustaining itself, a topic discussed in depth by
Douglas Hofstadter in his book I am a Strange Loop (2007). This book is another
psychological assessment of perception and the nature of perception that benefited the
process of creation for this paper greatly.
The reason this is so precious from an organizational perspective and a business
perspective is that it seems as though this method of using an unexpected expression
of gratitude to start a cyclical augmentation of gratitude and satisfaction is a low risk and
low cost investment that can simultaneously reap and sow benefits. The relationship
between many virtues, one of which was gratitude, and organizational performance was
examined in the context of downsizing organizations in the section of Part IV of the book
Applied Positive Psychology: Improving Everyday Life, Health, Schools, Work, and
Society entitled “Effects of virtuous leadership on organizational performance”
(Cameron, 2011, p. 171-183). She states, “Almost all organizations deteriorate in
performance after downsizing… the organizations that flourished after a downsizing
experience were characterized by virtuousness—institutionalized compassion,
forgiveness, gratitude, trustworthiness, optimism, integrity, and so forth” (Cameron, p.
171).
This principle doesn’t even stop at the organizational level, and the argument is
even being made where few might expect it: the financial services industry. In his entry
entitled “On Gratitude” in the Journal Of Financial Service Professionals, Ronald F.
Duska discusses the societal value of gratitude (2007, p. 25-27). He begins with a
quote from Cicero, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues, but the parent of all
the others.” In his assessment of why Cicero might feel this way he claims that,
“Gratitude is preeminently a social virtue in the sense that it forces us to transcend
ourselves and overcome our self absorption” (p. 25). This statement has perhaps never
been more relevant or important for our society to understand than it is right now. The
generation that is entering the workplace at this time is frequently accused of being
entitled. Could gratitude be the solution to managing this problem in the workplace?
Duska blames the modern “society of entitlement” on “an overemphasis on the
economic view of the free market society” as many do, but reaches back to “Adam
Smith… who is called by some the father of capitalism, [and the fact that Smith] does
not sanction the unfettered pursuit of self-interest” (p.25-26). He continues to discuss

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the implications of this paradigm shift as it applies to wealth management and what
impact this selfless way of thinking would have on society as a whole. It is not an
uncommon belief that many individuals who pursue careers in wealth management do
so with their own economic interest in mind. Duska posits that, “wealth for it’s own sake
is not an end. Wealth is a tool to obtain some goal… in contemplating a financial plan
or an estate plan, one should be asking what the final goals of the client are and the
final goal shouldn’t be a specific dollar amount but should answer the question… How
can this wealth help you to achieve a good life?” (p. 26). He even claims that
“commitment to being a professional” can also lower self-interest because “one of the
marks of being a professional is that he or she serves a noble goal” (p.27). It is difficult
to conceive an industry, outside of charitable non-profits, that truly attracts talented
professionals based on a noble cause. This is a change in American business and
employment culture that is not only possible, but urgent and necessary.
Similarly to Duska’s assessment of the relationship wealth managers should hold
with their clients, Lawrence Crosby studies the role of gratitude in customer
relationships further in his article “The Experienced Relationship” (2010). His main point
is that “Relationship marketing investments by the seller create customer feelings of
gratitude that lead to the customer wanting to reciprocate” (p. 11). He illustrates with a
personal example about a time when he went to purchase tires and the salesperson
was kind enough to step outside to take a look at the tires before he made the
expensive purchase. The salesperson informed him that, in his position, she would not
buy the new tires yet and so he held off. However, this led to him sing praises of the
establishment at every opportunity presented and returning later to get tires for two cars
instead of just the one (p.10-11). This is an experience that has more than likely been
experienced by every adult at some point. What does Crosby consider to be the reason
for this? He credits Cicero’s parent of all virtues, gratitude.
While some argue the importance of gratitude to increasing the value of the
customer to the organization, this research focuses on the significance of gratitude in
increasing the value of the employees to the organization and to each other. Robert A.
Eckert, Chairman and CEO of Mattel from 2000 to 2011, addresses this in his column
“The Two Most Important Words” from the Harvard Business Review (2013). He begins
with noting his speech to the employees when he first arrived at Mattel. He said, “I
know how this works. We will turn things around, and because I’m the new, outsider
CEO, I’ll get a lot of the credit. But I know who’s really going to deserve the thanks-- all
of you. I appreciate what you’re about to accomplish” (p.38). As we now know, he
would not be wrong about this statement. Measuring the impact of that statement with a
scientifically valid method at this point would be nearly impossible, but a reasonable
person would argue that it was rather powerful encouragement at a time when the
company was in dire straits. He continues to quote cosmetics entrepreneur Mary Kay
Ash who said, “There are two things people want more than sex and money: recognition

