2311: Fresh Horizons in Work Meaningfulness Research (14420)

Organizer(s)

• TM

  Tahereh Maghsoudi

  IESE Business School, Spain

Presenter(s)

• FM

  Frank Martela

  Aalto U., Finland

Participant(s)

• EL

  Evgenia Lysova

  Vrije U. Amsterdam, Netherlands

Organizer(s)

• NV

  Neus Vila-Brunet

  IESE Business School

Participant(s)

• AS

  Al-Karim Samnani

  U. of Windsor, Canada

Presenter(s)

• KR

  Kirsten Robertson

  U. of the Fraser Valley, Canada
• LF

  Luke Fletcher

  School of Management, U. of Bath, United Kingdom
• TM

  Tahereh Maghsoudi

  IESE Business School, Spain

Participant(s)

• AR

  Anneloes Raes

  IESE Business School, Spain
• YL

  Yih-teen Lee

  IESE Business School, Spain

Presenter(s)

• NV

  Neus Vila-Brunet

  IESE Business School

Over the past decades, the concept of meaningfulness has attracted the interest of a large scientific community and has grown in complexity. Given the beneficial effects of meaningful work on individuals, work, and organizational-related outcomes, it is crucial to understand how a deeper perception of meaningful work can be experienced by different segments of the workforce and how it can be influenced by intra- and inter-individual factors. We bring together five innovative projects that explore ways in which individuals in organizations perceive deeper meaningfulness, and the organizational implications arising from these perspectives. Altogether, the research presented here provides state-of-the-art theoretical and methodological advances to enhance and refine our understanding of work meaningfulness, which is a defining feature of organizations ‘success and a key research topic for our field. As well as filling conceptual gaps in the literatures on work meaningfulness process and how it can be experienced more profoundly, this symposium hopes to inspire future scholarship into work meaningfulness with fresh horizons. Overall, the five presentations included in this symposium shed light on previously underdeveloped aspects of the process of work meaningfulness, the temporal nature of this process, and a deeper sense of work meaningfulness. Drawing from this set of studies that open new perspectives, this presenter symposium will provoke interest and debate amongst attendees of the 2024 Academy of Management conference in Chicago, and generate further research opportunities into work meaningfulness, an enduring reality of organizations and a key research topic for our field.

Presentations:

• 15:00 – 16:30 CT (GMT-5/UTC-5)

  2311: Shared Meaningfulness? A Relational Theory of Meaningful Work (14420)
  

  Author: Al-Karim Samnani – U. of Windsor

  Author: Kirsten Marie-Paule Robertson – U. of the Fraser Valley
• 15:00 – 16:30 CT (GMT-5/UTC-5)

  2311: Meaningful Work from a Diversity and Inclusion Lens: The Need to Better Understand Inequalities in M (14420)
  

  Author: Luke Fletcher – School of Management, U. of Bath
• 15:00 – 16:30 CT (GMT-5/UTC-5)

  2311: Making Temporal Sense of Meaningfulness Research: A Structured Literature Review and Research Agend (14420)
  

  Author: Tahereh Maghsoudi – IESE Business School

  Author: Anneloes M. L Raes – IESE Business School

  Author: Yih-teen Lee – IESE Business School
• 15:00 – 16:30 CT (GMT-5/UTC-5)

  2311: The Role of Work Meaningfulness in Enabling People to Stay Present and Energized at Work (14420)
  

  Author: Neus Vila-Brunet – IESE Business School

  Author: Yih-teen Lee – IESE Business School
• 15:00 – 16:30 CT (GMT-5/UTC-5)

  2311: Does Autonomy Make Work More Meaningful: Designing Four Experiments to Determine Causality (14420)
  

  Author: Frank Martela – Aalto U.

  Author: Evgenia Lysova – Vrije U. Amsterdam