Meaningful Work Research Articles

Exploring the “inner compass”: How career strivings relate to career self‐management and career success

AbstractThis research investigates the relations between career strivings, career self‐management behaviors, and career success. Examining 312 German workers with two measurement waves, Study 1 reveals that career strivings significantly positively relate to engagement in various career behaviors, extending beyond the scope of established motivational variables. Specifically, we observed that self‐enhancement strivings correlate with self‐promotion activities, self‐transcendent strivings with helping behaviors, and personal growth strivings with continuous learning. In Study 2, incorporating three measurement waves and involving 299 German workers, examines how these career strivings differentially relate to objective career success and career satisfaction. Our findings indicate that self‐enhancement strivings are associated with higher leadership positions and workplace status, while self‐transcendent and personal growth strivings are linked to greater career satisfaction. Additionally, self‐enhancement strivings indirectly relate to career satisfaction through increased recognition. In contrast, self‐transcendent and personal growth strivings relate to satisfaction through experiences of meaningful work and personal development. This research underscores the significance of career strivings in influencing career self‐management behaviors and success, providing novel insights into the complex interplay between individual aspirations and professional outcomes.

Hindrance stressors and turnover intentions among preschool teachers: The mediating role of work engagement and the moderating effect of meaningful work

BackgroundTeacher turnover in preschool settings poses significant challenges to educational quality and stability. Understanding the factors that influence turnover intentions is crucial for developing effective retention strategies. ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the relationships between hindrance stressors and turnover intentions among preschool teachers, with a particular focus on the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating effect of meaningful work. MethodsParticipants were recruited from Shanghai, China. The study involved 220 preschool teachers, with a mean age of 32.35 years, the majority of whom were female. All participants completed the Hindrance Stressors Scale, the Turnover Intention Scale, the Work and Meaning Inventory, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. ResultsFindings indicate a positive association between hindrance stressors and turnover intentions, partially mediated by decreased work engagement. Additionally, meaningful work was found to moderate the relationship between hindrance stressors and work engagement; it can mitigate the adverse effects of hindrance stressors on work engagement. ConclusionAddressing hindrance stressors and fostering work engagement and meaningful work are essential for mitigating turnover intentions. These insights offer valuable guidance for educational administrators in enhancing teacher retention and improving workplace well-being.

Job Satisfaction Gen-Z: A Systematic Literature Review

The study examines the importance of human resource management (HRM) in attracting, retaining, and managing employee performance. It highlights the role of HRM in organizing compensation, benefits, and creating a positive work environment to improve job satisfaction and productivity. The research focuses on Generation Z’s preferences for job satisfaction, including flexibility, work-life balance, and meaningful work. It discusses how managers must adapt to retain young employees and invest in their development and well-being. Utilizing bibliometric analysis and PRISMA guidelines, the study analyzes scientific publications to understand the factors influencing job satisfaction among Generation Z. The study concludes that job satisfaction is crucial for employee retention and creating a positive workplace culture. It suggests that businesses must adapt to the changing needs of Generation Z by focusing on employee satisfaction to improve performance and reduce turnover

First Rule: Keep Pedalling. Co-Theorising with Food-Delivery Workers How to Make Digital Platforms Capability-Enhancing

ABSTRACT In both academic and public debate, there is an increasing consensus that digital labour platforms can have both positive and negative impacts on digital workers’ well-being. This article has two aims: the first is to evaluate this impact through the multidimensional lens of the capability approach, taking the food-delivery sector in the city of Verona as a case study. The second aim is to involve selected riders in a co-theorising process to imagine how platforms should be designed to become capability enablers. To reach them, the research combines two different qualitative methods: a covert auto-ethnography, during which the author worked for a food-delivery platform, and a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews, inspired by the dynamic public reflective equilibrium technique. In addition to contributing to the principles that should govern platforms’ design, this article makes two specific contributions to the existing literature on the capability approach. Methodologically, it contributes to the so-called list debate by proposing a synthesising method for selecting capabilities that combines philosophical and empirical insights. Theoretically, it frames the relevant capabilities which were identified during the research under a meta-capability for meaningful work, opening the path to a multi-level analysis of a flourishing life’s different dimensions.

