Although work tasks often address substantive social issues, the effects of issue characteristics on task motivation are little understood. This study explores this topic by examining how the moral characteristics of an issue (moral intensity) affect motivation in tasks intended to address the issue (task motivation). Adopting the lens of work design theory, I hypothesize that moral intensity increases task motivation through the mediation of perceived task impacts on the community (perceived community impacts), and that this effect will occur after controlling for the effects of perceived task impact on the worker and their organization. In two studies in the context of volunteering I find that, rather than acting in parallel with other task impacts, the effect of moral intensity through perceived community impacts is fully mediated by perceived organization and self impacts in a three-stage mediation. These findings demonstrate the potential relevance of issue characteristics such as moral intensity to work design theory and shed new light on the psychological mechanisms through which perceived prosocial impacts promote task motivation. I discuss implications for research and practice.

尽管工作任务通常涉及实质性的社会问题，但问题特征对任务动机的影响却鲜为人知。本研究通过检查问题的道德特征（道德强度）如何影响旨在解决该问题的任务的动机（任务动机）来探索该主题。采用工作设计理论的视角，我假设道德强度通过感知任务对社区的影响（感知社区影响）的中介来增加任务动机，并且这种效应将在控制感知任务影响对工人的影响之后发生和他们的组织。在志愿服务背景下的两项研究中，我发现，与其与其他任务影响并行行动，通过感知社区影响的道德强度的影响完全由感知组织和自我影响在三个阶段的中介中调节。这些发现证明了诸如道德强度等问题特征与工作设计理论的潜在相关性，并揭示了感知的亲社会影响促进任务动机的心理机制。我讨论对研究和实践的影响。