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Social purpose in an organization from the perspective of an employee: a self-determination outlook on the meaning of work.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Advancing social purpose in organizations is usually studied from the macro perspective, i.e., how it benefits organizational business goals or society more broadly. In this paper, we focus on social purpose from the perspective of the employee and propose that advancing social purpose in an organization allows individuals to fulfil an important human need for the meaning of work (MW). This study's objective was to assess whether a volunteering Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in a manufacturing company allows employees to fulfil their basic psychological needs for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. The data was collected through in-depth interviews with 15 employees and an analysis of artifacts.

Results

In the analysis, three main themes describing different aspects of voluntary work at the company were identified. We found that across all groups of interviewed employees the voluntary activities served the needs of (1) relatedness, (2) competence, and (3) autonomy. We conclude that CSR programs have the most positive impact on MW when they allow employees to engage in prosocial actions and satisfy those needs.

SUBMITTER: Puchalska-Kaminska M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7791652 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Social purpose in an organization from the perspective of an employee: a self-determination outlook on the meaning of work.

Puchalska-Kamińska Malwina M Łądka-Barańska Agnieszka A Roczniewska Marta M

BMC research notes 20210107 1

<h4>Objective</h4>Advancing social purpose in organizations is usually studied from the macro perspective, i.e., how it benefits organizational business goals or society more broadly. In this paper, we focus on social purpose from the perspective of the employee and propose that advancing social purpose in an organization allows individuals to fulfil an important human need for the meaning of work (MW). This study's objective was to assess whether a volunteering Corporate Social Responsibility ( ...[more]

PMID: 33413581

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Project description:Background and purposeOrganizations strive to increase the work engagement of their employees, as engaged employees are more productive employees, but often neglect the significant effects of work-family balance on work engagement. Numerous studies confirm the importance of work-family balance and work engagement, but there is lack of research that explores the relationship between the concepts. Our research fills a research gap in investigating the impact of work-family balance on work engagement, both directly and through individual perceptions of organizational support for work-family balance. The main aim of our research is to empirically test the relationships between the policies and practices of organizations regarding work-family balance, work-life balance and work engagement.MethodsUsing validated questionnaires, we collected data on organizational support for work-family balance (family-friendly policies and practices, support by leader, support by co-workers, working hours and complexity of work), work-family balance and work engagement. The quantitative data for our analysis was collected through a survey of 343 online participants who were employees in various positions in companies in Slovenia.The resultsOur results show that the organization's work-family balance policies and practices, such as support by leader, co-workers, and family-friendly policies and practices, have a positive impact on the individual's work-family balance, that work-family balance leads to an increase in work engagement, and that the individual's perception of the organization's work-family balance support leads to an increase in work engagement.ConclusionKnowledge of important work-family balance implications with an understanding of organizational support for work-family balance and the relationships between the constructs of work-family balance and work engagement can be beneficial to business leaders. This understanding can help them to strengthen employee work engagement through family-friendly policies and practices, and thereby contributing to the area of employee behavior and improving employee productivity.

Project description:BackgroundMeaning in life is multidimensional. It encompasses different qualities of meaning, such as meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, or existential indifference, as well as the sources from which people draw meaning, or purpose. For both research and practice, it is of high value to know not only the extent of meaningfulness, or its absence, but also its sources. How do these relate to meaningfulness and mental health? Are they accessible to people of different sociodemographic and economic backgrounds alike? For therapeutic and counseling practice, knowledge of experiences and sources of meaning is needed to support a clearer self-understanding in patients or clients and to encourage them to make authentic life choices. The Meaning and Purpose Scales (MAPS) presented here enable researchers and practitioners to gain insights into these dimensions of meaning in life, and, with only 23 items, to do so in a short time.MethodsUsing five independent and two follow-up samples with a total N of 7,500, this paper examined the MAPS' internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent, divergent, criterion, factorial, and predictive validity.ResultsPrincipal axis factoring identified two meaning scales, Meaningfulness and Crisis of Meaning, and five purpose scales, Sustainability, Faith, Security, Community, and Personal Growth. The scales proved consistent, stable over four weeks and two months, and valid in multiple respects. In a representative German population sample, Personal Growth, Sustainability, and Community exhibited large, Faith and Security medium positive relationships with Meaningfulness, whereas Crisis of Meaning showed small to moderate negative correlations. Meaningfulness was positively, and Crisis of Meaning negatively predicted by age, partnership, parenthood, and religious affiliation. Financial hardship correlated positively with Crisis of Meaning and negatively with Meaningfulness, Community, and Personal Growth. Meaningfulness and Crisis of Meaning explained 21%, the sources of purpose 6% of additional variance in general mental distress (PHQ-4), beyond sociodemographics. Except for Faith (unrelated), all sources exhibited moderate negative correlations with the PHQ-4.ConclusionAs this series of studies demonstrates, the MAPS provide a highly economic and valid assessment of two qualities of meaning, Meaningfulness and Crisis of Meaning, and five sources of purpose: Sustainability, Faith, Security, Community, and Personal Growth.

Project description:Self-Serving leadership is a global phenomenon and requires both literary and practical attention to understand how it unfolds and impacts organizations. More specifically the investigation of this underexplored dark side of leadership in Pakistani service sector organizations has its unique significance. So, in this regard, the current study took the initiative to investigate the relationship between a Leader's self-serving behaviour and a follower's self-serving counterproductive work behaviour. Moreover, the underlying mechanism of self-serving cognitive distortions was proposed, with followers' Machivellianism strengthening the indirect relationship between leaders' self-serving behaviour with self-serving counterproductive work behaviour through the self-serving cognitive distortions. The proposed theoretical framework was explained by the Social Learning theory. This study adopted a survey method with the collection of data by utilizing the convenience sampling method, in three-time waves with peer-reported self-serving counterproductive work behaviours. The data was analyzed by utilizing confirmatory factor analysis to establish discriminant and convergent validity. Moreover, the hypotheses testing was done utilizing Hayes Process Macro 4 (Mediation) and 7(Moderated Mediation). The results proved that the self-serving cognitive distortions mediated the relationship between the leader's self-serving behaviour and the follower's self-serving counterproductive work behaviours. Moreover, it was established that the High Mach tendencies strengthed the indirect positive relationship between a leader's self-serving behaviour with self-serving counterproductive work behaviour through the self-serving cognitive distortions. It is important to note that the current study provides a view to the practitioners that formulation of effective policies and systems for identifying and discouraging the tendencies of Leaders' self-serving behaviour and employing people with low Mach Tendencies can avoid the self-serving counterproductive work behaviours harming the overall welfare of the organization.

Dataset Information

Social purpose in an organization from the perspective of an employee: a self-determination outlook on the meaning of work.

Objective

Results

Publications

Social purpose in an organization from the perspective of an employee: a self-determination outlook on the meaning of work.

Similar Datasets

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