Is psychological capital the silver bullet of business firms in a globalised world Examining the impact of meaningful work on affective commitment: mediating role of psychological capital

Empirical research on both meaningful work and organizational commitment has been criticized because research in both fields is largely unsystematic. By integrating the cognitive appraisal theory and identity theory into the meaningful work and affective commitment literatures, we examined the mediating role of positive work reflection (study 1 and study 2) and the moderating role of work centrality (study 2) in the relation between meaningful work and affective commitment. We conducted two independent studies with two-wave data to examine our hypotheses through mediation and moderated mediation bootstrapping procedures. Both study 1 and study 2 found that positive work reflection mediated the relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment. In addition, study 2 revealed that the positive relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment was stronger for those who place less importance on work (i.e., low work centrality). The meaningful nature of one’s work may motivate those who view work as peripheral to recall positive moments of their work, which, in turn, impacts their affective commitment to the organization. Thus, in order to increase affective commitment, promoting meaningful work might be particularly important for those with low work centrality. This is one of the first studies to examine positive work reflection as a cognitive pathway linking meaningful work to affective commitment and identify a boundary condition where meaningful work may not be associated with affective commitment for those who are high in work centrality.

Empirical research on both meaningful work and organizational commitment has been criticized because research in both fields is largely unsystematic. By integrating the cognitive appraisal theory and identity theory into the meaningful work and affective commitment literatures, we examined the mediating role of positive work reflection (study 1 and study 2) and the moderating role of work centrality (study 2) in the relation between meaningful work and affective commitment. We conducted two independent studies with two-wave data to examine our hypotheses through mediation and moderated mediation bootstrapping procedures. Both study 1 and study 2 found that positive work reflection mediated the relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment. In addition, study 2 revealed that the positive relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment was stronger for those who place less importance on work (i.e., low work centrality). The meaningful nature of one’s work may motivate those who view work as peripheral to recall positive moments of their work, which, in turn, impacts their affective commitment to the organization. Thus, in order to increase affective commitment, promoting meaningful work might be particularly important for those with low work centrality. This is one of the first studies to examine positive work reflection as a cognitive pathway linking meaningful work to affective commitment and identify a boundary condition where meaningful work may not be associated with affective commitment for those who are high in work centrality.KeywordsMeaningfulworkPositivework reflectionWork centralityAffective commitmentModerated mediation

This research explores the relationship between the recruitment process and turnover intentions, with the mediating role of affective commitment among Generation Z working in European enterprises operating in Vietnam. Specifically, the study explores the relationship between job description, job evaluation, job specification, job analysis and affective commitment of Generation Z while also identifying the influence of affective commitment on turnover intentions. Based on the theoretical and literature summary, the research model is proposed. Accordingly, hypotheses are developed, and we apply a quantitative analysis with a research sample of 250 Generation Z respondents working for European businesses in Vietnam using the snowball sampling technique. Questionnaires were designed in the form of an online survey (using Google Forms) and sent privately via personal emails to respondents. The collected data were then processed and analysed by SPSS v.22 and AMOS software to estimate the research model, test hypotheses and evaluate the impact of variables on turnover intentions. The research results reveal that job description contributes to enhancing affective commitment (0.232), job evaluation positively influences affective commitment (0.283), job specification significantly affects affective commitment (0.184), job analysis has a strong and positive relationship with affective commitment (0.532) and affective commitment negatively influences turnover intentions (-0.433). Based on the research findings, we propose some managerial policy implications for Central European enterprises to increase the affective commitment of their employees, including (1) regularly reviewing and updating the requirements as well as job descriptions for each position, ensuring that they accurately reflect the tasks that employees need to perform. This helps the company provide clearer guidance on roles and expectations for employees from the outset; (2) overcoming cultural barriers and fostering a sense of inclusion and respect for the unique values and work expectations of Vietnamese employees, which helps employees perform better in their jobs while also enhancing their commitment and expectations; (3) creating a flexible workplace that meets Generation Z employees' needs to attract and retain talent effectively; and (4) emphasizing a supportive team environment, job-life integration and meaningful work through recruitment marketing. Implications for the Central European audience: The insights gained from the research are particularly relevant for Central European enterprises looking to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the Generation Z workforce in Vietnam. Our insights on managing new-generation workforces in a developing and emerging country context can guide Central European enterprises in tailoring their strategies when expanding their businesses into Southeast Asian countries that have some characteristics in common with Vietnam regarding economic development, culture, population, technology level, etc. It emphasizes the significance of comprehending local dynamics and meeting employees’ needs to improve affective commitment through aspects of the recruitment process to reduce turnover intentions. The results can be used by companies in a variety of fields, sizes, regions, etc.

