Work Engagement and the Positive Power of Meaningful Work

Author(s):  
Simon L. Albrecht
2020 ◽  
pp. 089484532091866
Author(s):  
Bogdan Oprea ◽  
Lucian Păduraru ◽  
Dragoş Iliescu

Managing turnover is an essential human resource practice. One of the modern approaches that could have the potential to increase staff retention is the stimulation of employees’ job crafting, the set of changes regarding job demands and job resources that employees proactively make. Based on self-concept theory, we expected meaningful work and work engagement to serially mediate the negative relationship between job crafting and intent to leave. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 235 Romanian employees who responded to questionnaires about all variables. The mediation hypotheses were tested with bootstrapping procedures using structural equation modeling. Meaningful work and work engagement serially mediated the negative link between job crafting and intent to leave. Our results suggest that implementing job crafting interventions could reduce employees’ intentions to leave the organization. Future studies could verify whether these interventions may represent a new management practice to effectively control turnover.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 50-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jasmeet Singh ◽  
Vandana Gambhir Chopra

Workplace spirituality and grit are gaining momentum among researchers, academicians and business professionals. While workplace spirituality is an extrinsic factor which refers to a supportive working environment, grit is an internal factor which refers to passion and perseverance. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of workplace spirituality and grit on work engagement. Data were collected using standardised questionnaires from 275 full-time employees working in various government, private and public–private organisations in Delhi-NCR, India. Correlational analysis showed a positive correlation between components of workplace spirituality (inner life, meaningful work and community) and components of work engagement (attention and absorption) and between components of grit (consistency of interest and perseverance) and components of work engagement (attention and absorption). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that meaningful work, consistency of interest and perseverance significantly predicted work engagement after controlling for gender, age, tenure and educational qualification. This implies that organisations should hire employees with high grit and provide them with meaningful work to enhance their engagement. Practical and theoretical implications, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica van Wingerden ◽  
Laura Berger ◽  
Rob Poell

Research in the field of management, in particular human resource management (HRM), increasingly highlights the importance of person-organization value fit. Adding to this growing body of research, this study examines the complex relation between person-organization value fit, employees’ perceptions of work, employees’ behavior at work and their well-being. More precisely, we hypothesize that person-organization value fit has a positive relationship with employees’ work engagement (well-being) via both the experience of meaningful work (perceptions) and the use of their strengths at work (behavior). We conducted a structural equation modeling on a sample of 1050 employees working in various occupations, organizations, and industries in The Netherlands. The results provided support for the proposed model, indicating an important role for person-organization value fit in the on-going pursuit of meaningful work and well-being at work. The insights provided in this study do not only contribute theoretically; they are also helpful for managers and HR professionals in optimizing human resource management policies and practices.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Ferdinan Leonardo Siahaan ◽  
Eka Gatari

The highest trends in employee turnover in companies are found in the Millennial generation. This trend is expected to continue to increase every year. This study aims to see how meaningful work influences the intention to leave the company through the role of work engagement as a mediator in the Millennial Generation sample. This research was conducted on 446 Millennial generation employees from various types of companies using convenience sampling methods. The instruments used in this study were Work as Meaning Inventory, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9, and Turnover Intention Scale. Based on mediation analysis, work engagement significantly acts as a mediator of the relationship between meaningful work and the intention to leave the company among millennial workers. Hopefully, the findings of this study can provide information for organizations to promote meaningful work and work engagement to increase the willingness of Millennial Generation employees to stay longer in their companies or organizations today.


Author(s):  
Umair Ahmed ◽  
Zainudin Bin Awang ◽  
Abu Shams Mohammad Mahmudul ◽  
Hoque Benazir Ahmed Siddiqui ◽  
Abdul Samad Dahri ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim-Lim Tan ◽  
Peik Foong Yeap