Why people work past retirement age: The continuity of routines, future imaginaries, and practical evaluation

ABSTRACT In this article, we synthesise existing qualitative evidence published in English, aiming to comprehend why workers keep working past retirement age and to link human agency and social structures in the decision-making process behind such occupational choices. The study was prompted by the growing attention that later-life working has been garnering from policymakers and academics in the context of aging societies. Drawing upon agency and meaningful work theories, we disaggregate the iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative orientations of agency, and argue that practical evaluation leads to more reflexive and satisfying choices between working and retiring. Here, actors consider their contribution, self-development, and financial benefits achieved through work in light of their ageing and capacity to adjust work contexts to their needs. Beginning a process of practical evaluation is contingent upon work relations that facilitate meaningful work experiences. However, such meaningfulness, characterised by autonomy, recognition, and dignity, is unevenly distributed across populations, leaving some without access or experiencing it as fleeting. This study enriches understandings of the dynamics behind the decision to work beyond retirement age. Its insights have the potential to shape policies aimed at age-friendly workplaces that promote meaningful work. Overall, this can contribute to the well-being of older workers and society as a whole.

Crafting gender into meaningful work: experiences of women engaging in social entrepreneurship in China

Purpose Social entrepreneurship, leveraging economic activities to achieve social benefits, offers women the opportunity to freely and actively shape the contours of their work in meaningful ways. This study aims to examine how Chinese women use job crafting in social entrepreneurship to align their gender identity, forge meaningful work and new relationships and navigate mixed gender expectations. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with young women engaging in social entrepreneurship in China. Using a grounded theory approach, the study explores how women craft their gender identity into the unconventional career path of creating their social venture, focusing on the creative combination of task, relational and cognitive crafting in shaping social entrepreneurship. Findings The findings suggest that women make social entrepreneurship meaningful by actively aligning their gender experiences to delineate a relational and cognitive causal path between their social enterprise, their identity as women and their moral values. By working for a larger social cause, women may cognitively reframe their gender identity to compromise financial performance for social impact. Originality/value Current studies on social entrepreneurship in China have yet to examine its development through a gender lens. This study uses job crafting to highlight the distinctive gender meaning-making process for Chinese women to enhance their work identity and to challenge normative gender expectations. The study shows that job crafting enables women to view their social ventures as a means of gender empowerment, helping them to reconcile the paradoxical pressures of normative gender expectations and scaling up their businesses.

The Impact of Organizational Culture and Spiritual Leadership on Performance: Mediating Roles of Workplace Spirituality and Innovation

Objective: This study investigates the relationship between organizational culture, spiritual leadership, workplace spirituality, innovative behavior, and organizational performance in SMEs in Madura]. Theoretical Framework: The study enriches the understanding of the role of organizational culture, spiritual leadership, and spirituality in organizational performance Method: Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observations, and document analysis from 35 SME owners and employees in four districts of Madura. Results and Discussion: Results show that an organizational culture that emphasizes spiritual values such as integrity, fairness, and empathy has a positive impact on organizational performance. Spiritual leadership is instrumental in shaping an organizational culture that supports these values and champions employee well-being, thus creating a productive and meaningful work environment. Spirituality at work serves as a significant mediator between organizational culture, spiritual leadership, and organizational performance. Employees who perceive spiritual values in the organizational culture are more connected to their work and have higher intrinsic motivation, which increases innovative behavior and organizational performance Research Implications: These findings can be used by organizational leaders and human resource managers to develop effective strategies for creating an organizational culture that supports high-performance and continuous innovation. However, this study had methodological limitations that should be addressed in future research.

“The changing same” of whiteness in the US LIS academy: a cathartic testimonial from BIPOC faculty scholars