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and praise” (p.38). He acknowledges the distinction between being “Polyannaish” and
being legitimately grateful for someone’s contributions. This relates closely to the
matter of authenticity that is not discussed in this research, but is widely acknowledged
as an important topic in leadership.
Some scholars who progress this topic do so in a way that comes across as
inauthentic or inapplicable. In the article “Lead with Gratitude” from the journal
Leadership Excellence, authors Kevin and Jackie Freiberg encourage readers to
consider their workplace conversations by thinking, “What is the ROI in this discussion?”
(p. 6). This strikes a bad nerve because true appreciation shouldn’t be measured in
terms of return on investment (ROI). Yes, the argument is that true appreciation will
have a positive influence on profitability but that isn’t the reason for the argument. This
is a culture change that is consequential on a human level. That is key to
understanding this research. While there is possibly some correlation between
organizational citizenship behaviors and profitability, this research was done to capture
how an attitude of gratitude relates to someone’s likelihood to take care of their co-
workers.
The hidden value of gratitude is better uncovered in research titled “Synergistic
Effects of Relationship Managers' Social Networks on Sales Performance” from the
Journal of Marketing (Gonzalez, Claro, & Palmatier, 2014, p. 76-94). Their research
question was how the overlapping and crossing of employee’s formal and informal
networks benefits that individual employee or a group of employees in that social
network. Using a sample of 101 relationship managers2 the researchers surveyed 464
employees to understand the sample’s informal networks and then cross-referenced
them with formal organizational structure charts from the HR department. The results
showed that, “relationship managers with above-average brokerage3 in their informal
network experience 27% higher sales growth when they also have above-average (vs.
below-average) density4 in their formal network” (p. 77). This means that a relationship
manager’s willingness to make friends outside of the official organizational structure and
have discussions with them that would not conventionally be thought of as directly
2
Relationship managers connect the product development team of the company with the customer by
assessing customer needs and marketing viable solutions to them or communicating new project ideas to
consider back to the product development team or other departments that could change to improve
customer satisfaction.
3
Brokerage refers to the relationship manager’s span between two otherwise unconnected parties “such
that this configuration provides access to… unique non-overlapping information that [they] can exchange
to achieve their goals” (Gonzlez, et al. p. 78). A hypothetical example would be a relationship manager
knowing someone in one department who is struggling with a computer issue and knowing someone in
an unrelated department that just happens to have dealt with that issue some time back. Even though
the person who is struggling and the person with the easiest solution don’t know each other, that problem
can still be solved effectively thanks to the brokerage of that relationship manager.
4
Density refers to the relationship manager’s ability to “gain more cooperative support because tightly
knit ties help them enforce norms of collaboration” (Gonzalez, et al. p. 76). An example of this is a
relationship managers ability to encourage a team to work together on projects, such as a competitor
analysis, that generates information which benefits the team or even the entire company when shared.

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having a high ROI and creating a lot of value actually correlates to better sales
performance. This means that companies should not encourage employees to stay in
their cubicle and only talk to their team, but rather to get up and move around.
Employees should have an appreciation for the work done by those in other
departments, and they should want to know about it. Even if it has to be done by
bringing employees together outside of work, it should be done. Workers shouldn’t be
thinking, “what is the ROI in this discussion?” Workers should be thinking, “I am having
a great time getting to know all of these new people and all of these unique things about
them and what they are working on.” Research shows the return will come in the form
of increased sales performance, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect that plenty more
tangible and intangible benefits would come to the organization too. Cooperation and
collaboration is fostered and the benefits of those social networks are increased by
authentic appreciation and gratitude for others, not by a concern for the organization’s
profitability.
Historians and scholars have discussed what feelings of gratitude can do for
individuals, and for organizations, the impact it can have on society, and what impact it
can have on customers. The value and importance of the virtue for top leaders and
entry-level employees alike can not be overstated. It serves as a reminder that we can
achieve great things as an individual, but we can achieve monumental and historic
things with the help of others. It serves as a reminder that we did not receive the
blessings present in our lives because they are our right and we are entitled to them,
but because the nature of humanity is social, forward-thinking, giving, and gracious.
The new research conducted for this paper is but one small aspect of one of the
greatest gifts mankind has developed, and that gift is the ability to express gratitude.

