Perceived Meaning in Work?
What is task significance? Task significance is the impact of one's work on others. People may desire to feel that they are making a significant contribution to the organization. Making a significant contribution to an organization may foster a sense of purpose and meaning. Greater perceived meaningfulness of work has been found to be associated with greater task significance (e.g., Johns, Xie, & Fang, 1992; Renn & Vandenberg, 1995). (1)
We cannot make casual conclusions from the above correlational findings. Nonetheless, it may be a good idea if all employees in a company could be allowed to work on a project for a few hours a week that would greatly benefit the organization. The project could be a training program, a manual, or a creative project (e.g., such as artwork for the office). This may increase a sense of task significance, purpose, and meaning in one's work.
Notes
1. Task significance is just one factor in the job characteristics model that influences the experienced meaningfulness of work. See Hackman and Oldman (1980) for a description of the job characteristics model.
References
Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1980). Work
redesign. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company.
Renn, R. W., & Vandenberg, R. J. (1995). The
Critical Psychological States: An Underrepresented
Component in Job Characteristics Model Research.
Journal of Management, 21, 279-303.
Johns, G., Xie, J. L., & Fang, Y. (1992). Mediating
and moderating effects in job design. Journal
of Management, 18, 657-676.