Significant Work Is About Self-Realization and Broader Purpose: Defining the Key Dimensions of Meaningful Work

Childhood Maltreatment and Adult Work Absenteeism: Work Meaningfulness as a Double-Edged Sword

The adverse impacts of childhood maltreatment (CM) on an individual's health and economic welfare are widely recognized, yet its occupational and organizational effects remain less explored. Employee absenteeism, known as absenteeism, is often a sign of workplace maladjustment and may be linked to a history of CM. Some individuals in the helping professions, who exhibit a strong sense of purpose in their employment and pursue it in demanding environments, are CM survivors. This study investigates whether a heightened sense of meaningfulness in their work is associated with increased absenteeism among this subgroup. We recruited 320 helping professionals from a variety of social and mental health settings, one third of whom reported experiencing CM. As hypothesized, CM was positively correlated with work absenteeism. Furthermore, the relationship between work meaningfulness and absenteeism was moderated by their CM history: among those with CM experiences, greater work meaningfulness was associated with higher absenteeism rates. Our findings highlight the possibility that work meaningfulness may operate as a double-edged sword, and the importance of better understanding the challenges that high-functioning survivors of CM face within organizational contexts.

Work alienation and quality of work life among nurses: A descriptive cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Work alienation in nursing can create various problems that affect the quality of work life of nurses, which should be addressed from different perspectives.

AIMS

This study investigated the relationship between work alienation and the quality of work life, aiming to determine the factors affecting nurses' quality of work life.

DESIGN

This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study that used the STROBE guidelines to prepare this study report.

METHODS

The study was conducted between March and June 2022 in Turkey with 303 nurses. It used an online questionnaire with a simple random sampling. Data were collected using a descriptive characteristics form, the Work Alienation Scale, and the Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale. The data were analyzed with Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS

There was a significant negative correlation between work alienation and the quality of work life. Four independent variables with 58.2% impact on the nurses' quality of work life were identified, including participation in the decision-making process, the ability to use initiative during the production of the service, the significance of the work for the individual, and the type of institution.

CONCLUSIONS

The nurses' work alienation score was moderate, and their quality of work life score was high. An increase in the feeling of work alienation statistically decreased the quality of work life.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY

Nurses who experience work alienation may face a decline in their quality of work life that may have an adverse effect on their work performance and work satisfaction.

Quiet quitting among healthcare professionals in hospital environments: a concept analysis and scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION

The post-COVID-19 pandemic era has seen a rise in 'quiet quitting', with employees limiting their efforts to fulfil assigned tasks without going beyond their designated responsibilities. The occurrence of quiet quitting in hospitals can have detrimental effects not only on organisational culture but also on patient safety and satisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study is to define quiet quitting among healthcare professionals in hospitals through concept analysis, identify the associated factors and outcomes of quiet quitting, and conduct a scoping review based on this defined concept.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

This study will adopt Walker and Avant method for concept analysis and Aromataris and Munn methodological framework as well as the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewer's manual for scoping reviews. The concept analysis will follow eight steps: (1) choosing the concept; (2) outlining the objectives of the analysis; (3) recognising the concept's uses; (4) selecting the concept's defining attributes; (5) constructing a model case; (6) constructing additional cases; (7) defining the consequences and antecedents of the concept; and (8) determining empirical referents. This study used databases of PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global for the English language, and NDSL, KCI, RISS, KISS and DBpia for the Korean language. Additionally, grey literature will be searched.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This concept analysis and scoping review does not require ethical approval. The results of this study will be reported in peer-reviewed publications.

Professional Quality of Life Among Professionals Working with People with Eating Disorders: The Interplay Between Meaning in Work, Optimism, and Career Duration

Purpose

Scientific literature findings reflect the challenges experienced by healthcare professionals (HCPs) whose work is dedicated to helping clients with eating disorders (EDs) in various treatment centers (wards). These challenges can affect the professional quality of life (comprised of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress) of HCPs. The present study delved into this relationship and explored the moderating role of dispositional optimism and the role of career duration in ED wards in the link between meaning in work and professional quality of life.

Methods

Two hundred HCPs working in ED wards in Israel were recruited through their professional social networks. Participants completed self-report questionnaires related to socio-demographic and work data, professional quality of life, meaning in work, and dispositional optimism.

Results

Career duration in ED wards was negatively associated with secondary traumatic stress, while dispositional optimism and meaning in work were positively associated with compassion satisfaction and negatively associated with burnout and secondary traumatic stress. With respect to the moderation effect of dispositional optimism and EDs ward career duration, the findings revealed that the positive relationship between meaning in work and compassion satisfaction weakened as dispositional optimism scores increased. Additionally, the negative relationship between meaning in life and burnout was significant only when the career duration in EDs wards was less than 12.31 years.

Conclusion

HCPs working in ED wards could draw on the findings to improve their professional quality of life, especially through enhancing meaning in work. Attention should be paid especially toward HCPs with many years (>12.31) of experience in the ED wards.

"Few things in life are easy and worth doing": how the bi-directional relationships between meaningful work and work-related stress can both help and hinder wellbeing

Introduction

Meaning is a key part of psychological wellbeing, and the benefits of meaningful work are widely acknowledged. Many people seek meaning from their work, and some organizations aim to facilitate this through interventions. In parallel, work-related stress has become a significant occupational risk. This study seeks to understand the perspectives of those who find their work to be both meaningful and stressful, and to explore the relationships between these concepts.

Methods

Eleven women and six men, aged 34-61, primarily based in the UK, from the private, public, and third sectors were interviewed about their experiences of meaning and stress in their work. Using a social constructivist grounded theory approach, data collection and analysis ran in parallel.

Results

Findings indicate that meaningful work and work-related stress are inherently connected, with bi-directional relationships that can support and hinder wellbeing. Meaningfulness can both alleviate and exacerbate stress, and stress can both reinforce and reduce meaningfulness. Meaningfulness and stress can even feel co-dependent, depending on how participants perceive and make sense of their experience.

