In many jobs, there’s very little incentive for “prosocial behavior”—that is, actions aimed at benefiting others. Yet in most workplaces, we can usually find individuals who seem to have a propensity toward helping others.

They found that employees who demonstrated prosocial motivation had better overall well-being at work, which was measured through surveys of happiness, job satisfaction, burnout, and more.

Workplace culture also mattered; if employees were motivated to be kind and helpful but worked in more competitive or individualist workplace cultures, the well-being link wasn’t as strong. Those with strong prosocial motivation at workplaces with a collectivist culture—ones that place a higher value on group achievement—were more likely to flourish there.

An employee who sees a colleague struggling with a project and is motivated to help may get more satisfaction than a colleague whose manager asks them to help. Employees need to be able to choose when they are motivated to be kind and helpful, if everyone is to benefit.