Surviving bench stress: Meaningful work as a personal resource in the expanded job demands-resources model

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.

"Few things in life are easy and worth doing": how the bi-directional relationships between meaningful work and work-related stress can both help and hinder wellbeing

Introduction

Meaning is a key part of psychological wellbeing, and the benefits of meaningful work are widely acknowledged. Many people seek meaning from their work, and some organizations aim to facilitate this through interventions. In parallel, work-related stress has become a significant occupational risk. This study seeks to understand the perspectives of those who find their work to be both meaningful and stressful, and to explore the relationships between these concepts.

Methods

Eleven women and six men, aged 34-61, primarily based in the UK, from the private, public, and third sectors were interviewed about their experiences of meaning and stress in their work. Using a social constructivist grounded theory approach, data collection and analysis ran in parallel.

Results

Findings indicate that meaningful work and work-related stress are inherently connected, with bi-directional relationships that can support and hinder wellbeing. Meaningfulness can both alleviate and exacerbate stress, and stress can both reinforce and reduce meaningfulness. Meaningfulness and stress can even feel co-dependent, depending on how participants perceive and make sense of their experience.

Discussion

With many individuals seeking greater meaningfulness from their work, the results suggest that they- and their employers-would benefit from understanding more about the potential harmful effects of meaningfulness, including implications for stress and possible knock-on consequences for health and work.

Sense of Meaning and Purpose Making Mitigates the Experience of Stress Among Hawai'i Farmers

Farming is widely acknowledged as being extremely challenging and stressful, yet also potentially very meaningful as farming is an important element of any society and connected to our cultural heritage. Only a few studies have empirically examined the association between sense of purpose in farming and well-being/happiness. This study explored whether a sense of meaning and purpose in being a farmer could mitigate the experience of stress. A cross-sectional survey between November 2021-September 2022 was conducted with a sample of 408 Hawai'i agricultural producers. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were conducted to explore factors that predicted farmers' endorsement of high meaning and purpose, and whether meaning and purpose could dampen the impact of stressors on the experience of stress. Results revealed that Hawai'i farmers were highly stressed but also had high sense of meaning and purpose. Predictors of meaning and purpose included operating smaller farms of 1-9 acres and having 51% or greater percentage of income from farming. Meaning and purpose in turn decreased odds of stress, and showed an interaction with stressor intensity such that the stress buffering effect of meaning was more salient for those with lower stressors than those with higher stressors OR = 1.12 (CI = 1.06,1.19). One possible stress management and resilience technique is to highlight and strengthen farmers' sense of meaning and purpose in the farming endeavor.

COVID-19 Disruption and Meaningful Work: The Mediating Role of Family–Work Conflict

Work overload and the alteration in family dynamics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis may be increasing family–work conflict, leading to the consequent decrease in meaningful work. Using the structural equation modeling of covariance, this research determines the impact of the pandemic disruption on meaningful work as mediated through family–work conflict. The sample comes from 534 men and 257 women that are full-time employees of seven public manufacturing companies in Bolivia; they were surveyed by filling out a self-report questionnaire at the companies’ locations. Although no significant direct effects were found between COVID-19 disruption and meaningful work (standardized beta = 0.038, Z = 0.756, p = 0.450), there is an indirect effect when the relationship is measured through the family–work life conflict variable (standardized beta = −0.138, Z = −6.119, p < 0.001). Implications for business management are discussed.

Understanding awe elicitors in the workplace: a qualitative inquiry

Purpose

Despite its practical importance, the emotion of awe has received scant research attention in the organizational literature. To facilitate future scholarship on this important topic, the authors explore and compare the elicitors of awe at work in three countries representing two culture clusters, including the USA and Canada (the Anglo cluster) and China (the Confucian Asia cluster).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors gathered responses from 163 working adults from the USA and Canada and 126 working adults from China using open-response survey, and analyzed each response following the guidance of grounded theory.

Findings

Across cultures, there are 10 common elicitors of awe, including virtue of organization, ability and achievement of organization, beauty of workplace, virtue of colleagues, ability and achievement of colleagues, dedication of colleagues, charisma of colleagues, status and power of colleagues, personal growth and achievement and perceived meaningfulness. Looking within cultures, the authors found two awe elicitors that are specific to China: status and power of organization, and work content.

Practical implications

Organizations and supervisors wishing to induce the emotion of awe would be well-advised to pay attention to the design of their workplace, as well as their attitudes and behaviors toward employees, customers and the general public.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the emotion literature, organizational literature and cross-cultural literature by demonstrating elicitors of awe in the workplace across the Anglo cluster and the Confucian Asia cluster.