Discussion

With many individuals seeking greater meaningfulness from their work, the results suggest that they- and their employers-would benefit from understanding more about the potential harmful effects of meaningfulness, including implications for stress and possible knock-on consequences for health and work.

The longitudinal directional associations of meaningful work with mental well-being - initial findings from an exploratory investigation

BACKGROUND

An increasing number of studies reveal that more meaning in life is positively related to mental well-being. Meaning in life can be derived from different sources, including the workplace. The aim of this study was to explore the longitudinal directional association of meaningful work with mental well-being.

METHODS

Prospective data from 292 persons at two timepoints (two-week interval) were used to estimate the cross-lagged relationship and directionality of meaningful work with mental well-being.

RESULTS

The cross-lagged panel model had a good fit to the data (Chi2 ms(90) = 150.9; p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.048; p = 0.576; CFI = 0.984; TLI = 0.979; SRMR = 0.040) and showed that levels of meaningful work at t1 had a positive effect on mental well-being at t2 (β = 0.15, p = 0.010). But mental well-being at t1 did not affect meaningful work at t2 (β = 0.02, p = 0.652). Sub-analyses revealed the effects to be mainly driven by women (as opposed to men) and white-collar workers (as opposed to blue-collar workers).

CONCLUSION

This study confirmed a directional association of meaningful work on mental well-being, indicating that more meaningful work has beneficial mental well-being effects.

Meaningful Work, Well-Being, and Health: Enacting a Eudaimonic Vision

Work is one of the most enduring and consequential life domains regarding how meaning and purpose impact health and well-being. This review first examines scientific findings from the MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.) national longitudinal study that have linked work to well-being and health. Most have focused on adverse work or work conditions as influences on poor health, with a few recent findings investigating links to purpose and other aspects of eudaimonic well-being. Organizational scholarship is then selectively reviewed to show how meaningful work is often linked to motivation, performance, and commitment. Paradoxically, meaning can also lead to the exploitation and erosion of health and well-being when managed without regard for decent working conditions. Recent workplace phenomena known as the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting underscore the societal consequences of work without meaning or adequate working conditions. Both the scientific and organizational literature are enriched by a vision of meaningful work rooted in Aristotle's writings about virtue, ethics, and the realization of potential. Evidence-based practices tied to these eudaimonic ideals are examined at multiple levels, including the societal context (public policy), organizational conditions (culture, human resource practices, leadership), and individual strategies to find meaning, engagement, and fulfillment in work. A concluding section highlights strengths and omissions in the scientific and organizational literature and, going forward, calls for greater interplay among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in enacting eudaimonic ideals.

Does meaningful work mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and mental health? Evidence from Malaysian SME employees

Introduction

In Malaysia, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for more than half of all employment and 98.7% of all businesses. There is little research on empowering behaviors in SMEs, despite leadership empowerment being often practiced. Therefore, the study aims to investigate how empowering leadership affects employees' mental health. The study also reveals meaningful work's role in mediating the relationship between empowering leadership and employees' mental health.

Methods

A stratified random sample approach was used to collect data from 516 employees of Malaysian SMEs. The data was analyzed, and the hypothesis was tested using structural equation modeling (AMOS 21.0) with bootstrap confidence intervals computed to evaluate the mediating effect.

Results

The results demonstrate that empowering leadership significantly improves employees' mental health. Furthermore, the association between empowering leadership and mental health is partially mediated by meaningful work.

Discussion

This study contributes to the present empowering leadership-meaningful work-mental health model for SME employees, which reduces stress and anxiety at the workplace and positively impacts psychological empowerment and their capacity to control their overall emotions in instances of success.

Exploring the Bereavement Experience Due to COVID-19 Death Among Arabs in Israel

This study examined the experience of bereavement because of COVID-19 among the Arab minority in Israel, based on the two-track model of grief, using a qualitative approach. The data was collected in an in-depth interview with 34 participants representing the three religions in the Arab population in Israel, approximately 1 year after the loss occurred. The findings revealed that most participants reported returning to their previous function almost completely, exclusively in the field of work. However, they reported decreased social functioning and feelings of loneliness and sadness, and some reported manifestations of active and traumatic grief. Some findings may create a false impression that the mourners have gone through the loss process and returned to normal. However, the current study's findings refute this conclusion, which requires appropriate treatment from health professionals.

Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory

This paper examines the concept of "contributing to society" in the context of meaningful work and calling. While previous studies have identified it as a significant dimension within these concepts, little attention has been paid to trying to conceptualize it. Also, with "self-oriented" fulfillment being an important aspect of the experience of meaningfulness, the understanding of contribution to society might be more complex than being simply an "other-oriented" concept. In response to this conceptual unclarity, we define contributing to society as a belief individuals hold about whether tasks positively impact work beneficiaries. We integrate this with Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) to determine the expected task value of such belief. Our argument is that fulfillment of a contribution depends on three factors: (1) the expectation of a contribution based on someone's calling and expected meaningfulness; (2) the extent to which the employee is invested in the task, the costs of such task, whether the beneficiary and impact value and the utility for the self and beneficiary match the preference; (3) the extent to which this contribution is sufficient considering someone's expectation. Therefore, the expected task value can differ between individuals concerning the number and types of beneficiaries and the extent and value of the impact. Moreover, in this way contributions to society should also be perceived from a self-oriented perspective to be fulfilling. This original concept offers a theoretical framework and a research agenda that proposes new avenues of inquiry for calling, meaningful work, contributing to society, and related fields such as job design, and public policy.

