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.

Transforming Passive Employee Engagement Into Active Engagement: Supervisor Development Feedback Valences on Feedback-Seeking Behavior

Employees' feedback-seeking behavior is an important way to develop and maintain self-awareness and interpersonal acuity, reduce uncertainty, boost creativity and improve innovative behavior and performance. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the new normal, supervisor feedback and employees feedback-seeking has an increasingly important impact on team creativity and team innovation performance.In the practice of organizational management, there is frequently a "feedback vacuum" between managers and employees. There is increasing research on feedback-seeking behavior in the field of OBHRM. This paper is the first to evaluate the impact of work meaning and positive attributions on workers' feedback-seeking behavior, and the cross-level effects of supervisor development feedback including variable valence. The paper analyzes supervisor-employee paired data from 158 supervisors and 659 employees using multi-source, multi-temporal data to draw the following conclusions: (1) Positive supervisor development feedback has a significant cross-level positive effect on employee feedback-seeking behavior, whereas negative supervisor development feedback does not affect employee feedback-seeking behavior; (2) Work meaningfulness mediates the cross-level relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors, whereas negative supervisor development feedback and employees' feedback-seeking behaviors do not; (3) Positive attributions positively moderate the relationship between positive supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; while positively moderating the relationship between negative supervisor development feedback and work meaningfulness; (4) Positive attributions have a moderating effect on supervisor development feedback that influences the indirect relationship to feedback-seeking behavior by work meaningfulness.

When does cognitive crafting matter more in enhancing employee thriving at work? The moderating role of skill variety and job autonomy

The job crafting literature has not devoted much attention to the effects of specific forms of job crafting, particularly cognitive crafting. The present study builds on Conservation of Resources theory to explain how cognitive crafting might influence work meaningfulness for employees, and in turn, increase their experienced thriving at work. Moreover, we hypothesise that the impact of cognitive crafting on these outcomes is influenced by two motivational job characteristics: skill variety and job autonomy. To test our hypotheses, we collected three-wave survey data from 223 employees employed in a variety of occupations and industries in China. Results indicate that engaging in cognitive crafting enhances employees' work meaningfulness, resulting in thriving at work. Furthermore, skill variety and job autonomy are crucial moderators of these relationships. Specifically, when employees perceived low levels of skill variety or job autonomy, engaging in cognitive crafting was more likely to lead to enhanced work meaningfulness, which in turn resulted in higher levels of thriving at work. Implications for research, theory and practice are discussed.

The Impact of Chinese Primary School Teachers' Sense of Work Meaningfulness on Organizational Commitment: A Chain Mediation Model

Purpose

This present study aims to explore the effects of work meaningfulness on primary school teachers' self-reflection, self-efficacy and organizational commitment and their mechanisms of action.

Methods

This study used a meaningfulness, self-reflection, self-efficacy, and organizational commitment measures. A total of 417 teachers from urban, rural, and mountainous elementary schools were recruited to complete the survey including the measures of work meaningfulness, self-reflection, self-efficacy, and organizational commitment. In this study, descriptive statistics were run using SPSS 26.0 and the relationship model between variables was tested with the SPSS macro program PROCESS.

Results

The study found that work meaningfulness and self-efficacy independently predicted primary school teachers' organizational commitment, but self-reflection did not significantly predict organizational commitment. It was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the four studied variables of work meaningfulness, self-efficacy, self-reflection, and organizational commitment with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.24 to 0.57. The study also found that work meaningfulness can directly predict elementary school teachers' organizational commitment, and work meaningfulness can also indirectly predict elementary school teachers' organizational commitment through self-efficacy and self-reflection.

Conclusion

The results of this study are useful for understanding the value of enhancing the organizational commitment of primary school teachers from a social cognitive perspective, and have implications for how to build a stable, high-quality and dynamic primary school teaching force.

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.

From mindfulness to work engagement: The mediating roles of work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence

Drawing from the grounded theory of work engagement, this research aims to explore three essential yet previously unexamined pathways-work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence in simultaneously transmitting the effects of mindfulness training to employee experience of work engagement. We employed a six-wave quasi-experimental design and recruited 129 employees (77 from experimental group and 59 from control group) to participate in the quasi-experiment, and tested our simultaneous mediating models using the structural equation modeling. Results showed that mindfulness facilitated employees' work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence, which in turn enhanced employee work engagement. By doing so, we add to the mindfulness literature by showing that the three essential psychological states are important machanims that link mindfulness to work engagement. Practicially, this research reveals that mindfulness training is an effective tool to influence employees' psychological states (e.g., meaningfulness, competence), which ultimately develop their work engagement in the workplace.

How Gig Worker Responds to Negative Customer Treatment: The Effects of Work Meaningfulness and Traits of Psychological Resilience

The negative interpersonal interaction between customers and platform gig workers has become a problem for platform owners and government. This study investigates the role of negative customer treatment in the context of gig work and its impact on gig workers’ sabotage behavior. A questionnaire survey approach was used in the study, collected three-wave survey data from 258 Chinese gig workers including food-deliver platform workers and app-based ride-hailing drivers. Both effects of the mediation and moderation were tested, all of which find support, using hierarchical multiple regression by SPSS22.0. Results indicate that negative customer treatment can also predict gig workers’ service sabotage through work meaningfulness. Furthermore, positive customer treatment acted as an effective safeguard against the effects of negative customer treatment on employee service sabotage. Trait psychological resilience can also mitigate the effects of a low level of work meaningfulness. The manuscript’s focus provides an interesting angle to the previous research, especially the inclusion of work meaningfulness and trait resilience, on negative customer treatment in the context of gig work. This study contributes to further broaden the perspective of conservation of resource (COR) theory for individual intrinsic motivation analysis. Practical implications for platform management and government governance have also been discussed in this manuscript.