PurposeThere is little to no empirical research on the phenomenon of ways in which the racism of whiteness transpires within the faculties and classrooms of US-based ALA-accredited library and information science (LIS) education programs. We do have scholars publishing meaningful work exploring diversity-equity-inclusion topics and initiatives to evolve the LIS discourse on these issues (Honma, 2005; Chancellor, 2019; De LaRosa et al., 2021; Gibson, 2019; Mehra et al., 2023; Colón-Aguirre et al., 2022; Hands, 2022). This research substantiates the conceptual research that exists by empirically exposing the ways in which the racism of whiteness functions at the interpersonal level of work culture in LIS programs (i.e. the academy) in the US.Design/methodology/approachAdapting Baima and Sude’s (2020) modified Delphi Method, a focus group of 13 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) library and information science faculty members in the United States were recruited to participate in a one-time 60-min virtual Zoom session. Participants were engaged in three iterative rounds of reflective inquiry to reach a consensus of experience. The study design was embedded with critical race theory-based (CRT) ethnographic methods such as testimony (counterstorytelling), collective affirmation (shared narratives), and silence.FindingsBIPOC LIS faculty (tenure-track and tenured) have similar ideas about whiteness and how it is operationalized as micro- and macro-aggressions in the LIS academic workplace, most significantly inside the classroom. The experience of whiteness was prevalent among all study participants in two areas: workplace meetings with faculty colleagues and classroom sessions (face-to-face and online) with students.Originality/valueThe findings offer empirical evidence to support the prolific conceptual literature in LIS discourse concerning ways in which critical race theory (CRT) interrogates LIS’s socio-professional injustices and inequities (e.g. Gibson et al., 2018; Stauffer, 2020; Leung and Lopez-McKnight, 2021; Jennings and Kinzer, 2022; Snow and Dunbar, 2022). There remains a dearth of empirical research that reports how whiteness is reproduced in the practices, knowledge, and resources that make up the ethos of the LIS faculty meeting and classroom. Documenting the testimonies of BIPOC LIS faculty solidifies the existence of whiteness as a toxic reality in the LIS academy.

How and when employees' attributions of their employers' CSR activities affect their extra‐role work behavior

AbstractThe objective of this research is to examine how and when employees' attributions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) affect their extra‐role service behaviors. The research analyses the mediating role of work meaningfulness in the employees' CSR attributions–extra‐role behaviors relationships. The moderating role of employees' attitudes toward CSR in both the relationships between CSR attributions and work meaningfulness and in the mediated relationship is also studied. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 204 frontline employees of four‐ and five‐star hotels in Spain using structural equations and the PROCESS macro. The results indicate that only substantive CSR attributions positively influenced employees' extra‐role service behaviors and that the relationship occurs through the work meaningfulness experienced by employees. While substantive CSR attributions boosted work meaningfulness and subsequent extra‐role service behavior regardless of personal attitudes toward CSR, the link between symbolic CSR attributions and work meaningfulness as well as the mediated relationship with extra‐role service behaviors were found to be moderated by employees' personal attitudes toward CSR. When employees had lower personal attitudes toward CSR, symbolic CSR attributions positively affected work meaningfulness and extra‐role service behavior; when attitudes toward CSR were higher, the relationships were not significant. Interesting theoretical contributions and practical insights follow from these findings.

Engaging leadership in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic and followers’ engagement and quality of care

Purpose Investigating the role of leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic in maintaining the well-being and performance of the medical personnel, as frontline workers, is of major importance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between engaging leadership in health care during COVID-19 pandemic and followers’ work engagement and performance and to test the mediating role of followers’ basic psychological need satisfaction in these relationships. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample consisting of 200 health-care employees. Data were collected starting with May 2020 and ending with November 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants reported on the engaging leadership of their direct supervisor and on their own psychological need satisfaction, work meaningfulness, work engagement and quality of care. Findings The positive association between engaging leadership and followers’ work engagement was fully mediated by followers’ basic needs satisfaction. The relationship between engaging leadership and followers’ quality of patient care was not supported. Work meaningfulness did not mediate the link between engaging leadership and followers’ engagement. Practical implications By meeting followers’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, engaging leaders can stimulate followers’ work engagement during outbreaks and other similar crises. Managers in health care may maintain a high level of followers’ work engagement during crises if they adopt an engaging leadership style. Originality/value The study investigated for the first time the role of meeting the psychological needs of health-care workers by leaders during a health-care crisis.