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The Experiment
This experiment was conducted during the spring semester of 2014 as an
independent study to fulfill a requirement for graduation that would not otherwise have
been able to be met due to scheduling restraints. That be it said, conducting this
research and writing this has been a great learning opportunity and the sincere purpose
is to contribute value to the management and leadership fields of research. Many
thanks are due to the advisor of this research, Dr. Megan Gerhardt, for making this
project possible. Optimistically speaking, it is intended that this expression of gratitude
somehow brings her all of the benefits of gratitude that have been bragged about so far
and more.
Developing a focus and a valid scientific method of conducting this research would not
have been possible without Dr. Gerhardt’s guidance. In a meeting about this project the
topics of conversation spanned from relational demography and diversity’s relationship
with appreciation to the study of organizational citizenship behavior, with many thoughts
in between. Upon finding the GQ-6 questionnaire (Mcullough, et al.) and the validation
studies done, it was decided that the measure of gratitude would be that six question
survey. The GQ-6 survey is presented below in Figure 1. It was also decided that the
dependent variable would be organizational citizenship behavior for a plethora of
reasons, one of which was the proven reliability and validity of the OCB-C (Fox, et al.)
presented below in Figure 2. The instrument also categorizes items by whether the
behavior was intended toward the organization or toward a coworker. This allows for
the discussion of how gratitude relates to behaviors on two different social levels
because behaviors towards the organization are done for an abstract entity that could
be called “the greater good” whereas behaviors towards coworkers are done for
personal relationships. This enables two hypotheses to be tested.
Figure 1. Using the scale below as a guide, write a number beside each statement
to indicate how much you agree with it.
1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = slightly disagree, 4 = neutral, 5 = slightly agree,
6 = agree, and 7 = strongly agree
____1. I have so much in life to be thankful for.
____2. If I had to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.
____3. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.*
____4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.
____5. As I get older I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events,
and situations that have been part of my life history.
____6. Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or
someone.*

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* designates a question that is reverse-scored when analyzed.
Figure 2. How often have you done each of the following things on your present
job?
1 = never, 2 = once or twice, 3 = once or twice per month, 4 = once or twice per week,
5 = everyday
____1. Picked up a meal for others at work.
____2. Took time to advise, coach, or mentor a co-worker.
____3. Helped co-worker learn new skills or shared job knowledge.
____4. Helped new employees get oriented to the job.
____5. Lent a compassionate ear when someone had a work problem.
____6. Lent a compassionate ear when someone had a personal problem.
____7. Changed vacation schedules, work days, or shifts to accommodate co-
worker’s needs.
____8. Offered suggestions to improve how work is done.*
____9. Offered suggestions for improving the work environment.*
____10. Finished something for a co-worker who had to leave early.
____11. Helped a less capable co-worker lift a heavy box or other object.
____12. Helped a co-worker who had too much to do.
____13. Volunteered for extra work assignments.*
____14. Took phone messages for an absent or busy co-worker.
____15. Said good things about your employer in front of others.*
____16. Gave up meal and other breaks to complete work.*
____17. Volunteered to help a co-worker deal with a difficult customer, vendor, or
co-worker.
____18. Went out of the way to give a co-worker encouragement or express
appreciation.
____19. Decorated, straightened up, or otherwise beautified common
workspace.*
____20. Defended a co-worker who was being “put down” or spoken ill of by
other co-workers or supervisor.
* designates a statement assessing behavior done for the organization
Conceptual Model and Hypotheses

