Facilitating meaningfulness in the workplace: a field intervention study

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a field intervention study that sought to address two objectives: (a) what are the psychological effects of a meaningfulness intervention? and (b) what key issues should be considered when developing meaningfulness interventions? Eighty employees from three different organizations based in the UK were allocated to either the intervention condition or a wait-list control group. Compared against the wait-list control group, the meaningfulness intervention facilitated meaningfulness in/at work, job/organization engagement, and personal initiative. Finally, focus group interviews revealed a number of micro (e.g., sustaining motivation), meso (e.g., role of line managers) and macro (e.g., socio-political events) level issues that should be considered when planning and implementing meaningfulness interventions. Overall this study makes use of field intervention research in order to develop the rationale for incorporating meaningfulness theories and concepts within HRM practice, particularly in better aligning personal development, team-based learning and performance management activities.

Keywords:

• Field intervention
• mixed methods
• meaningful work
• employee engagement
• personal initiative

Acknowledgments

Thanks go to the participating organizations for allowing the research to be conducted with their employees, and Dilys Robinson (Institute for Employment Studies) for assisting with the training sessions. This paper draws from a wider project (RBT 1509) that was funded by the Richard Benjamin Trust (http://www.richardbenjamintrust.co.uk/), a charitable trust that funds innovative, early career research into work and social psychology topics.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).