Based on research by Whittington, J. L., Meskelis, S., Asare, E., & Beldona, S.
In the past, most people viewed their jobs as a means to an end: a paycheck. Now more than ever, though, people are seeking a sense of purpose—not only in their personal, but also in their professional lives and beyond.
Since the modern workforce is moving towards more meaningful jobs, employers in every industry need to examine their methods and levels of engagement. This study provides key insights into what makes work meaningful and how to engage employees in a deeper way.
Key Points
- People yearn for work that is both meaningful personally, and also contributes to the greater good.
- For work to be meaningful, it needs to:
- Positively impact the well-being of others
- Be associated with personal values and virtues
- Have long-term relevance and expansive impact
- Build a sense if community and supportive relationships
- Positive organizational scholarship (POS) focuses on the aspects of organizational life that create abundance, resilience, and human well-being
- Individuals, structures, and practices that advance these values are called “Enablers”
- Enablers advance the development of virtuous organizations, which fosters internal and external safety
- This sense of protection promotes equity and fairness, which promotes a sense of dignity
- A person whose dignity is upheld tends to be more engaged, and they thrive in their work
- Thriving workers contribute to a “virtuous cycle” that perpetuates meaningful work
- This study examined meaningfulness of work through the following lenses:
- Positive meaning
- Meaning making through work
- Greater good motivations
- The following dimensions of engagement with work were also measured:
- Physical engagement
- Emotional engagement
- Cognitive engagement
- When compared with one another through a correlation analysis, meaningfulness and engagement had a positive, significant relationship
- This means that the more meaningful an employee’s work is, the more engaged they will be
- It could also mean that the more engaged an employee is, the more meaningful their will will become to them
- The researchers also discovered that the relationship between meaningfulness and each of the following outcomes were mediated by employee engagement:
- Job satisfaction
- Affective commitment
- Organizational citizenship behavior
- In essence, meaningfulness predicts the outcomes, and engagement explains how successful that prediction becomes.
Why This Matters
The numbers don’t lie. Employees who are engaged will maintain long-term commitments to their organizations, feel more satisfied in their work, and contribute to organization effectiveness. The researchers determined that the antecedents of engagement can make or break meaningful work for employees.
Organizations need to set up systems that will push them forward through positive, internally-motivated change, rather than external mandates imposed from the top down. Employees who are engaged in meaningful work will have better outcomes, which will in turn contribute to a more cohesive work environment. As companies journey from surviving, to functioning, and finally to thriving, the benefits of prioritizing people-first work will become more evident at every step.
Based upon the following peer-reviewed manuscript: Whittington, J. L., Meskelis, S., Asare, E., & Beldona, S. (2017) Enhancing Employee Engagement: An Evidence-Based Approach. Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