Meaning in life through work: A cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST) perspective

This article explores existential meaning-making from work using the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST). To start with, we use the tenets of CEST to elaborate on how the cues from archetype work environments—a realization facilitating work environment (RfWE) and justification facilitating work environment (JfWE)—are interpreted by information-processing systems to imbue meaning in life (MiL) as internal or external manifestations of coherence, purpose, and significance. Next, we explain how individual differences in work centrality and proactive meaning-crafting ability moderate the impact of JfWE, but not of RfWE, on MiL. Finally, we create a nomological network of existential meaning states emerging from the simultaneous presence or absence of RfWE and JfWE. In summary, by applying the information-processing lens of CEST, we develop an integrated model that explains how work drives MiL, elucidates the resultant existential states, and assesses the role of individual differences in meaning-making.

Plain Language Summary

This article develops an integrated model that outlines how work environments can augur human well-being by fostering a sense of meaning in life (MiL). Based on the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), expounding parallel-competitive processing of information through the working of the experiential and rational system, we explore how the cues from archetype work environments—a realization facilitating work environment (RfWE) and justification facilitating work environment (JfWE)—influence the varied flavors of MiL and meaninglessness in life. We build the argument that RfWE activates the functioning of the experiential system to induce a feeling of internal MiL as internal coherence, internal purpose, and internal value significance. At the same time, JfWE triggers the functioning of the rational system to construct a judgment of external MiL as external coherence, external worthy purpose, and external value significance. However, the interaction between RfWE and JfWE can result in intricate scenarios, including favorable states such as holistic meaning, positive existential feelings, and positive existential narratives. Still, it can also lead individuals into meaninglessness in life through existential fatigue, existential cocoon, or existential futility. Nonetheless, individual differences in work centrality and proactive behavior to craft meaning can act as moderators to alter the intensity of work’s impact on MiL in a JfWE but not in an RfWE.

COVID-19 Disruption and Meaningful Work: The Mediating Role of Family–Work Conflict

Work overload and the alteration in family dynamics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis may be increasing family–work conflict, leading to the consequent decrease in meaningful work. Using the structural equation modeling of covariance, this research determines the impact of the pandemic disruption on meaningful work as mediated through family–work conflict. The sample comes from 534 men and 257 women that are full-time employees of seven public manufacturing companies in Bolivia; they were surveyed by filling out a self-report questionnaire at the companies’ locations. Although no significant direct effects were found between COVID-19 disruption and meaningful work (standardized beta = 0.038, Z = 0.756, p = 0.450), there is an indirect effect when the relationship is measured through the family–work life conflict variable (standardized beta = −0.138, Z = −6.119, p < 0.001). Implications for business management are discussed.

Autonomy support and prosocial impact facilitate meaningful work: A daily diary study

This study pays attention to within-person fluctuations in meaningful work and its antecedents and consequences. Considering self- and other-oriented dimensions as crucial pathways to meaningful work, effects of daily perceived autonomy support and prosocial impact on one's meaningful work were examined. A daily diary study was conducted in which 86 nurses from varied hospitals reported their work experiences for 10 consecutive workdays (860 occasions). Results of multilevel modeling showed that both day-level perceived autonomy support and prosocial impact were positively related to day-level meaningful work, which served as the mediator between them and work engagement. Prosocial orientation strengthened the positive relationship between day-level perceived prosocial impact and day-level meaningful work. However, autonomy orientation negatively moderated the effect of day-level perceived autonomy support on day-level meaningful work, suggesting the necessity to distinguish between assisted and asserted autonomy orientation. Our findings illustrate the transient and dynamic nature of meaningful work and provide empirical evidences linking suggested managerial practices to employees' meaningful work.

Do intensified job demands predict burnout? How motivation to lead and leadership status may have a moderating effect

Objectives

The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate how intensified job demands (job-related planning demands, career-related planning demands, and learning demands) are associated with burnout. We explored whether affective-identity motivation to lead moderates this association and, thus, functions as a personal resource regardless of leadership status. We further investigated whether the possible buffering effect is stronger for those professionals who became leaders during the follow-up.

Methods

Our sample consisted of highly educated Finnish professionals (n = 372): part of them (n = 63, 17%) occupied a leadership position during the 2-year follow-up while the rest maintained their position without formal leadership duties.

Results

The results of hierarchical linear modeling indicated that intensified learning demands were associated with later burnout. High affective-identity motivation to lead was not found to buffer against the negative effects of intensified job demands - instead, it strengthened the connection of intensified job- and career-related demands to burnout. Nevertheless, among the whole sample, professionals with high affective-identity motivation to lead reported lower burnout when job demands were not highly intensified. The leadership status also played a role: High affective-identity motivation to lead strengthened the connection of career-related demands to burnout in those professionals who became leaders during the follow-up.

Conclusions

Altogether, we propose that in certain circumstances, affective-identity motivation to lead might help professionals, with and without formal leadership duties, to be more ready to lead their own work and well-being. However, in order to promote sustainable careers, the vulnerability role of high affective-identity motivation to lead should be considered as well.

Rethinking Remote Work, Automated Technologies, Meaningful Work and the Future of Work: Making a Case for Relationality

Remote work, understood here as a working environment different from the traditional office working space, is a phenomenon that has existed for many years. In the past, workers voluntarily opted, when they were allowed to, to work remotely rather than commuting to their traditional work environment. However, with the emergence of the global pandemic (corona virus-COVID-19), people were forced to work remotely to mitigate the spread of the virus. Consequently, researchers have identified some benefits and adverse effects of remote work, especially in the age of COVID-19, ranging from flexible time and environment to technostress and isolation. In this paper, using a phenomenological approach, specifically, the sub-Saharan African experiences, I contend that remote work in the age of advanced technologies has obscured the value of relationality due to the problem of isolation in sub-Saharan African workplaces. For sub-Saharan Africans, relationality is a prerequisite moral value to becoming a person. In addition, relationality contributes to meaningfulness in the workspace. Obscuring the value of relationality in the aforementioned locale leads to meaninglessness in the workspace. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the existing literature on meaningful work by critically showing the importance of the value of relationality as a key element that adds meaning to work in sub-Saharan Africa.

