Altruism: A Natural Instinct – A Review of Its Implications in Modern Markets

Abstract Altruism a concept in Commerce, more specifically in HR, though sounds to be a part of psychology is a pure commerce term included in HRM extensively in 80’s through development of Organisational Citizenship Behaviour in 1980. Recently it has got importance in HRM for retaining the employees and as a trait in leadership. Actually its psychological term, because to help someone voluntarily or share our knowledge with someone else is actually making that person undergo learning the things without any expectation in return. This feeling or act of altruism is many times in born quality or it may get developed in the later stage of life, as can be said through own experiences or the feeling of putting oneself in others shoes and think accordingly. This much thinking about another person is a rare phenomenon, at least in today’s era where each one is trying to be selfish and self centered. This paper focuses its attention on use of Altruism in today’s markets and studies undertaken by the researchers. The concept of altruism is ancient but has gained importance after 2000, when it was included into the discipline of commerce and linked with consumer behaviour, entreprenuership, CRM etc. especially after the pandemic hit the world in 2020 their has been a drastic change in the way its being extensively used. The reason lies simple that human being has realised that life is unpredictable anything can happen anytime, future is uncertain and his near and dear ones are important part of their lives. The pandemic taught us to help strangers, donate, co-operate and much more. The intensity of the pandemic hit the world so high that majority of humans lost their lives and those who survived had a life long scar on their mind of losing their loved ones. This pain was unbearable and difficult to forget, which enhance the importance of altruism in the business world. Modern HRM now considers and recognises altruistic behaviours like helping colleagues, employees engagement, involvement and participation for retaining the workforce.