Academic literature on the topic 'Meaningful work, Critical perspectives, Work and organizational psychology'

We review and develop two alternative conceptualizations of meaningful work: a predominant perspective we label realization and an underdeveloped, yet critical, perspective we label justification. We develop each conceptualization by identifying the core problem meaningful work is thought to address and accompanying solutions. Next, we build from this distinction to propose a research agenda that advances scholarly understanding of meaningful work from a justification perspective. Through building this research agenda, we elevate scholarly understanding on meaningful work by illuminating new foci for research, highlighting the relevance of social-cultural mechanisms, and suggesting alternative outcomes.

The focal article written by Bergman and Jean (2016) draws attention to a critical void in the industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology domain: the study of low- and medium-skill workers. Although segmenting employees based on their job status may provide new conceptualizations of employee work experiences, this approach may not provide the nuanced view necessary to fully comprehend the many ways in which employees differentially experience the workplace. Within this category of workers, experiences may vary based on employees’ race, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), or other identity-defining characteristics, and these person-specific identities may interact with one another. An intersectional research approach provides a foundation on which researchers can more fully understand how individuals’ multiple social identities interact to affect their workplace experiences. In the commentary that follows, we provide an overview of intersectional research and describe how such a perspective would lead to meaningful developments within I-O psychology.

Assessing the value of meaningful work among undergraduate students is important for guiding career counseling, especially because today’s students are often stereotyped as entitled and uninterested in prosocial or meaningful work. Additionally, understanding the value of meaningful work from the perspectives of career counselors would clarify if services are meeting students’ needs. In the current research, we addressed these issues with two studies. In Study 1, a sample of undergraduate students overwhelmingly indicated that they wanted meaningful work, that they thought finding meaningful work was an important goal of career counseling, and that they wanted career counseling to help them find meaningful work. In Study 2, a sample of career counselors reported that they viewed meaningful work as an important goal of career counseling and that meaningful work is something their clients desire. They also reported helping students find work or majors that are meaningful. Implications for practice are discussed.

Recent findings suggest that the role of specific cognitive abilities in predicting work-related criteria may be critical and may add to the widely demonstrated importance of general mental ability. To summarize and organize these findings, the current paper puts forward two perspectives on the role of specific cognitive abilities in predicting work-related outcomes. Similarities and discrepancies of these perspectives are outlined together with suggestions for boundary conditions of the dominance of general versus specific cognitive abilities. Finally, avenues for future research within and across the two perspectives are discussed.

Purpose Improving employees’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is important because of the work content and service nature of the National Immigration Agency (NIA). The purpose of this paper, which targeted immigration workers using the work design model (knowledge oriented), leadership types and organizational climate as perspectives, is to study immigration workers’ change-oriented OCB. Inspecting the knowledge-oriented work characteristics (KOWCs) of the NIA of Taiwan to find ways of stimulating change-oriented OCB through employees’ high self-efficacy is also critical. The investigators also explored how transformational leadership and organizational climate directly affect employees’ change-oriented OCB in a cross-level organization. Design/methodology/approach The subject of this research is the frontline immigration workers of Taiwan’s NIA, with its entire staff on duty at the country’s airports and ports as targets of the research. This study used a total of 312 questionnaires. Findings At the group level, transformational leadership shows significant positive influence on organizational climate. KOWCs can positively influence self-efficacy and affect change-oriented OCB on an individual basis; similarly, self-efficacy can also positively impact the individual’s change-oriented OCB. In addition, transformational leadership and organizational climate have a contextual effect on the outcome variable on an individual basis. Originality/value This finding is helpful for researching and practicing implications of HRM, such as in further understanding how the motivation from work characteristics, organization’s environment and interpersonal networks can increase employees’ change-oriented OCB.