Memorial playgrounds: Special ways of coping with extreme loss

The purpose of this study was to understand how active coping with extreme loss takes place when creating memorial playgrounds, as well as in relation to existing memorial playgrounds. Using qualitative methods and drawing from 63 cases, the research enriches our understanding of bereavement by revealing the central mechanisms through which active coping takes place and by presenting the distinct elements that the mechanisms are composed of. The study contributes to the research on bereavement by showing how active coping takes place both as an outcome of and during the memorial creation process.

Breaches and buffers: Can meaningful work impact turnover during COVID-19 pandemic?

The fear and uncertainty created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have strained the employer-employee relationship. This research seeks to understand how psychological contract breach shapes employees' perspectives of meaningful work and its influence on turnover intention. Drawing on event systems theory, we investigated how objective events in the environment (e.g., global pandemic) impact employees. We also argue that the career shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic affected employees' choices based on their job fit and psychological resources. Findings indicate that experiencing meaningful work reduced turnover intention, especially for those that experienced less psychological contract breach. Also, experiencing meaningful work reduced turnover intention most for individuals whose working hours were not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings show that experiencing meaningful work in a relatively stable job reduces employees' potential turnover during exogenous shocks. The study also highlights the importance of meaningful work and why organizations should collaborate and assist their employees in making work more meaningful.

Can patient gratitude expression boost innovative performance? The role of work meaningfulness and supervisory support

Based on emotions as social information (EASI) theory, the current study proposed how and when patient gratitude expression could promote nurses' innovative performance. Using a time-lagged data of 649 nurses from three class A tertiary hospitals in China, the results showed that patient gratitude expression was positively related to nurses' innovative performance, and nurses' work meaningfulness mediated such effect. Furthermore, supervisory support moderated the relationship of work meaningfulness with nurses' innovative performance, as well as the indirect relationship between patient gratitude expression and innovative performance through work meaningfulness, such that the indirect relationship was stronger when supervisory support is higher. Our research helps to expand our understanding of how patient gratitude expression as an organizational external factor influences nurses' innovation in healthcare, and meanwhile, provides management insights for hospital managers to focus on patient gratitude expression and enhance nurse innovation.

Factors Associated with Post-Traumatic Growth in Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Post-traumatic growth (PTG) research is flourishing across various disciplines; however, it is only emerging in healthcare. Recently, a flurry of studies assessed PTG among healthcare professionals. However, to date, no systematic review has identified the factors that predict their experiences of PTG among healthcare professionals. The current paper aims to address this gap. Of 126 papers, 27 were selected for this systematic review. The analysis identified a range of demographic, individual (work-related and personal), interpersonal and environmental factors that contributed to healthcare professionals' experiences of PTG. Analysis of findings offers a novel perspective on individual factors by dividing them into personal and work-related factors. Results also highlight a variety of psychological interventions that can be used in healthcare to cultivate PTG. In addition, the gaps in current research, implications for further research, policy and practice that can facilitate the experience of PTG among healthcare professionals are discussed.

Organizational democracy and meaningful work: The mediating role of employees corporate social responsibility perceptions

Meaningful work is an important field of research, relating to both organizational outcomes and employee welfare. Organizational democracy has been theoretically proposed as an important antecedent to meaningful work. Nevertheless, this relationship is yet to be empirically explored. Thus, the objective of the current research is to explore the relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. We used structural equation modeling with self-reported, cross-sectional data from different nations and industries to test a mediation model in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions mediate the positive relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. Our findings confirmed that CSR perceptions partially mediate in the relationship between organizational democracy and meaningful work. Thus, based on our findings we can conclude that organizational democracy can play a direct role in increasing the experience of meaningful work, but also an indirect role trough the employees experience of CSR. Our findings have theoretical implications by adding to the classical theoretical literature that connect organizational democracy and meaningful work, and by disentangling the role of CSR perceptions in this relationship. Moreover, our findings have practical implications as our results give important knowledge to managers and organizational stakeholders that wish to increase the experience of meaningful work in organizations.

Employee reactions to CSR in the pursuit of meaningful work: A case study of the healthcare industry

With the growing interest in the microfoundations of corporate social responsibility (‘micro-CSR'), many questions linger regarding how the workforce reacts to CSR, which has consequences for their meaningful work experiences. To address this lack of understanding, we conducted an inductive, comparative case study of two healthcare organisations to examine how employees experience meaningful work through reacting to their organisation's CSR initiatives. We demonstrate how CSR triggers employees' meaning-making of work, which takes the form of a misalignment perceived between CSR at the strategic-level and CSR as it is implemented at the employee-level, limiting the experiences of meaningful work. We identify four proactive behaviours in which employees engage to infuse their work with meaning as a way of dealing with this experienced misalignment. We consolidate these behaviours into a typology of meaning-infusing behaviours in the context of CSR. Specifically, we found that when guided by the need for making a positive impact on their beneficiaries, employees engage in what we call ‘reshaping work for impact' next to ‘collectively enabling impact'. In contrast, when guided by the need for having a sense of meaningful membership, employees are guided by either ‘creating a sense of belonging' or ‘envisioning prosocial potential'. Through these behaviours, they either navigate within given organisational structures or enact new ones. Overall, we expand research on the CSR–meaningful work relationship, emphasising the role of employees' proactive behaviours in understanding their experiences and reactions to CSR initiatives in their pursuit of meaningful work. Moreover, we highlight implications for micro-CSR research and practice.