PurposeGrounding our research in the conservation of resources (COR) theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study addresses the research gap of examining the relationship between meaningful work and dimensions of job burnout with work engagement as the mediator, especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also attempts to understand if age plays a role in moderating the effect of these relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study collected data using a questionnaire protocol that was adapted and refined from the original scales in existing studies. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data collected from 530 social workers working in New Zealand nonprofit organizations (NPO).FindingsResults indicated that meaningful work only addressed one dimension of job burnout. Work engagement was found to have mediating effects on the relationships between meaningful work and all the dimensions of job burnout. Age does not have any moderating effect on these relationships.Originality/valueThis study addresses the lack of literature that collectively examines the constructs of meaningful work, dimensions of job burnout and work engagement in the same model. In doing so, this study provides a unique verification of job burnout as a multidimensional construct. At the same time, this study offers insights into the effect of these constructs in NPOs, unraveling the complexities that drive these NPOs' human resources (HR) processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Umair Ahmed ◽  
Irene Seok-Ching Yong ◽  
Munwar Hussain Pahi ◽  
Sarfraz Ahmed Dakhan

PurposeThis study aimed at examining the influence of two important elements of social supports, namely supervisor support and coworker support, on work engagement among employees in the university setting. The study also further examined the mediating potentials of meaningful work on the relationships between the former and the latter.Design/methodology/approachThe sample study comprised academic and managerial staff members from a public-sector university in Malaysia. Out of the 420 distributed questionnaires, 216 were received back from which 177 were found useable and hence were taken further for final data analysis. Statistical software of SPSS and Smart PLS 2.0 M3 were used to perform data analysis.FindingsSupervisor support and coworker support were found to be significant predictors of work engagement. Further, meaningful work was found mediating these relationships.Originality/valueThe findings enrich literature of social support, work engagement, and meaningful work. The study is one of the foremost empirical works examining the mediating potential of meaningful work on the relationships between two social resources (supervisor support and coworker support) and work engagement. The issue of work engagement is evident in several mainstream work sectors alongside the education sector. Hence, the research findings are worthy to help understand work engagement issues and how to tackle it in the education setting.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmari Fouché ◽  
Sebastiaan Rothmann ◽  
Corne Van der Vyver

Orientation: Quality education is dependent on the well-being, engagement, performance and retention of teachers. Meaningful work might affect these employee and organisational outcomes.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work among school teachers.Motivation for the study: Meaningful work underpins people’s motivation and affects their well-being and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it is a significant pathway to healthy and authentic organisations. However, a research gap exists regarding the effects of different antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey was used with a convenience sample of 513 teachers. The Work-Life Questionnaire, Revised Job Diagnostic Survey, Co-worker Relations Scale, Work and Meaning Inventory, Personal Resources Scale, Work Engagement Scale, Turnover Intention Scale and a measure of self-rated performance were administered.Main findings: A calling orientation, job design and co-worker relations were associated with meaningful work. A low calling orientation and poor co-worker relationships predicted burnout. A calling orientation, a well-designed job, good co-worker relationships and meaningful work predicted work engagement. Job design was moderately associated with self-ratings of performance. The absence of a calling orientation predicted teachers’ intention to leave the organisation.Practical/managerial implications: Educational managers should consider implementing interventions to affect teachers’ calling orientation (through job crafting), perceptions of the nature of their jobs (by allowing autonomy) and co-worker relations (through teambuilding) to promote perceptions of meaningful work. Promoting perceptions of meaningful work might contribute to lower burnout, higher work engagement, better self-ratings of performance and retention of teachers.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to scientific knowledge regarding the effects of three antecedents, namely a calling orientation, job design and co-worker relationships on meaningful work. It also contributed to knowledge about the effects of meaningful work on employee and organisational outcomes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-201
Author(s):  
Gargi Sawhney ◽  
Thomas W. Britt ◽  
Chloe Wilson

The goal of the current study was to examine the interactive effect of perceiving a calling and meaningful work on employee attitudes. Specifically, we explored the multiplicative effect of perceiving a calling and meaningful work on work engagement, affective, and normative occupational commitment using a prospective design. Results indicated that meaningful work moderated the relation between perceiving a calling and affective occupational commitment. Specifically, the effects of perceiving a calling on affective occupational commitment were stronger for those who perceived less, but not more, meaning in their work. The interactive effect of perceiving a calling and meaningful work did not predict work engagement or normative occupational commitment. Implications and future research directions are discussed.


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