PurposeThe study examined the impact of two dimensions of curiosity: joyous exploration (JE) and deprivation sensitivity (DSv) on informal learning effort (ILE) and attitude toward knowledge sharing (ATKS). The authors further explored the mediating effect of learning culture (LC) in the organization on the relationship of the two curiosity dimensions with ILE and ATKS. Additionally, the authors investigated the moderating effect of group dynamics in the form of intragroup task conflict (ITC) and relationship conflict (IRC) on the relationship of curiosity variables with LC, ILE and ATKS.Design/methodology/approachSurvey instrument was distributed to 790 knowledge workers in various organizations through their HR managers. 403 responses were returned and used in the study.FindingsJE, the self-determined manifestation of curiosity, impacts all elements of ILE and ATKS, while DSv influences a few aspects of ILE. The effect of JE on the dependent variables is, however, more substantial at low levels of ITC. ITC and IRC independently impact ILE, but only ITC moderates the relationships involving JE (but not DSv). LC emerges from JE (but not from DSv) and partially mediates its association with ILE and ATKS.Originality/valueThrough this work, we demonstrate the differential relevance of the curiosity dimensions and the intragroup conflict types – and their interaction effect – on learning effort and attitude toward knowledge sharing. The findings of the study open new avenues for interventions within the workplace learning and knowledge sharing domain.

This article explores existential meaning-making from work using the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST). To start with, we use the tenets of CEST to elaborate on how the cues from archetype work environments—a realization facilitating work environment (RfWE) and justification facilitating work environment (JfWE)—are interpreted by information-processing systems to imbue meaning in life (MiL) as internal or external manifestations of coherence, purpose, and significance. Next, we explain how individual differences in work centrality and proactive meaning-crafting ability moderate the impact of JfWE, but not of RfWE, on MiL. Finally, we create a nomological network of existential meaning states emerging from the simultaneous presence or absence of RfWE and JfWE. In summary, by applying the information-processing lens of CEST, we develop an integrated model that explains how work drives MiL, elucidates the resultant existential states, and assesses the role of individual differences in meaning-making. Plain Language Summary This article develops an integrated model that outlines how work environments can augur human well-being by fostering a sense of meaning in life (MiL). Based on the cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST), expounding parallel-competitive processing of information through the working of the experiential and rational system, we explore how the cues from archetype work environments—a realization facilitating work environment (RfWE) and justification facilitating work environment (JfWE)—influence the varied flavors of MiL and meaninglessness in life. We build the argument that RfWE activates the functioning of the experiential system to induce a feeling of internal MiL as internal coherence, internal purpose, and internal value significance. At the same time, JfWE triggers the functioning of the rational system to construct a judgment of external MiL as external coherence, external worthy purpose, and external value significance. However, the interaction between RfWE and JfWE can result in intricate scenarios, including favorable states such as holistic meaning, positive existential feelings, and positive existential narratives. Still, it can also lead individuals into meaninglessness in life through existential fatigue, existential cocoon, or existential futility. Nonetheless, individual differences in work centrality and proactive behavior to craft meaning can act as moderators to alter the intensity of work’s impact on MiL in a JfWE but not in an RfWE.

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