| Creators: |
Tommasi, Francesco and Sartori, Riccardo and Ceschi, Andrea and Dickert, Stephan |
| Title: |
What makes a workday meaningful? Evidence on the role of task significance, competence and subjective meaningful work |
| Item Type: |
Article or issue of a publication series |
| Journal or Series Title: |
Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship |
| Page Range: |
pp. 319-338 |
| Paper No. / Type of Paper: |
/ Research Article |
| Additional Information: |
Open access |
| Date: |
2025 |
| Divisions: |
Wirtschaftswissenschaften |
| Abstract (ENG): |
Purpose
The construct of meaningful work is a relevant topic for the managerial literature interested in job design, employees’ motivation, and job performance. The current research seeks to improve our knowledge on meaningful work by exploring the processes by which a workday is experienced as meaningful.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting the lens of the Job Demands-Resources model and Self-Determination theory, we argue that work conditions and psychological conditions are associated with the experience of meaningful work on a daily basis. Moreover, we propose that the experience of meaningful work on a long-term basis (i.e. the evaluation of one’s own work as holding significance per se) intensifies the associations between daily conditions and the experience of meaningful work. We collected data via an event-based longitudinal diary study for a total sample of N = 114 employees from six organizations and N = 545 observations.
Findings
Results of the multilevel analysis showed that competence and task significance led to the experience of meaningful work during working days. Moreover, cross-level analyses revealed that these associations are stronger for employees who experience their work to be meaningful in the long-term.
Originality/value
The novelty of the present study lies in highlighting the role of specific factors contributing to the experience of meaningful work during a workday. These findings help specify targets and organizational and individual dimensions to be addressed by managerial interventions to ensure employees' meaningful work experience. |
| Forthcoming: |
No |
| Language: |
English |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Meaningful work, Daily meaningful work, Psychological and work conditions, Diary study method |
| Link eMedia: |
Download |
| Citation: |
Tommasi, Francesco and Sartori, Riccardo and Ceschi, Andrea and Dickert, Stephan
(2025)
What makes a workday meaningful? Evidence on the role of task significance, competence and subjective meaningful work.
Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship, 13 (2), Paper / Research Article.
pp. 319-338.
ISSN 2049-3991
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