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to analyse the academic context of the Hawthorne studies from 1936. More specifically, great attention was paid towards those articles that were critical of the Hawthorne studies. This study aimed to analyse why the Hawthorne studies were so criticized during the time period. Design/methodology/approach The author analysed various critical articles/books from the time period. The author developed the sample through the use of Landsberger’s Hawthorne Revisited. The author used one of the first critical articles, Daniel Bell’s, as a means to analyse the critics. In addition, secondary literature was used to place the articles in context. Findings The author found that the majority of the critics were sociologists; these criticisms reflected larger debates in sociology in terms of theory, method and ethics of research. They reflected the great changes that occurred in sociology during the time period, as opposed to industrial/organizational psychology, for example, where there was little criticism at the time. Originality/value The purpose of this study was to continue the work of Muldoon (2012) and Hassard (2012) and place the work of the Hawthorne studies in a larger academic context.

Purpose This paper aims to identify a possible solution as to how meaningful work could be considered as a lever in attracting and retaining Generation Y (Gen-Y) employees to work in the Singapore hotel industry. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on the perspectives of earlier conceptual papers by Chacko et al. (2012) and Solnet and Hood (2008) in an effort to identify root causes and a possible solution. The context of Singapore and the international literature are also reviewed to establish theoretical and practical gaps that need to be filled. Findings The results from this study can be used as a guide to enable hotels to improve the attraction, retention and management of Gen-Y employees. This is crucial in hotels where many properties are facing challenges in attracting and retaining hotel employee talent. Originality/value The paper provides a fresh examination of the characteristics and behaviours of Gen-Y employees, as well as suggests an improved organizational approach to attraction and retention. This methodology includes an element of positive psychology, in the form and experience of meaningful work.

Purpose To overcome the shortcomings of diversity training programs, the purpose of this paper is to conceptualize an organizational diversity-learning framework, which features an organizational intervention for employees’ joint decision-making process with other employees from different statuses, functions, and identities. Borrowing key principles from the diversity learning (Rainey and Kolb, 1995); integration and learning perspective (Ely and Thomas, 2001; Thomas and Ely, 1996), and the key practices informed by deliberative democratic theories (Thompson, 2008), the authors develop a new organizational diversity learning framework for behavioral, attitudinal, and cognitive learning at workplaces. They conclude with directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach This paper first presents an overview of key shortcomings of diversity training programs in relation to their group composition, design, content and evaluation. Second, it borrows the key principles of diversity learning (Rainey and Kolb, 1995); integration and learning perspectives (Ely and Thomas, 2001; Thomas and Ely, 1996), and the key practices informed by deliberative democratic theories (Thompson, 2008) to delineate the organizational diversity learning framework. Third, it presents a table of the approach contrasted with the shortcomings of diversity training programs and discusses practical and theoretical contributions, along with directions for future research. Findings This paper conceptualizes an organizational diversity-learning framework, which features an organizational intervention for employees’ joint decision-making process with other employees from different statuses, functions, and identities. Research limitations/implications The organizational diversity learning framework developed in this paper provides an inclusive diversity learning paradigm in which diversity learning rests in the experience of the learner. As stated by experiential learning theory, this framework encourages workers to heuristically learn about diverse perspectives in a psychologically safe environment, to reflect on different perspectives, and to create a new awareness about learning from others. As the participants learn to apply new repertoires for interacting with others in their daily work interactions (e.g. listening to different perspectives shared by unfamiliar social group members), it proposes that their behaviors may create a ripple effect, changing other colleagues’ attitudes, behaviors, and thinking patterns on working with diverse coworkers. Practical implications This paper provides detailed instructions for practitioners to facilitate diversity learning. It highlights a few key practical implications. First, the framework provides a method of organization-wide diversity learning through intersecting networks within the workplace, which is designed to reduce the elitist organizational decision making that mainly occurs at the upper echelon. Second, unlike other stand-alone diversity initiatives, the framework is embedded in the organizational decision-making process, which makes employees’ learning applicable to core organizational activities, contributing to both employees’ diversity learning and organizational growth. Third, the framework provides a preliminary model for transferring employees’ diversity learning in daily work operations, nurturing their behavioral learning to interact with different social groups more frequently at work and inclusive of their colleagues’ perspectives, feelings, and attitudes. Social implications Workforces across nations are becoming increasingly diverse, and, simultaneously, the gap and tension between demographic representation in the upper and lower echelons is widening. By joining with other scholars who have advocated for the need to move beyond diversity training programs, the authors developed the organizational diversity learning framework for meaningful co-participation of employees with different statuses, functions, and identities. By inviting minority perspectives into the organizational decision-making process, top managers can explicitly send a message to minority groups that their perspectives matter and that their contributions are highly valued by the organization. Originality/value There has not been a conceptual paper that delineates the diversity inclusive decision-making process within a workplace. The authors established the organizational diversity learning framework based on the diversity learning, organizational diversity integration and learning perspectives, and deliberative democracy practices. The proposed framework guides organizations in structural interventions to educate employees on how to learn from multiple perspectives for better organizational decision making.

