Meaningful Work: It Matters

Today’s Wall Street Journal features Harriett Torry’s article, “How to Get Employees To Work Harder Without Paying Them More.” Here’s the skinny: “A new study walks through a solution to an age-old conundrum for employers: how to make employees work harder without paying them more. The answer is to give them meaningful work, according to research by economists Michael Kosfeld, Susanne Neckermann, and Xiaolan Yang published on the economics commentary website VoxEU. Or at least motivate staff to believe their work has meaning."

My colleagues at the School of Labor and Employment Relations investigate this issue, too. Here are three perspectives.

Prof. Teresa Cardador: “Research Interests: What makes work worth doing? Under what conditions do workers come to experience a sense of significance and purpose in their work? What role does personal and collective identity play in this process? These questions are fundamental to my program of research.

Grounded in theories of meaningful work, identity and identification, my research centers on how individuals make sense of, and experience meaningfulness in, the work that they do. I am particularly interested in the role that professions, occupations and organizations, as well as internalized orientations towards work (e.g., callings), play in the experience of meaningful work. I also examine how individuals construct meaning in relationship to helping others through their work. In examining these issues, I investigate the correlates and potential outcomes of meaningful work.”

Prof. Young-Ah Park: Research Interests: Work-nonwork life and work-nonwork boundary management; work stress and recovery from stress; workplace interpersonal mistreatments; and psychosocial resources for employee well-being and work.

The main goal of Park’s research is to enhance employee well-being, health, and work outcomes. Park studies psychological mechanisms of work stress and recovery from stress within various temporal frames (e.g., daily, weekly). Park is particularly interested in identifying psychosocial resources for employees to better manage work-non-work life demands, as well as to better cope with work stressors. Park also focuses on various contextual factors in jobs, dyadic relationships (e.g., dual-earner couples, supervisor-employee), and organizations.

Prof. Amit Kramer: Research Interests: Relationship between work, family and health; family-friendly policies in organizations and their effect on employee and employer’s outcomes; diversity and identity outcomes in teams and organizations. Kramer’s research focuses on the complex relationship between work/family demands and responsibilities and employees’ physical and psychological health and wellbeing. In addition, he studies family friendly policies and their relationship to employees and employers’ outcomes. Kramer also studies the role diversity and identity similarity play in team and individual outcomes. He is especially interested in studying the condition under which diversity is beneficial for team’s outcomes.