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Gratitude was defined by the researchers who created the GQ-6 questionnaire
as, “[the] general tendency to recognize and respond with grateful emotion to the roles
of other people’s benevolence in the positive experiences and outcomes that one
obtains” (McCullough et al. 2002, p. 112). Organizational citizenship behavior was first
defined in Dennis Organ’s 1988 article “Organizational citizenship behavior: The good
soldier syndrome” as “individual behavior that is discretionary, not directly or explicitly
recognized by the formal reward system, and in the aggregate promotes the efficient
and effective functioning of the organization" (p.4). As stated above, the OCB-C
measures behaviors that are either classified as being for the organization or for a co-
worker. These questions are classified by the presence of the word co-worker in the
statement. Some may argue that certain statements are actions that benefit both
parties, but this along with other problems will be expanded upon later in the discussion
of limitations. From the two classifications of actions we derive the first two hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1: Employees who have higher levels of gratitude participate more
frequently in behaviors done for the organization that benefit the organization.
Hypothesis 2: Employees who have higher levels of gratitude participate more
frequently in behaviors done for co-workers that benefit the co-worker.
The third hypothesis pertains to how the relationship between the first two hypotheses.
The purpose is to compare and contrast the impact of levels of gratitude on the two
different types of organizational citizenship behaviors.
Hypothesis 3: The correlation between levels of gratitude and organizational
citizenship behavior will be similar for the two different types of behaviors.
Method
The two instruments were distributed in an electronic format at the start of the
month of April in 2014 by Jeanna Vella, Director of Education & Communications at
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and adjunct faculty member at Miami University’s
College of Creative Arts. (Cincyshakes.com) She deserves a special thanks for her role
in helping make this possible. She distributed the survey to ensure participant’s privacy
and attempt to mitigate self-serving bias and self-image bias because people aren’t
likely to want to honestly disclose their ungratefulness or lack of desire to do more than
their explicit job duties at work to someone they know.
The sample size n=23 was comprised almost entirely and perhaps entirely out of
individuals working for non-profit arts organizations. This was done partially because
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is a non-profit arts organization so having Jeanna
Vella distribute the survey would have likely resulted in the sample being biased in this

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way regardless. It was also partially in consideration of the logic that the stereotype
concerning arts organizations is that there is not much money in the arts world, so most
individuals are likely to be there for a more noble cause and be very grateful in their
lives as such but perhaps there are some there for other reasons who might have an
ungrateful attitude because they view their employment as an unfavorable economic
circumstance they are trapped in.
Measuring gratitude was done with the 7-point Likert scale from figure 1 also
considering the two items that are reverse-scored, and the measures of organizational
citizenship behavior was the 5-point Likert scale from figure 2. Implications and
limitations of this system of measurement are elaborated on in more detail later.
Analytical procedures began with performing cross tabulations between each
item on the GQ-6 and each item of the OCB-C that related to the dependent variable of
the first hypothesis. Those are the items designated in figure 2 by the asterisks at the
end of the statement where the behavior was done for the organization. The number of
responses with a certain number on the 7-point GQ-6 Likert scale were broken up by
their response to the OCB-C item and vice versa in an easy-to-read table. There was
also a p-value calculated for each question’s correlation with each question from the
other instrument to determine the likelihood that the results would have been the same
entirely by chance based on probability. The same was then done for all of the
behaviors that correspond to the second hypothesis where the dependent variable was
behaviors that are done for a co-worker.
Results
Six items on the OCB-C questionnaire related to the first hypothesis about
behaviors done for the organization. Of the six, only one of those items was found to
have a statistically significant relationship with the statements from the GQ-6
questionnaire. This was item 13, which was about offering to do additional work. Item 6
from the GQ-6 questionnaire and item 13 from the OCB-C had a p-value of p= .05
demonstrating a low probability that the strong positive correlation between them is
attributable to random variation. This means that a person who strongly disagrees with
the statement that, “Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something
or someone” is more likely to “Volunteer for extra work assignments.”
This is further validated by the fact that the rest of the GQ-6 items had a much
more favorable p-value for item 13 on the OCB-C than any other question from the
OCB-C relating to hypothesis one. Every other cross tabulation produced an average
p-value for each OCB-C item greater than p= .90, but item 13 had an average p-value of
p= .28 considering every p-value. More convincingly the p-value drops to p= .14 if the
p-value for GQ-6 item 3 is omitted from consideration in this average. While only one
unique pairing of questions produced a p-value that was statistically significant using a
cutoff of p= .10, the relatively low p-value for other GQ-6 responses in relationship to