Purpose: The research aimed to test the influence of knowledge sharing, affective commitment, and meaningful work on the performance of the employee. This study was conducted in Indonesia, specifically in the banking sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data collection of this study used administered questionnaires among employees. Thus, 219 questionnaires were returned and analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software. Findings: The study revealed that knowledge sharing and meaningful work significantly affect the performance of the employee. In contrast, affective commitment did not influence the performance of the employee. This study further showed that meaningful work mediated the correlation between knowledge sharing and the performance of employees. Practical implications: This study’s findings contribute to the literature review advancement related to the associations among knowledge sharing, affective commitment, meaningful work, and the performance of employees. Originality/value: This paper is the first empirical study to uncover the impact of knowledge sharing, affective commitment, and meaningful work on the performance of employees in the Indonesian banking sector.

Drawing on the social exchange approach and an accompanying sub-theory pertaining to upper echelons theory, which are the most influential theories for describing the behavior of workers in the workplace, this study empirically investigates some corresponding moderated serial mediation variables, such as affective commitment, work meaningfulness, and perceived organizational support, which impact the relationship between Phoenix leadership and organizational change. A total of 150 employees working in the Sudanese Electricity Company participated in the questionnaire survey. The response rate was 88%. The results revealed that Phoenix leadership significantly influences organizational change and affective commitment. Affective commitment significantly influences work meaningfulness. Affective commitment and work meaningfulness mediate the relationship between Phoenix leadership and organizational change. Affective commitment mediates the relationship between Phoenix leadership and work meaningfulness. Work meaningfulness mediates the relationship between affective commitment and organizational change, but perceived organizational support does not moderate the relationship between work meaningfulness and organizational change. By testing the mediated moderation effects on the relationship between Phoenix leadership and organizational change, this research proposes a new framework for assessing the impact of mediators and moderators on teams of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stereotypes about Millennials permeate conversations about public management, often without evidence. Based on generational theory and psychological contract theory, this study hypothesizes and empirically compares affective commitment levels of U.S. federal Millennials and Generation Xers. This study uses a time-lag design with data from the 2011 Federal Viewpoint Survey and the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey to investigate Millennials and Generation Xers under 30 years old and untangle the generational difference effect while controlling for the age difference. The findings show that Millennials reported slightly higher levels of affective commitment in comparison with Generation Xers (contrary to common stereotypes). This study also reports null findings or the absence of evidence for the differences regarding how managerial practices (support for work–life balance, financial rewards, and meaningful work) influence their affective commitment. In addition, federal employees belonging to the Millennial generation reported work interests differing from the common stereotypes. This study advances public management scholarship regarding affective commitment of generations and young employees, as well as contributing evidence about generational differences in an under-studied field: the public sector. Practically, the findings help reduce erroneous stereotypes and foster effective and equitable management of the public workforce.

