Predicting Work Outcomes From Religiosity and Perceived Calling

Abstract

Research suggests that individuals who perceive their work as a calling experience a variety of positive outcomes, such as occupational identification, career decidedness, and job satisfaction. The present study examined how calling and religiosity interact to influence workplace cognition and behavior. Using a self-regulatory, multiple-goals perspective, the author proposed that individuals with greater religiosity would report lower job involvement and work fewer hours. However, this relationship would attenuate or reverse if individuals perceived a transcendent summons calling them to their jobs. In the present study, 233 employed adults reported perceptions of calling, religiosity, job involvement, and hours worked. Calling and religiosity interacted in the hypothesized manner when predicting both job involvement, ΔR 2 = .02, and hours worked, ΔR 2 = .02, although job involvement did not mediate the relationship between calling, religiosity, and hours worked. The results suggest that career counselors and researchers pay particular attention to the role of calling among religious individuals.

Calling as a double-edged sword for work-nonwork enrichment and conflict among older workers

“…Hence, people who have a calling can be expected to invest considerable resources in terms of time, energy, or attention to the work role. Empirical evidence confirms that having a calling is positively related to different forms of affective work commitment, such as career commitment (e.g., Duffy, Bott, Allan, Torrey, & Dik, 2012;Duffy, Dik, & Steger, 2011), occupational identification (Bunderson & Thompson, 2009), or job involvement (Horvath, 2015).…”

No strangers to adversity: Resilience-promoting practices among South African women child protection social workers

“…Practice- and purpose-informing creeds illustrate how participants and their social ecologies invested equally in protective practices. Because these participants believed that they were called to do CPSW, they experienced a sense of purpose and drive to adapt to the adverse occupational circumstances, and this sequentially nourished their resilience (Horvath, 2015). In participants’ accounts, it was unclear which came first or whether one contribution was more pronounced than the other, thereby suggesting evenly matched investments in the process of creeds.…”

Experience of meaningful work for self-employed individuals

“…Involvement in meaningful work has also been associated with higher levels of well-being, zest, an overall feeling of contributing to the greater good and a perception of the importance of work (Allan et al, 2018;Burger et al, 2013;Gazica & Spector, 2015;Hagmaier & Abele, 2015;Horvath, 2015;Janik & Rothmann, 2015;Rosso et al, 2010;Willemse & Deacon, 2015). Research indicates that work has a direct impact on an individual's physical and psychological health, and to be psychologically healthy an individual needs to feel that what he or she is doing is meaningful and serves a valuable purpose (Veltman, 2015).…”