Work meaningfulness disclosure and persistent behavior: Level of action identification as a moderator

Previous studies have consistently confirmed the positive relationship between work meaningfulness and one's persistent behavior in the workplace. However, most existing studies have focused on examining the direct effect of work meaningfulness, paid less attention to the condition under which it works well. In this study, we adopted a 2 (work meaningfulness: disclosure vs. non-disclosure) × 2 (level of action identification: high vs. low) between-subject experimental design and investigated the moderating role of action identification level in the relationship between work meaningfulness disclosure and one's persistent behavior. The result indicated that both work characteristics (i.e., work meaningfulness) and personal factors influence work behaviors, since participants who identified their work behaviors at a lower/concrete level benefited more from work meaningfulness disclosure. Given that personal factors have long been neglected in previous work meaningfulness literature, our findings could help advance existing research on work meaningfulness.

Paradoxical Effects of Performance Pressure on Employees' In-Role Behaviors: An Approach/Avoidance Model

Performance pressure acts as a double-edged sword for employees. Based on an approach/avoidance framework, we theorize that performance pressure produces both positive and negative effects on employees’ in-role behaviors via approach motivation (i.e., self-objectification) and avoidance motivation (i.e., workplace anxiety), and work meaningfulness moderates employees’ reactions to performance pressure. We examine our hypotheses using data from a sample of 345 employees in various organizations. The results show that self-objectification provides an approach motive that mediates the positive indirect effect of performance pressure on employees’ in-role behaviors. However, workplace anxiety provides an avoidance motive that mediates the negative indirect effect of performance pressure on employees’ in-role behaviors. Work meaningfulness strengthens both the approach and avoidance tendencies that employees experience under performance pressure. Our findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications.

Predicting workplace loneliness in the nursing profession

AIM

This study examined a model investigating how social interaction variables (leader-member exchange (interactions between managers and nurses), trust, and communication frequency) and work meaningfulness influence nurses' experiences of workplace loneliness.

BACKGROUND

As workplace loneliness can result in lower job satisfaction and a decrease in workers' health, understanding the contributing factors to loneliness at work is important.

METHOD

In this cross-sectional study, Turkish nurses (N = 864) completed self-report scales measuring social exchange between leaders and members, trust in leaders, communication frequency, work meaningfulness, and loneliness. To avoid fatigue and method variance influence, scales were completed over two testing times (separated by a month).

RESULTS

Workplace loneliness was associated with less social interaction with leaders (lower leader-member exchange and frequency of communication), less trust in leaders, and lower reports of meaningful work.

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that workplace loneliness can be reduced when managers exchange more information and communicate more frequently with their nurses. Workplace loneliness is also reduced when nurses trust their leaders and find their work meaningful.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Managers supervising nurses need to be aware that workplace loneliness occurs and that their interactions and relationships with the nurses will have an impact on experienced workplace loneliness.

The Influence of Mistreatment by Patients on Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention among Chinese Nurses: A Three-Wave Survey

The affective event of mistreatment in the workplace has been recognized as an important factor influencing employee affect and behavior. However, few studies have logically explained and empirically clarified the link between mistreatment by patients and nurses' job satisfaction and turnover intention. The current study aimed to explore the effects of mistreatment by patients on nurses' job satisfaction and turnover intention through work meaningfulness and emotional dissonance, as well as the moderating role of hostile attribution bias. Using three-wave survey data collect from 657 nurses who worked in three hospitals in China, we found that mistreatment by patients had a negative effect on nurses' job satisfaction through work meaningfulness, mistreatment by patients had a positive effect on nurses' turnover intention through emotional dissonance. Furthermore, nurses' hostile attribution bias acted as an effective moderator on the relationship. These findings help uncover the mechanisms and conditions in which mistreatment by patients influences nurses' job satisfaction and turnover intention.

'Killing Me Softly With His/Her Song': How Leaders Dismantle Followers' Sense of Work Meaningfulness

Leaders influence followers' meaning and play a key role in shaping their employees' experience of work meaningfulness. While the dominant perspective in theory and in empirical work focuses on the positive influence of leaders on followers' work meaningfulness, our conceptual model explores conditions in which leaders may harm followers' sense of meaning. We introduce six types of conditions: leaders' personality traits, leaders' behaviors, the relationship between leader and follower, followers' attributions, followers' characteristics, and job design under which leaders' meaning making efforts might harm or 'kill' followers' sense of work meaningfulness. Accordingly, we explore how these conditions may interact with leaders' meaning making efforts to lower levels of followers' sense of meaning, and in turn, lead to negative personal outcomes (cynicism, lower well-being, and disengagement), as well as negative organizational outcomes (corrosive organizational energy, higher turnover rates, and lower organizational productivity). By doing so, our research extends the current literature, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of leaders' influence on followers' work meaningfulness, while considering the dark side of meaning making.