When the Meaning of Work Has Disappeared: Experimental Evidence on Employees’ Performance and Emotions

Abstract

This experiment tests for a causal relationship between the meaning of work and employees' motivation to perform weil. The study builds on an existing employeremployee relationship, adding realism to the ongoing research of task meaning. Owing to an unexpected project cancelation, we are able to study how varying the information provided about the meaning of previously conducted work-without the use of deception, but still maintaining a high level of conh•ol-affects subsequent performance. We observe a strong decline in exerted effort when we inform workers about the meaninglessness of a job already done. Our da ta also suggests that providing a supplemental alternative meaning perfectly compensates for this negative performance effect. Individual characteristics such as reciprocal inclinations and trust prompt different reactions. The data also show that the meaning of work affects workers' emotions, but we cannot establish a clear relationship between emotional responses and performance.

Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

“…When a work project terminated unexpectedly, all the workers' prior efforts suddenly became futile and the meaning of work disappeared. As a consequence, the workers were found to exert less effort in subsequent work tasks (Chadi et al, 2017). To conclude, a cross-task spillover effect was observed.…”

“…A growing body of literature has examined the antecedents and outcome variables of meaningful work in experimental settings (Ariely and Kamenica, 2008;Grant, 2008;Bäker and Mechtel, 2013;Chandler and Kapelner, 2013;Chadi et al, 2017;Kosfeld et al, 2017;Allan et al, 2018), and it was consistently found to be beneficial, both to the individuals and to the organization. Then, what if the meaning of work suddenly disappears?…”

“…Then, what if the meaning of work suddenly disappears? As far as we are concerned, only one pioneering study paid attention to the unexpected termination of a work project and explored its effects on the affected workers' emotional responses and performances (Chadi et al, 2017). When a work project terminated unexpectedly, all the workers' prior efforts suddenly became futile and the meaning of work disappeared.…”

“…Thus, given that a project has to be canceled anyway, wise employers could still provide the affected employees with an opportunity to restore their meaning of work in the next work project, which would minimize the side effects. After repeated deliberation, we consider that the spillover effect observed by Chadi et al (2017) might be a result of the workers' helplessness. Given that the preceding work project got terminated without a good reason, the workers might fear that history repeats itself; that is, the subsequent work project would be aborted as well.…”

The role of task meaning on output in groups: Experimental evidence

“…Recent research shows that the level of meaning of work is an important factor that impacts agents' effort levels and, thus, outputs. Scholars find that higher levels of task meaning are accompanied by higher output levels (Ariely, Kamenica, & Prelec, ; Chadi, Jeworrek, & Mertins, ; Chandler & Kapelner, ; Kosfeld, Neckermann, & Yang, ). However, in organizational practice, many tasks are characterized by a rather low task meaning, for example, due to a high degree of specialization and functional segmentation (e.g., Beugelsdijk, Pedersen, & Petersen, for a trend towards a more specialized and advanced global value chain configuration, yielding to more vertical specialization).…”