Implications of the Protestant work ethic for cooperative and mixed-motive teams

The investigation of teams and teamwork in cooperative (e.g., group brainstorming and team decisionmaking) and mixed-motive (e.g., negotiation) contexts has been carried out through a variety of lenses anddisciplines.One lens that has not beenused to rigorously theorize about andempirically investigate teams is that of ideologies. In this review, we juxtapose the study of a particular status-related ideology, the Protestant work ethic (PWE), in cooperative and mixed-motive contexts. We begin with an analysis of PWE, and then discuss 3 sets of empirical findings. In particular, we consider the association of PWE with (a) motivational orientations; (b) greater perceptions of personal control; and (c) justification of status differences. Given these associations, we theorize how PWE might affect cooperative and mixed-motive teamwork, suggesting that PWE will exert largely positive effects among cooperative teams, but will produce more varied effects among mixed-motive teams.