How does management make a meaningful contribution to public service performance? This is the overall question of this volume. The sixteen chapters aim to clarify conceptual issues; critically reflect on assumptions underlying public management and public service performance understandings; theoretically explain direct and indirect relationships between management and performance; and outline a research agenda based on a review of the extant literature. In order to achieve these aims, this volume takes a multidisciplinary, critical, rigorous, and context-sensitive approach. The disciplines of public management, leadership, human resource management, and work and organization psychology are combined because they focus differently on aspects of management, public service performance, employee outcomes, and linking mechanisms such as employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Multidisciplinarity is illustrated by the variety of management aspects examined: different types of leadership behaviors, people management, performance management, human resource management systems, diversity management, and change management. Stakeholders often emphasize different public values that influence what they hold desirable in public service provision. The authors critically reflect on which stakeholder interests are included and excluded in empirical studies. The institutional perspective informs critical reflection on public sector context factors that affect the management–performance relationship in democratic societies. By paying attention to distinctive features of the public sector context, the volume contributes to both knowledge growth and the improvement of public services in practice.

In this chapter, we relate themes derived from an analysis of literature related to international collaboration and cross-cultural communication. Our analysis helped identify five critical areas that present challenges and opportunities for improvement: (1) communication and language; (2) cultural differences; (3) funding and time; (4) co-authorship and memorandums of understanding; and (5) ethics, respect and trust. We complement presentation of these themes by also including some of our personal reflections on international work as faculty members working at institutions of higher education in the United States. One of the key insights of this inquiry is that the roles and perspectives of many administrators and leaders in institutions of higher education should be reconsidered and reframed in a global perspective to effect meaningful change and improvement.

"After the challenges and experiences of the first semester of home education during Covid-19 pandemic, the Szombathely Institute of Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Education and Psychology has developed a new initiative, which serves both to prepare BA students of community coordination for their professional career as well as the joint operation and strengthening of the student-teacher community in digital education via extra-curricular activities. This is how the Community Assembly Workshop programme series has been created at the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology including eight-eight programmes in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years with the involvement of students on the basis of learning by doing principle. All phases of the work were carried out by the students, with background information, professional support and guidance provided by the instructor. The paper is based on the results of a survey and SPSS analysis conducted in May 2021. All students of the two grades participating in the project implementation answered the questions. The aim of the research was to assess the development of students ’professional competence, motivation, and ideas about professional perspectives in the future. The results are relevant for the year 2020/2021 academic year which can be described as early times of Covid-19 with restrictions in all segments of life. The results show that, in addition to the predominance of individual work as a starting point, students lack significant trust in both themselves and their peers, commitment to the profession is also weak. The organizational and implementation tasks of the Community Assembly Workshop programmes have developed students ’competencies in several areas. According to the results, the work carried out during the project is suitable for increasing skills in terms of teamwork, trust in peers, commitment to peers, responsibility, stress tolerance and creativity as well as precision. Critical thinking is reinforced by the review of university rules and the role of moderators taken in conversations. Creativity can be strengthened along with logically expected graphic and playful tasks with process design as well as writing articles. All the subtasks done individually (moderator) or where the feedback from peers brought the result of satisfaction: e.g. writing articles, taking and publishing photos and videos can be considered as a self-confidence booster. The change in the commitment to the profession cannot be tied to a subtask significantly, as it is visibly strengthened by planning the processes and the work carried out during the whole semester. In terms of the development of the BA programme of community coordination, the result of the initiative is that after only half a year of work, the students’ commitment to the profession has increased by 70%. The work continues in 2021/2022 academic year."