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Outcomes of Meaningful Work: A Meta‐Analysis
Author(s) -
Allan Blake A.,
Batz-Barbarich Cassondra,
Sterling Haley M.,
Tay Louis
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/joms.12406
Subject(s) - job satisfaction , psychology , work engagement , organizational citizenship behavior , structural equation modeling , work (physics) , meta analysis , social psychology , life satisfaction , job performance , meaning (existential) , affect (linguistics) , citizenship , organizational commitment , statistics , mathematics , medicine , political science , mechanical engineering , communication , politics , law , psychotherapist , engineering
Using job characteristics theory as a framework, we calculated meta‐analytic effect sizes between meaningful work and various outcomes and tested a mediated model of meaningful work predicting proximal and distal outcomes with meta‐analytic structural equation modelling (MASEM). From 44 articles (N = 23,144), we found that meaningful work had large correlations (r = 0.70+) with work engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction; moderate to large correlations (r = 0.44 to −0.49) with life satisfaction, life meaning, general health, and withdrawal intentions; and small to moderate correlations (r = −0.19 to 0.33) with organizational citizenship behaviours, self‐rated job performance, and negative affect. The best MASEM fitting model was meaningful work predicting work engagement, commitment, and job satisfaction and these variables subsequently predicting self‐rated performance, organizational citizenship behaviours, and withdrawal intentions. This meta‐analysis provides estimated effect sizes between meaningful work and its outcomes and reveals how meaningful work relates directly and indirectly to key outcomes.