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responses to item 13 of the OCB-C means there is a decent likelihood that there is a
significant correlation between the level of gratitude employees have as a general
tendency and the employee’s willingness to take on extra work assignments. The full
list of p-values from the cross tabulation for hypothesis one is available below in figure
3.
Figure 3. Rows are OCB-C items and columns are GQ-6 statements.
Statement 1 Statement 2 Statement 3 Statement 4 Statement 5 Statement 6
Average
p-value
Item 8 1.00 0.98 0.97 0.98 1.00 0.52 0.91
Item 9 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.97 0.48 0.91
Item 13 0.20 0.18 1.00 0.13 0.16 0.05 0.29
Item 15 1.00 0.99 1.00 0.98 1.00 0.87 0.97
Item 16 1.00 0.98 0.94 0.99 1.00 0.80 0.95
Item 19 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.72 0.95
Similarly, there was only one pairing of OCB-C and GQ-6 statements that was
statistically significant for the second hypothesis. Also, in parallel to the results of
hypothesis one, the rest of the p-values were relatively low for this OCB-C item across
the GQ-6 responses except for GQ-6 item 3 which, just as for OCB-C item 13, had a p-
value of p= 1.00. The rest of the correlations had an average p-value above p=.90 for
each OCB-C item except for item 4 and item 20, with average p-values of p= .79 and p=
.83 respectively. The average p-value of item 17 was p= .33 and when item 3 of the
QG-6 was omitted, as done before with hypothesis one, the value dropped to p= .19.
The p-value that was below the cutoff for statistical significance of p= .10 was GQ-6
item 2. This means that an employee who strongly agrees with the statement, “If I had
to list everything that I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list” is more likely to
“[Volunteer] to help a co-worker deal with a difficult customer, vendor, or co-worker.”
The title of this research is dubbed so in honor of this correlation. The full chart of p-
values for hypothesis two is provided below in figure 4.
Figure 4. Rows are OCB-C items and columns are GQ-6 statements.
Statement 1 Statement 2 Statement 3 Statement 4 Statement 5 Statement 6
Average
p-value
Item 1 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 1.00
Item 2 1.00 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 1.00
Item 3 1.00 1.00 0.93 1.00 1.00 0.86 0.97
Item 4 0.99 0.43 0.99 1.00 0.74 0.61 0.79

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Item 5 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.99 1.00 1.00 1.00
Item 6 0.99 0.97 1.00 0.89 1.00 0.86 0.95
Item 7 1.00 1.00 0.99 0.97 1.00 0.99 0.99
Item 10 0.99 1.00 1.00 0.82 0.75 0.96 0.92
Item 11 1.00 1.00 0.94 0.95 1.00 0.60 0.92
Item 12 0.99 0.88 0.99 0.98 0.90 0.87 0.94
Item 14 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.77 0.96
Item 17 0.28 0.08 1.00 0.24 0.21 0.17 0.33
Item 18 1.00 0.97 0.96 0.99 0.98 0.74 0.94
Item 20 1.00 0.93 0.38 1.00 1.00 0.72 0.84
Hypothesis three is somewhat complicated to assess from an empirical
standpoint since the measures for it weren’t defined before the results were analyzed
and any method decided on after the fact would be skewed by bias. That be it said,
there is a strong case for the acceptance of hypothesis three. Both hypothesis one and
two only had one pair of questions that was statistically significant at p= .1 and both of
the OCB-C items that these significant correlations were found with also had low, yet
not statistically significant, p-values for all the other GQ-6 statements except for number
3. Another peculiarity is that the word “volunteer” was present in both OCB-C items that
exhibited a strong correlation with gratitude. This will also be discussed along with the
other topics that have been promised in the limitations section.
In summary, the results don’t resoundingly confirm any hypothesis across the
board. Hypothesis one and two were confirmed for only one of the many relationships
measured to assess their validity, which doesn’t provide the firmest scientific evidence
to confirm the hypothesis overall. However, due to the rest of the context, there is still
sufficient reason to suspect that a relationship is likely to exist between gratitude as a
general tendency and certain organizational citizenship behaviors. Hypothesis three did
not have established measures before analyzing the data, but nonetheless the results
favor confirming the hypothesis. Regardless, confirming hypothesis three should be
taken with a grain of salt.
Limitations
The first limitation of this study was the small sample size n= 23. The small
sample size meant there was less likelihood of including respondents at all levels of
gratitude, which would have been important because that is the independent variable in
this research. Nearly every respondent replied signaling that they are somewhere
between notably grateful and extraordinarily grateful as a person. In all likelihood this is
not the case although it is also not impossible. The low variation in responses to GQ-6
statements made the discussion of the meaning of certain data points lesser because

