<\/p>\n
Although ideological messages are thought to inspire employee performance, research has shown mixed results. Typically, ideological messages are delivered by leaders, but employees may be suspicious of ulterior motives<\/span>\u2014<\/span>leaders may merely be seeking to inspire higher performance. As such, we propose that these messages are often more effective when outsourced to a more neutral third party<\/span>\u2014<\/span>the beneficiaries of employees\u2019 work. In Study 1, a field quasi-experiment with fundraisers, ideological messages from a beneficiary<\/span>\u2014<\/span>but not from two leaders<\/span>\u2014<\/span>increased performance. In Study 2, a laboratory experiment with an editing task, participants achieved higher task and citizenship performance when an ideological message was delivered by a speaker portrayed as a beneficiary vs. a leader, mediated by suspicion. In Study 3, a laboratory experiment with a marketing task, the beneficiary source advantage was contingent on message content: beneficiaries motivated higher task and citizenship performance than leaders with prosocial messages but not achievement messages.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n