Aligning working in an organization with teaching yoga: An investigation into personally meaningful work

In many advanced economies, two phenomena coexist: many people struggle finding meaning in their jobs and a growing number of persons hold multiple jobs at the same time. The research stream on meaningful work calls for more qualitative studies that investigate individual experiences of meaningful work across different jobs. The field on multiple jobholding has recently focused on the psychological foundations and struggles or positive effects. Prior research shows that individuals who were pushed (e.g. by financial reasons) into an additional job will likely experience depletion through it, while those motivated by pull factors (e.g. by psychological fulfillment reasons and the desire for meaningfulness) will likely yield enrichment. To address these research gaps jointly, we empirically investigate the motivations and meaningfulness experiences of multiple jobholders with the same secondary job, that is, practicing yoga teachers. We apply a mixed-method design by conducting and analyzing narrative interviews with 27 part-time yoga teachers in Germany.

Emotional intelligence as a contributor to enhancing educators’ quality of life in the COVID-19 era

The basic education fraternity is constantly evolving with various stressors among others, curricular changes, adaptation to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, poor educator development, excessive workload, and brain drain, thus negatively affecting educators’ quality of life. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has expedited the importance of emotional intelligence, as an essential resilience skill for enhancing the quality of life during adversity. The objective of the study is to ascertain the relationship between emotional intelligence and the quality of life of educators. A quantitative approach was utilized using simple random sampling. A sample of 108 educators from a population of 154 was drawn from six schools in the Reservoir Hills precinct of KwaZulu-Natal. The findings revealed a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and the quality of life of educators. A practical research model was advocated for key stakeholders in the South African basic education sector.

Expanding the Self Behind Closed Doors: Exploring the Role of the Lockdown in Self-Realization Among Young Adults

Self-realization or the path which involves the elaborate process of knowing oneself leads people to a meaningful and fulfilling life. The present study aims to examine how the COVID-19-led lockdown proved to be an opportunity for emerging adults to reflect on and eventually discover their true selves. This study particularly explores the factors that facilitated the self-realization process during the lockdown. An online survey was conducted on 1280 Indian university students. The age of participants ranged between 18 and 29 years. An eight-item scale was developed to measure self-realization during the lockdown, which was thereafter administered along with other study variables. The results showed that factors including family bonding, social comparison, self-image, and a positive orientation toward life help young adults in the process of self-realization. Furthermore, the participants who employed adaptive ways to cope with the COVID-19 stress reported higher levels of self-realization. The present study showed that the interaction of young adults with their significant others, solving their daily problems, and having a positive outlook toward themselves and the future, helped them during the COVID-19 imposed lockdown and led them on the path of self-realization.

Providing Safe Space for Honest Mistakes in the Public Sector Is the Most Important Predictor for Work Engagement after Strategic Clarity

Multiple studies highlight the link between engagement at work and performance, influencing organizations to put more effort into improving employee engagement levels. In this study, we begin to examine the influence of multiple psychological parameters on employees’ work engagement (WE) within the public sector. The idea is to break the concept of WE down into eight individually measurable parameters that will allow for a better understanding and development of stronger interventions. Based on this analysis, we reproduce the outcome that strategic clarity is the most connected property to WE. More importantly, we introduce a new concept, honest mistakes, and show that having a safe space for making mistakes and learning from it is the second most important property of WE. This result is of interest, as allowing mistakes, even if they were made innocently, is considered taboo in the public sector. These outcomes are based on the reports of n=7682 public sector employees from Brazil. In particular, the analysis shows that these outcomes hold for both professional and management positions across the health, administrative, justice, police, social work, and education offices.

Preliminary Efficacy of an Occupation-Oriented Purpose in Life Intervention After Breast Cancer

Background. Purpose in life is important to health and well-being; purpose disruption often goes unidentified after breast cancer. Purpose. To evaluate the efficacy of a purpose renewal intervention and utility of a screening question for identifying people with purpose-related distress. Method. In this prospective pretest-posttest study, participants with breast cancer received an 8-session purpose renewal group intervention (n = 35). Participants completed standardized measures of meaning and purpose at pretest, posttest, and two-month follow-up and a forced-choice Purpose Status Question (PSQ) at pretest. Findings. Participants made statistically significant pretest-to-posttest and pretest-to-follow-up improvements. The PSQ demonstrated construct validity: 40% of participants lacked purpose direction at pretest and this subgroup made significantly greater improvements than participants who reported purpose direction at pretest. Implications. The PSQ warrants further study as a screener to identify people with purpose-related distress. Many breast cancer survivors may benefit from a purpose in life intervention; a subgroup may benefit more.

How Followership Boosts Creative Performance as Mediated by Work Autonomy and Creative Self-Efficacy in Higher Education Administrative Jobs

Followership is an important but understudied domain. This study adopted a follower-centric perspective to examine the internal process by which followership affects creative performance via work autonomy and creative self-efficacy. The study employed a 3-wave survey of 341 employees of a Taiwanese university to achieve the research purpose. This study showed that effective followership (Time 1) is positively associated with employees' work autonomy (Time 1) and creative self-efficacy (Time 2). Work autonomy and creative self-efficacy mediate the relationship between effective followership and creative performance (Time 3). This study's empirical findings provide an improved way of measuring followership and broaden our understanding of how followership triggers intrinsic motivation to facilitate creative performance.

Authenticity as Best-Self: The Experiences of Women in Law Enforcement

Law enforcement poses a difficult work environment. Employees’ wellbeing is uniquely taxed in coping with daily violent, aggressive and hostile encounters. These challenges are compounded for women, because law enforcement remains to be a male-dominated occupational context. Yet, many women in law enforcement display resilience and succeed in maintaining a satisfying career. This study explores the experience of being authentic from a best-self perspective, for women with successful careers in the South African police and traffic law enforcement services. Authenticity research substantiates a clear link between feeling authentic and experiencing psychological wellbeing. The theoretical assumption on which the study is based holds that being authentic relates to a sense of best-self and enables constructive coping and adjustment in a challenging work environment. A qualitative study was conducted on a purposive sample of 12 women, comprising 6 police officers and 6 traffic officers from the Western Cape province in South Africa. Data were gathered through narrative interviews focussing on experiences of best-self and were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. During the interviews, participants predominantly described feeling authentic in response to work-related events of a conflictual and challenging nature. Four themes were constructed from the data to describe authenticity from a best-self perspective for women in the study. These themes denote that the participating women in law enforcement, express feeling authentic when they present with a mature sense of self, feel spiritually congruent and grounded, experience self-actualisation in the work–role and realign to a positive way of being. Women should be empowered towards authenticity in their world of work, by helping them to acquire the best-self characteristics needed for developing authenticity.