Orientation: Given the critical shortage of skilled artisans and engineers in the job market, retention of this key talent is of paramount importance.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to identify the determinants of affective commitment and investigate the impact thereof on intention to quit (ITQ) amongst artisans and engineers.Motivation for the study: For human resource management interventions to be effective in retaining artisans and engineers, the constructs underlying commitment and stay intentions need to be understood. Whereas previous studies have mostly focussed on bivariate relationships, the current study was motivated by the need to develop and test an integrative explanatory model.Research approach/design and method: A non-probability convenience sample of 154 artisans and 84 engineers employed in a manufacturing engineering company participated in this study. A cross-sectional design was employed, with structural equation modelling as analysis technique.Main findings: The data supported the central role of affective commitment in reducing ITQ amongst artisans and engineers. Job fit, psychological meaningfulness, perceived organisational support and satisfaction with pay all explained significant variance in affective commitment, whilst affective commitment demonstrated a strong negative relationship with ITQ. It was found that although perceived organisational justice does not necessarily create affective commitment, people are more likely to quit when they experience injustice.Practical/managerial implications: For organisations to retain artisans and engineers, they have to foster both affective commitment and organisational justice. Affective commitment can be facilitated by interventions focusing on job fit, meaningful work, organisational support and satisfaction with pay.Contribution/value-add: This study provides practical insights into the antecedents of ITQ amongst artisans and engineers, informing human resource management interventions aimed at better retention.

This study aimed to examine the relations between high-quality relationships, meaningful work, and affective commitment, and evaluate whether protean career orientation moderates the relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment. We collected survey data from a sample of working adults to test the research hypotheses. The findings provide support for the proposed model. Consistent with the tenets of the work-as-meaning model, high-quality relationships were positively related to meaningful work, which, in turn, predicted affective commitment. Furthermore, the relationship between meaningful work and affective commitment was stronger for those high in protean career orientation. This study extends the literature on meaningful work and relational coordination. It offers practical insight for managers and others who can help foster high-quality relationships and meaningful work.

PurposeThrough focusing on gig workers registered in three crowdsourcing platforms, the authors investigate how individual and collaborative job crafting may be positively related to the meaningful work and affective commitment those gig workers develop towards the crowdsourcing platforms they register in.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a quantitative research method in which they focused on date from surveys completed by 327 gig workers. They tested the hypotheses using SmartPLS 3, which is more suitable when dealing with complex models, non-normal data, small samples and higher-order constructs.FindingsThe results showed that the proactive behaviour embedded within both individual and collaborative job crafting may lead to a sense of meaningfulness for gig workers and subsequently, their affective commitment towards the crowdsourcing platforms they register in. Specifically, the more gig workers undertake individual (H1) and collaborative (H2) job crafting behaviour, the greater the sense of meaningfulness they develop. Moreover, meaningfulness for gig workers positively affects their affective commitment towards the crowdsourcing platforms they register with (H3).Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first of its kind in the context of France and the European Union to focus on job crafting and its effect on both meaningful work and the affective commitment of non-traditional workers. This paper contributes by filling a gap in human resource (HR) management, in which empirical studies that address gig work have been limited so far.

PurposeThis study aims to empirically examine how corporate social responsibility (CSR) facilitates the employee's affective commitment in the hospitality sector.Design/methodology/approachA total of 408 questionnaires were distributed among the employees of the selected 13 hotels in Delhi-National capital region (NCR). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe study results confirm that CSR has a positive influence on the employees' affective commitment. Further, this study demonstrates that CSR facilitates work meaningfulness and trust among employees and consequently enhances employees' commitment.Originality/valueThis study enhances the understanding of the CSR-affective commitment link in the hospitality sector. This will add a new perspective to the literature, especially in the context of micro-foundation factors of “work meaningfulness” and “organizational trust.”