What makes a workday meaningful? Evidence on the role of task significance, competence and subjective meaningful work

What makes a workday meaningful? Evidence on the role of task significance, competence and subjective meaningful work

Can performance pressure hinder service recovery performance? The mediating role of shame and individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity

Hospitality employees have long been experiencing high pressure at work, due to the strict performance requirements from organizations and excessive socioemotional demands from customers. Although “performing well under pressure” is often considered a prerequisite for competent employees, findings from organizational psychologists regarding employees' responses to perceived performance pressure are divergent. To further elucidate this relationship, drawing upon the social self-preservation theory, this research proposes that performance pressure can elicit frontline employees' emotional experience of shame, which in turn, hampers their service recovery performance. Furthermore, we propose two individual contingencies of work meaningfulness and proactivity that alter employees' reactions to performance pressure. In particular, the experience of shame is more salient when employees perceive lower levels of meaningfulness or possess lower levels of proactivity. A mixed-method approach, involving both scenario-based experiment and multi-wave survey, is adopted. The results support our hypotheses. The findings provide a more holistic understanding of hospitality employees’ responses to performance pressure by uncovering the rarely investigated emotional pathway following performance pressure and identifying two salient individual boundary conditions.

The moderating role of employee participation in corporate volunteering: relationships at work, work meaningfulness and affective commitment

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsParticipation in CV strengthens the effect that PSS and PRW have on employees' AC. The link between PSS and AC is positively mediated by PRW.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Theology as embodied: How tangible theology offers a new invitation to embodied people

AbstractFar from being a purely cerebral activity, meaningful theological work seeks the transformation of people; intellectual assent is necessary, but humans are embodied, and theology can be multi‐modal in its action and delivery. This essay draws on the traditions of visual and sensory theological practices to make an argument for theology as a rigorous process enacted in embodied—mind, hand, and heart—ways. The interwoven relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxy is too often tenuous, practitioners on one side and thinkers on the other. In exploring lives of biblical characters, specifically women, and expressing these across modalities of spoken word, stitch, and poetry, the writer makes a case for the essential embodiment of a sensuous theological expression—the kind of expression that one frequently experiences in sacrament and frequently ignores in formal theological discourse. In drawing from her own research practices the writer presents a case for the importance of personal theological work moving from thinking as the sole location, arguing that embodiment is always the outcome of good theological commitment. This essay builds on a foundation of theologians who make a case for the arts and for the sensory in pointing toward the Divine, and it unapologetically draws on textile practice as “women's work” and a location of shared human experience. The essay also explores responses to theology in physical stitched form and poetry. It includes responses which take theological interactions beyond consumption into production; it considers the value of embodied, holistic theological work as a potential gift to the community.

The Role of Meaningful Work as a Mediation of Political Organizations on Employee Engagement

Employee engagement can generate benefits for the organization and lead to positive work outcomes. However, sometimes the application of organizational politics can affect performance. Thus, meaningful work is needed for employees. The aim of this research is to examine the role of meaningful work mediation on the influence of political organizations on employee engagement. This study used a quantitative method with a cross-sectional survey design. The sample of this research is 317 employees obtained using convenience sampling technique. The scale in this study consists of employee engagement, meaningful work, and political organizations using a five-point Likert model. The results obtained in this study are significant meaningful work mediating the influence of political organizations on employee engagement. This study contributes as reference material in implementing interventions to increase employee engagement in order to gain benefits for the organization.Keterlibatan karyawan dapat menghasilkan manfaat bagi organisasi dan mengarah pada hasil kerja yang positif. Namun, terkadang penerapan politik organisasi dapat mempengaruhi kinerja. Sehingga, diperlukan kebermaknaan kerja bagi para karyawan. Adapun tujuan dalam penelitian yaitu menguji peran mediasi meaningful work pada pengaruh political organizations terhadap employee engagement. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan desain survei cross-sectional. Sampel penelitian ini sebanyak 317 karyawan yang diperoleh menggunakan teknik convenience sampling. Skala dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari skala employee engagement, meaningful work, dan political organizations dengan menggunakan model likert lima point. Hasil yang diperoleh dalam penelitian ini yaitu meaningful work signifikan memediasi pengaruh political organizations terhadap employee engagement. Studi ini berkontribusi sebagai bahan referensi dalam menerapkan intervensi untuk meningkatkan employee engagement guna memperoleh keuntungan bagi organisasi.

An Exploration of Meaningful Work: Examining Its Correlational Effect on Affective Commitment Level of Port Service Industry Employee

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.

