Deconstructing work meaningfulness: sources and mechanisms
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Deconstructing work meaningfulness: sources and mechanisms Richa Chaudhary 1 Accepted: 29 September 2020 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract This study aims to examine how authentic leadership (a source external to the individual) and self-efficacy (an internal resource) shape experiences of meaning in work. In addition to examining the individual impact of the above factors on work meaningfulness, the study examines the role of self-efficacy as a mediator and a moderator of the relationship between authentic leadership and work meaningfulness. The sample comprised 350 employees from public and private sector manufacturing firms in India. Process (Hayes 2013) was used to test the hypotheses with the aid of SPSS 24. Self-efficacy and authentic leadership proved to be important predictors of employees’ perceived sense of meaningfulness in work. In addition to the direct pathway, authentic leadership was found to infuse meaning in work indirectly through self-efficacy. Further, self-efficacy moderated the influence of authentic leadership on work meaningfulness in a way that the effect strengthened with decreasing values of selfefficacy. By accommodating multiple sources and mechanisms, representing both situational and personal factors, the study contributes to comprehensive understanding of how and under what conditions work meaningfulness can be increased. Identifying, selecting, and developing employees with authentic leadership qualities is likely to benefit organizations in terms of fostering positive psychological capacities of employees and improving perceived meaningfulness of work. However, leadership goes unnoticed for the employees with high self-efficacy. Keywords Authentic leadership . Work meaningfulness . Self-efficacy . Moderation . Mediation
Introduction Meaningfulness is central to optimal human functioning and psychological well being (Park 2005). Perceived meaning in life has been reported to lead to variety of benefits for the individuals such as happiness (Steger 2009), life satisfaction (Steger and Kashdan 2006), positive affect (Hicks and King 2007), well being (Steger 2012), reduced stress levels and depression (Mascaro and Rosen 2006; Steger 2009). Since individuals spend a considerable portion of their life at work, research interest on meaningfulness of work has witnessed a significant increase in the past few years. For instance, perceived meaning in work has been reported to relate to organizational identification (Pratt et al. 2006), job engagement (Chaudhary and Panda 2018; Jung and Yoon 2016), job performance (Allan et al. 2016), reduced absenteeism (Soane et al. 2013), creativity (Cohen-Meitar et al. 2009), and
* Richa Chaudhary [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Patna, Bihar 801106, India
organizational commitment (Jung and Yoon 2016). Association of work meaningfulness with a wide range of desirable individual and organizational o
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