A Longitudinal Study of Meaningfulness of Work: Its Relations with Job Outcomes in the Police Force

Abstract

This study utilized a longitudinal design, four weeks apart, to examine how clan control affected meaningfulness of work that in turn enhanced job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational identity. Participants were 143 police officers. Results demonstrated that police officers who perceived that the organization created an environment in which officers shared and enact common values, perspectives, and accounted for their actions (clan control) reported that their jobs as having more positive meanings (meaningfulness of work). Officers who experienced more meaningfulness of work were found to have higher affective organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational identity four weeks later. In addition, job satisfaction was found to be partially mediating the effect of meaningfulness of work on affective organizational commitment. Our results suggested that meaningfulness of work could be induced by clan control which emphasizes shared values, beliefs, and traditions, which is the most appropriate in complex organizations nowadays where employees oftentimes engage in different tasks for a common organizational goal, with hard-to-measure performance indicators.