Sensemaking by Employees in Essential versus Non-essential Professions During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Comparison of Effects of Change Communication and Disruption Cues on Mental Health, Through Interpretations of Identity Threats and Work Meaningfulness

This study examines the implications of categorizing workers into essential and non-essential groups due to disruptions in work associated with-and the quality of organizational change communication about-the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examine how these cues trigger identity threats and influence the meaningfulness of work, consequently affecting the mental health of workers (anxiety, distress, and depression). The results show that change communication reduces identity threat, while also increasing meaningfulness of work, for both work categories. However, the disruptions increase identity threat only for non-essential workers. Conversely, identity threat increases two of the three mental health issues while meaningfulness of work reduces two of them. The study contributes to our growing understanding of the pervasive, though subtle, implications of COVID-19 for the workplace by showing how a process of employee sensemaking and organizational change communication directly and indirectly influence important dimensions of mental health.

You're Prettier When You Smile: Construction and Validation of a Questionnaire to Assess Microaggressions Against Women in the Workplace

Gender microaggressions, especially its subtler forms microinsults and microinvalidations are by definition hard to discern. We aim to construct and validate a scale reflecting two facets of the microaggression taxonomy: microinsults and microinvalidations toward women in the workplace, the MIMI-16. Two studies were conducted (N1 = 500, N2 = 612). Using a genetic algorithm, a 16-item scale was developed and consequently validated via confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) in three separate validation samples. Correlational analyses with organizational outcome measures were performed. The MIMI-16 exhibits good model fit in all validation samples (CFI = 0.936–0.960, TLI = 0.926–0.954, RMSEA = 0.046–0.062, SRMR = 0.042–0.049). Multigroup-CFA suggested strict measurement invariance between all validation samples. Correlations were as expected and indicate internal and external validity. Scholars on gender microaggressions have mostly used qualitative research. With the newly developed MIMI-16 we provide a reliable and valid quantitative instrument to measure gender microaggressions in the workplace.

The burnout construct with reference to healthcare providers: A narrative review

Burnout syndrome is a psychological response to long-term exposure to occupational stressors. It is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cognitive weariness and physical fatigue, and it may occur in association with any occupation, but is most frequently observed among professionals who work directly with people, particularly in institutional settings. Healthcare professionals who work directly with patients and are frequently exposed to work overload and excessive clinical demands, to ethical dilemmas, to pressing occupational schedules and to managerial challenges; who have to make complex judgements and difficult decisions; and who have relatively little autonomy over their job-related tasks are at risk of developing clinical burnout. In turn, clinical burnout among clinicians has a negative impact on the quality and safety of treatment, and on the overall professional performance of healthcare systems. Healthcare workers with burnout are more likely to make mistakes and to be subjected to medical malpractice claims, than do those who are burnout-naïve. Experiencing the emotional values of autonomy, competence and relatedness are essential work-related psychological needs, which have to be satisfied to promote feelings of self-realization and meaningfulness in relation to work activities, thus reducing burnout risk. Importantly, an autonomy-supportive rather than a controlling style of management decreases burnout risk and promotes self-actualization, self-esteem and a general feeling of well-being in both those in charge and in their subordinates. The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the elements constituting the burnout construct with the view of gaining a better understanding of the complex multifactorial nature of burnout. This may facilitate the development and implementation of both personal, behavioural and organizational interventions to deal with the burnout syndrome and its ramifications.

Linking workplace social support to turnover intention through job embeddedness and work meaningfulness

This research examines the impacts of workplace social support, namely organizational support, supervisory support, and co-worker support on job embeddedness, and whether these effects are moderated by work meaningfulness. Using a conditional process model, the current study also investigates how the relationship between workplace social support and turnover intention, mediated by job embeddedness, is affected by the moderator. Data were collected from 1,137 shared service employees in Thailand. Empirical results indicate that job embeddedness mediates the links between perceived organizational support as well as perceived co-worker support and intention to leave, and that work meaningfulness reduces employees' turnover intention by reinforcing the impacts of perceived supervisory support and perceived co-worker support on job embeddedness. The findings contribute to job embeddedness literature by describing moderated mediation mechanisms, through which social supportive constituents affect turnover intention, and guide practitioners by applying an integrated model of organizational practices in managing human resources.

Registered nurses' perceptions of having a calling to nursing: A mixed‐method study

Aim

To explore how nurses perceived having a calling to nursing.

Design

A mixed‐method study.

Methods

Survey data collected in autumn 2020 and semi‐structured individual interview data collected in spring 2021. The 7925 survey respondents were care professionals and 414 of them were registered nurses. The 23 interview participants were registered nurses who responded to the survey. We examined the survey results using analysis of variance and t‐tests and the interview data with qualitative thematic analysis.

Results

Registered nurses had a lower calling than other care professionals. Based on the interviews, having a calling to nursing produce four key findings. Nurses with a calling experienced their work as meaningful. They also adopted a humane and holistic approach to their work. However, their calling could change during their professional career. Due to its historical roots, having a calling was seen as a risk for the nursing profession, as it meant nurses had an oppressed position in society and nurses associated it with poor working conditions and low pay.

Conclusion

Our study showed that having a calling to nursing had multidimensional benefits for the individual nurse, their patient, colleagues, organization and society, but showed strong association between calling and nurses' poor working conditions and low pay.