Meaningful work is a psychological concept that currently become a great concern among industry and organizations. This approach focuses on the search for meaning in work amidst the increasing complexity of work, especially in the port services industry, which is one of the vital sectors in the national economy. Previous studies have proven that meaningful work could strengthen employees' emotional attachment and optimizing job satisfaction. This research aims to explore the meaningfulness of work and its association with affective commitment level in the port service industry employee. It utilizes quantitative methods to quantify 45 employees through self-administered work meaningful scale and affective commitment scale then were analyzed using descriptive statistics. This research findings indicate a significant positive correlation between the meaningfulness of work and affective commitment among employees in the port services industry. Further analysis reports that majority of employees have a high and very high level of work meaningfulness which proved to be comparable to the level of affective commitment. In general, the level of meaningfulness of work for supervisory employees is the highest among other positions.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether and how internal and external typologies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees’ CSR participation (CSRP) differentially impact organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and turnover intentions (TI), mediated by meaningful work (MW) and affective commitment (AC) and moderated by CSR motive attributions.Design/methodology/approachBootstrapped structural equation modeling using AMOS and mediation and moderation analysis using Hayes’ Process macro in SPSS are performed on a sample of 193 employees from diverse industries in India.FindingsThe CSR-work outcomes relationship is rather multifaceted. Internal CSR (ICSR) and CSRP directly promote the meaningfulness of work and AC. Further, all three kinds of CSR (ICSR, external CSR (ECSR) and CSRP) influence work behaviors (OCB and TI) sequentially via MW and AC. Intrinsic (extrinsic) CSR attributions strengthen (weaken) the positive effect of ECSR on MW. Nevertheless, the conditional indirect effects could not be established, warranting further investigation.Practical implicationsThe management must elevate employees’ CSR awareness allowing them to partake in the planning and execution of CSR programs that are authentic, righteous and seamlessly unified with core business activities to nurture work meaningfulness and positive employee attitudes and behaviors.Originality/valueThis is the foremost study that involves a bibliometric analysis of employee-based CSR research and a systematic meta-analytic review of the relationship between CSR and meaningfulness from employees’ perspectives. The present study is novel as it divulges an integrative framework about how employees’ CSR perceptions, participation/volunteering and attributions collectively influence the work outcomes at three levels (namely, cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral), drawing on sensemaking, needs and justice-based views, social identity, social exchange and attribution theories. Thus, new nuances are added to extant micro-CSR literature.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to test for a moderating role of employee participation in volunteering in links between employees' relationships with peers and supervisors, work meaningfulness (WM) and affective commitment (AC).Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a survey conducted on a sample of 711 employees, both those involved and those non-involved in corporate volunteering (CV).FindingsThe results suggest that employee participation in CV strengthens the effects that employees' perceptions of positive relationships with peers and perceived supervisor support (PSS) have on employees' AC. Contrary to expectations, although participation in CV strengthens employees' sense of WM, it does not affect its links with other phenomena analyzed in this study.Originality/valueCV is a fast-growing practice in corporate social responsibility. The reasons companies implement CV include the benefits they gain from it, such as positive effects on employee attitudes and behaviors. The paper contributes to the understanding of CV effects on employee attitudes and behaviors and builds a better business case for this CSR practice.

Background:Meaningfulness of work leads to positive job-related consequences, such as engaged, satisfied, productive, trustworthy, and devoted employees.Purpose:The main purpose of this research was to study the relationship between meaningfulness of work, employee engagement, and affective commitment. Further, this study is also examined the mediating influence of affective commitment on the relationship between meaningfulness of work and employee engagement.Methods:Researchers used a quantitative approach to collect data for the research by utilizing a cross-sectional survey design. The study included standardized scales and was conducted on 319 employees working in the service sector of Punjab and Chandigarh, India.Results:The findings of the given study confirmed a positive relationship between meaningfulness of work, employee engagement, and affective commitment.Conclusion:Moreover, affective commitment acts as a mediator on the relationship between the meaningfulness of work and employee engagement.

The objective of this article is to examine the extent to which work meaningfulness (WM) and affective commitment (AC) as a component of organizational commitment (OC) influence counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). A supplementary aim is to assess the moderating role of selected demographic variables, including gender, age, tenure, and type of work, in shaping these relationships. The research objectives were addressed through a survey conducted among professionally active individuals in Poland. The empirical data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The proposed theoretical framework aimed to investigate the effects of WM and AC on both organizational and interpersonal dimensions of counterproductive work behaviors (CWB-O and CWB-I), as well as on specific subjective manifestations of such behaviors, namely abuse toward others, theft, sabotage, and withdrawal. The findings indicate that both WM and AC exert a statistically significant negative influence on withdrawal behaviors. However, their relationships with other forms of CWB - including CWB-O, CWB-I, sabotage, theft, and abuse - were found to be statistically insignificant. Furthermore, the moderating analysis revealed that gender plays a primary role in shaping the impact of WM and AC on CWB.