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there wasn’t really a clear line to draw between people who are above vs. below
average in level of gratitude.
That links closely to another major issue with this research that, although efforts
were made to control for, still seemed to be present in the results. Almost all
respondents ranked themselves highly on the GQ-6. It is unlikely that all of these
people are truly very humble and grateful people from an outsider’s perspective, but due
to self-image and self-serving biases the individuals who may not be so virtuous still
ranked themselves as such. This could be because they aren’t self-aware enough or
confident enough in other aspects of their life to admit that they may be lacking in
gratitude, or because they didn’t want to admit their flaws to someone else.
The sample, along with being small, was also pretty uniform. Although there was
some logic behind the thought that employees in the arts industry would be polarized as
either very grateful or very ungrateful, it appears as though the latter of the two either is
not there or didn’t reveal itself. A much broader and diverse sample would be beneficial
in getting more reliable results that have further reaching implications.
One of the issues with using the Likert scale for the OCB-C is that it did not really
include every possible number of behaviors. A free response statement looking for the
number of times you did something in the last month, for example, might have produced
more interesting and accurate results. Another issue with the OCB-C was that some of
the items listed behaviors that seemed to fulfill both classifications of behaviors, those
done for the organization and those done for a co-worker. Items like, “Helped new
employees get oriented to the job” fall into this middle area between classifications.
Uncontrollable factors such as the warming weather in the area at the time of the
survey could also explain why respondents ranked their feelings of gratitude
consistently above average.
Implications and Suggestions for Future Research
The true implications of this research are not monumental or profound beyond
belief. One possible implication is that using a gratitude assessment may help identify
job candidates who are truly interested in working for a noble cause, instead of just the
money. Workers who are willing to volunteer for extra work and even to help co-
workers who are dealing with a difficult problem when they could be doing their own
work demonstrate that they are not simply trying to get by and make their paycheck
without getting fired. Those are workers who want to see the organization and their
colleagues thrive, which is a true mark of professionalism. Further discussion of
implications, however, does not feel justified because it would be wrong to overplay the

15. 15
role of gratitude in organizational success without more empirical evidence. As such,
there are some questions and topics that participating in this research led to the
contemplation of. Logic and curiosity fused and these questions emerged about the
potential value of the parent of all virtues in our modern existence.
Future research related to the topic of gratitude and its role in organizational
social settings could be key to creating a less money driven and more morally driven
U.S. economy. The generation that is entering the workplace at this time is frequently
accused of being entitled. Could gratitude be the solution to managing this problem in
the workplace? How does the young person’s attitude of gratitude impact their loyalty to
organizations? Young people are changing companies with great frequency, so is the
issue that they feel unappreciated?
Similarly, does gratitude make people more likely to develop long term
relationships? What role do these relationships play in driving economic growth? Does
constant technological use and presence lessen organizational citizenship behaviors?
Do organizational citizenship behaviors relate to motivation? Are people grateful when
they receive the benefit of someone else’s citizenship behavior, and does that make
them more likely to return the favor? How does the relationship between diversity and
attitudes of gratitude operate? There are so many questions about the role of gratitude,
but it seems the logical next step would still be performing the research process done
for this paper in a more scientifically vigorous manner.

16. 16
Conclusion
Levels of gratitude and some organizational citizenship behaviors certainly have
a correlation between them. Historically speaking, scholars have been discussing the
worth of the virtue of gratitude for an extraordinarily long time. It is the timeless nature
of virtues that seem to make them unique as though they are ingrained in the true
nature of man. While there was not much evidence supporting the relationship between
high levels of gratitude and high levels of organizational citizenship behaviors, there
was plenty of evidence from past publications that make the case for the merit of being
grateful as a lifestyle. In managing relationships with others, remember the importance
of gratitude. As demonstrated, everyone from you as an individual to the whole of
society will benefit from this. Live every day like an acceptance speech. Appreciate the
award of a new day and all of the people who need to be thanked. There is a strong
case for stating that even if the short term influence of a gracious lifestyle is small and
seemingly insignificant, the benefits in the long run are tremendous. That said, lastly
but most importantly of all, thank you for reading.

17. 17
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