Impact

We found that nurses had a lower calling than other care professionals. Calling still exists, but it can produce tension in modern nursing. Organizations and society need to focus on how calling can be seen as a more positive attribute of nursing and improve nurses' working conditions and pay.

Team Interdependence as a Substitute for Empowering Leadership Contribution to Team Meaningfulness and Performance

This study uses a relational work design perspective to explore substitutes for leadership behaviors that promote team meaningfulness and performance. We propose that team task interdependence, a structural feature facilitating interaction among team members, can be a substitute for the contributions of empowering leadership. Data were collected from 47 R&D and technology implementation teams across three organizations in a cross-sectional field study. The results revealed that high task interdependence attenuated the contributions of empowering leadership concerning team meaningfulness and, indirectly, to team performance. These findings highlight that the importance of leaders as generators of team meaningfulness is contingent on team relational work design.

What Can Motivate Me to Keep Working? Analysis of Older Finance Professionals’ Discourse Using Self-Determination Theory

The twin issues of population aging and critical talent shortages induce employers to encourage older workers to prolong their professional lives. Over the past two decades, studies have mainly examined which human resources practices influence older workers’ ability, motivation, and opportunity to continue working. Our conceptual lens rest on self-determination theory (SDT). This study explores how older professionals in the financial services sector may see how three psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) are satisfied or frustrated through various management practices such as monetary rewards, benefits, career development, and work content and context. Our interviews with older finance professionals also show the relevance of a fourth need, beneficence, to understand their decision to continue to work. Results of this study are likely to be significant at both managerial and societal levels in the perspective of sustainable development or employability.

Distributed Leadership and New Generation Employees' Proactive Behavior: Roles of Idiosyncratic Deals and Meaningfulness of Work

New generation employees have become the main force of the organization, and their proactive behavior directly affects the organization’s future development. How to effectively stimulate the proactive behavior of new generation employees has become a hot topic in the field of organizational management. Based on the integrated perspective of social exchange and self-enhancement, we constructed a multistep mediation model to explore the influence mechanism of distributed leadership on the proactive behavior of new generation employees. We designed a three-stage research method of supervisor-employee pairing to collect data from 26 supervisors and 304 new generation employees in a new energy vehicle company in East China. Results indicated that (a) distributed leadership is positively related to proactive behavior of new generation employees; (b) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work mediated the linkage between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior; (c) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work play a multistep mediation role between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior. These findings have theoretical implications for the proactive behavior literature and managerial implications for practitioners.

Meaningful work, work and life satisfaction: Spanish adaptation of Work and Meaning Inventory Scale

Meaningful work is the subjective experience that work has meaning and is understood as an avenue for personal development, from a eudaimonic point of view. The aim of this study is to adapt the WAMI scale of meaningful work to Spanish, as well as to explore its relationship with job and life satisfaction. Two independent studies were developed. A first study analyzed the consistency of the original factorial model using a sample of Spanish varied workers (N = 350) through a confirmatory factor analysis. Results show an adequate replication of the original model and the validity of the Spanish version. A second study addressed the predictive capacity of the scale in relation to two satisfaction measures in a sample of Spanish health workers (N=312), through a mediation analysis. The relationship between meaningful work and job satisfaction is mediated by life satisfaction. The idea of meaningful work as a eudaimonic construct discards it as a variable resulting from or consequence of work, as it is an inherent part of occupational activity itself.

Work Engagement Among Public Employees: Antecedents and Consequences

This study is an investigation of the relationships among job meaningfulness, work engagement, and performance, including testing for a possible mediation effect of work engagement on the relationship between job meaningfulness and performance. We examine task interdependence as a boundary condition that facilitates employee engagement using two-stage multiple-source respondent data drawn from a sample of 183 Uzbek employees from public organizations and their 47 supervisors to test the hypotheses. The research findings confirm a positive association between job meaningfulness and engagement and the relationship between work engagement and performance. Mediation analysis using bootstrapping indicated that work engagement explained the influence of meaningfulness on performance. Furthermore, task interdependence negatively moderated the relationship between meaningfulness and engagement. This study responds to calls for researchers to identify the key and situational drivers of work engagement as well as examine the importance of meaningfulness in the public sector. It also increases the external validity of the findings by examining the relationship between engagement and performance in a non-Western context, namely, Islamic Uzbekistan. Despite the limitations of this research, the empirical findings contribute to the growing body of research on work engagement and meaningfulness in public organizations.

Posttraumatic growth and burnout in pediatric nurses: The mediating role of secondary traumatization and the moderating role of meaning in work

The current study focused on pediatric nurses. It explored the direct link between posttraumatic growth as a coping resource and burnout and the indirect link between posttraumatic growth and burnout via secondary traumatic stress (mediating effect). Moreover, meaning in work was examined as a moderator variable in relation to the direct link and the indirect link. One hundred and thirty-eight nurses working at a pediatric medical center filled out self-report questionnaires regarding personal and professional data, burnout, posttraumatic growth, secondary traumatic stress, and meaning in work. Posttraumatic growth was found to be a coping resource that linked to pediatric nurses' burnout directly and indirectly. Directly, there was an inverse correlation between the two; indirectly, posttraumatic growth linked negatively to secondary traumatic stress, and secondary traumatic stress linked positively to burnout. Moreover, meaning in work played a dual moderating role. First, it moderated the relationship between posttraumatic growth and secondary traumatization. Second, it moderated the direct relationship between posttraumatic growth and burnout, namely, the negative link between posttraumatic growth and burnout became stronger as meaning in work increased. As such, we recommend enhancing personal and professional posttraumatic growth, as well as designing interventions that promote meaningful work among pediatric nurses.