The description of meaningful work on male kindergarten teachers

The number of male kindergarten teachers is significantly lower than that of female kindergarten teachers, despite the fact that male teachers are paternal figures who will contribute to the development of students at school. This research aimed to determine the description of meaningful work among male kindergarten teachers. The subjects of this research were three male kindergarten class teachers with different work experiences. A qualitative approach with a case study design was used in this study. The data were obtained through interviews and analyzed from transcribing to interpreting the data. The research findings stated that all the main subjects had different images regarding how each felt their work was meaningful, especially in the aspect of psychological meaningfulness in work. In the aspect of meaning-making through work, all subjects could understand what could improve their qualities and how to understand themselves and their environment. Lastly, in the aspect of greater good motivations, each subject wanted to be helpful to the school stakeholders or even the family of themselves. This research concluded that the three main subjects generally had different images in making their work as kindergarten teachers meaningful. The research implications are that male kindergarten teachers hopefully can improve their performance, early childhood education units are expected to socialize with the public about the presence of male teachers in kindergartens, and the government is also expected to give more appreciation to kindergarten teachers.

INVESTIGATING THE MEDIATING INFLUENCE OF WORK MEANINGFULNESS, JOB SATISFACTION, AND JOB STRESS ON TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG MALAYSIAN COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS

Turnover is a challenging issue for many organizations. Turnover caused organization suffer a loose of competent employees as well as costs associated with employee turnover and hiring new employees. High turnover among community pharmacists presents a significant concern due to its potential negative impact on the quality of pharmaceutical care and patient safety. Addressing this issue requires a thorough investigation of turnover intention, as it has been found to be positively associated with actual turnover. Turnover intention, although not synonymous with immediate departure, serves as a critical indicator of an employee's inclination to leave their current position. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the job satisfaction and job stress, that affect turnover intention among community pharmacists in northern region of Malaysia. The meaningfulness of work was added as mediator. A quantitative study was conducted with 228 community pharmacists who participated in this study voluntarily. The data collection based on self-administered questionnaire. The findings emphasize the critical role of job satisfaction and job stress in influencing turnover intention. The insights offered by this research are valuable for top management in community pharmacies, providing them with the necessary knowledge to formulate effective strategies for managing employee turnover intention. Implementing these strategies can foster a more stable and engaged workforce, ultimately benefiting both employees and the organization as a whole.

BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF SPIRITUALITY AT WORKPLACE USING VOSVIEWER

Meaningful work is of utmost importance in creating and fostering an environment of creativity and innovation. A work environment that strives to realize the true potential of its employees must endeavor to fulfil their higher-order needs. The concept of spirituality is related with higher levels of human consciousness. A deeper understanding of self and others may contribute to positive outcomes at the workplace. Ashmos and Duchon (2000), have quoted Wheatly (1992) and Stacey (1992) that the workplaces need to be envisioned as systems that have strong bonds or connections among its employees. The present study was conducted with a view to investigate contribution of researchers in the domain of spirituality at workplace. The objective was to suggest a way forward to business leaders to achieve higher levels of efficiency at work in tandem with employee wellbeing. The present digital era necessitates that motivation towards excellence in work be intrinsic. In the present study, the bibliometric analysis tool VOSviewer was used. Analysis revealed the trend, most cited authors and keywords related to spirituality at workplace research. Findings revealed that mindfulness at work was strongly related to sustainability. The study is of immense significance as there is a global consensus regarding the adoption of sustainable practices in all walks of life. The study also revealed that extensive work remains to be done.

Influence of meaningfulness of work and leadership characteristics on customer-directed counterproductive work behavior resulting from customer mistreatment

ABSTRACT This study explored the impact of customer mistreatment on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and the moderating role of supervisor responses (self-sacrificial and self-serving leadership) to clarify why customer-directed CWB occurs and how it can be reduced. A sample of 392 customer-facing employees in the USA completed measures assessing the meaningfulness of work and self-sacrificial and self-serving leadership experiences. The meaningfulness of work moderated the relationship between customer mistreatment and employee anger, and a three-way interaction was found between employee anger and self-sacrificial and self-serving leadership on customer-directed CWB. Implications for managing customer mistreatment and fostering meaningful work to promote employee well-being are discussed.