Do Environmental Transformational Leadership Predicts Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards Environment in Hospitality Industry: Using Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Voluntary pro-environmental behaviors in the workplace such as organizational citizenship behavior towards environment (OCBE) are pertinent for the organizations striving to become environmentally responsible entities. The significance of OCBE for green organizational initiatives has led scholars to strive for expanding its nomological network. Approaching from the theoretical angle of the social information processing approach, this quantitative, survey-based study theoretically links and empirically tests the impact of environmental transformational leadership on organizational citizenship behavior towards environment (OCBE) via mediating mechanism of perceived meaningful work. Data from a sample of 311 employees working in Pakistan’s hospitality sector were collected and analyzed to test the hypothesized relationships using structural equation modelling. Results indicated the indirect effect of perceived meaningful work on the relationship between environmental transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior towards environment. Implications of both theoretical and practical nature are laid out in the relevant sections of the paper.

Drivers or Drifters? The "Who" and "Why" of Leader Role Occupancy-A Mixed-Method Study

This study investigated the reasons that leaders have given for their leader role occupancy. By using a mixed-method approach and large leader data, we aimed to provide a more nuanced picture of how leader positions are occupied in real life. We examined how individual leadership motivation may associate with other reasons for leader role occupancy. In addition, we aimed to integrate the different reasons behind leader role occupancy into the framework of sustainable leader careers and its two indicators: leader's health (occupational well-being) and performance (measured indirectly as followers' occupational well-being). The survey data consisted of 1,031 leaders from various sectors of working life. Qualitative analysis revealed that leaders mention various factors behind their leader role occupancy, resulting 26 themes. After inductive investigation of the data, theory-driven analysis focused on the sustainable career components (person, context, time) and agency vs. non-agency. Qualitative data was quantitized based on the theory-driven categories for statistical analysis. Based on the these analysis, we found out that only Affective-Identity MTL predicted all of the studied reasons behind leader role occupancy, whereas the other motivation types (Non-calculative MTL and Social-Normative MTL) did not. All of the reasons for leader role occupancy except non-agentic ones were related to both leaders' own and their followers' occupational well-being. Leaders with more person-related and agentic reasons for leader role occupancy experienced better occupational well-being. Person- and context-related and agentic reasons behind leader role occupancy associated also with followers' occupational well-being, but the associations differed from those of leaders' well-being: person-related and agentic reasons associated with followers' exhaustion, but this association was not found among leaders. Our study provided important information for practitioners in the field of human resources and development, as it has shown that if the reasons for leader role occupancy mainly reflect circumstances or other non-person-related reasons, the experienced occupational well-being and person-career fit may remain weak. It is necessary to try to support the leadership motivation for those leaders, or to shape the job description in such a way that it can also offer the experiences of meaningfulness from aspects other than self-realization through a managerial role.

A Meaning-Aware Cultural Tourism Intelligent Navigation System Based on Anticipatory Calculation

To improve the personalized service of cultural tourism, anticipatory calculation has become an essential technology in the content design of intelligence navigation system. Culture tourism, as a form of leisure activity, is being favored by an increasing number of people, which calls for further improvements in the cultural consumption experience. An important component of cultural tourism is for tourists to experience intangible cultural heritage projects with local characteristics. However, from the perspective of user needs and the content adaptive system, there are few suitable intelligent navigation and user demand anticipatory systems for intangible cultural heritage content. Purple clay culture is one of the first batches of national intangible cultural heritage protection projects in China. Therefore, taking purple clay culture exhibition as an example, this paper attempts to analyze the personalized information demand of tourism consumption experience in intangible cultural heritage communication activities with affective computing and meaning-driven innovative design method, by taking the content design in the navigation system as the research object. This paper uses the theory of planned behavior to calculate the relationship between tourists’ attitude, experience behavior, and display information demand. The findings indicate two issues. First, tourists’ demand for the entertainment and leisure attributes of intangible cultural heritage is greater than the demand for educational function attributes. Second, the meaning elements of information can change tourists’ beliefs in intangible cultural heritage and affect their attitude and behavior toward such heritage. According to the research results, strengthening the meaning elements of specific group information can improve people’s cultural identity and tourism satisfaction. The research results provide the basis for the content design direction of future museum intelligent navigation systems.

A Corporate Purpose as an Antecedent to Employee Motivation and Work Engagement

It is generally assumed that a corporate purpose aiming to benefit all stakeholders has a positive effect on employee motivation and engagement, but no empirical studies into these specific effects were found. To examine this assumption, a corporate mission and vision matching the definition of a higher purpose were tested in two subsequent studies. The first study (N = 270) was a cross-sectional self-report study. The second study included a longitudinal design (N = 56) modeling purpose, motivation, and engagement in a cross-lagged panel model over three time-points. The results associated purpose with motivation and engagement. The subsequent longitudinal analysis confirmed the presumed directionality from purpose to engagement, but not to motivation. Hence, while a corporate purpose can be added to the list of antecedents to work engagement, the relationship with motivation, despite the significant association with purpose in the cross-sectional study, remains more complicated. The present study adds to the knowledge of the beneficial effects of a broader purpose and responds to the current surge of interest in purpose as an instrument for sustainable business.

Viewing Meaningful Work Through the Lens of Time

Authors have paid considerable attention to how to define the meaningful work construct. This has led to providing comprehensive definitions in the light of different theoretical frameworks that reflect a degree of contestation within the field. Several of them have proposed definitions linked to the individuals' pervasive sense of the value of their work. Others have offered descriptions centered on their temporal, episodic nature and emphasizing the individual's occasional work experience. These definitions reflected a potential temporal condition as well as the variety of time perspectives underpinning the authors' conceptualizations of the construct. This paper conducted a broad literature review to analyze works that have adopted a temporal framework or supported a time-based definition of the construct. The analysis indicates two different conceptualizations of the construct: as a permanent/steady mindset and as a changeable/episodic experience. As a reflective paper, the present contribution develops an overall framework for views and theories on meaningful work. It reports a critical review on the matter to elevate understanding of meaningful work for further research and applied implications in work and organizational studies.