Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace 9781433813146, 1433813149

Citation preview

1

Ohm ~ AND MEANING IN THE WORKPLACE

edited by

Bryan J. Dik, Zinta S. Byrne, and Michael F. Steger

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2023 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

httos://archive.org/details/purposemeaninginOOOOunse

PURPOSE AND MEANING IN THE WORKPLACE

oo armor

|

fe

ey.

lh .

aa

SDA ISNROW BHT ME

|

PURPOSE AND MEANING IN THE WORKPLACE edited by

Bryan J. Dik, Zinta S. Byrne, and Michael F. Steger

AMERICAN

PSYCHOLOGICAL

ASSOCIATION

* WASHINGTON,

DC

Except as permitCopyright © 2013 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. be reproduced or may publication this of part no ted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, of scanning and process the to, limited not but including, means, any by or form any distributed in

of the digitization, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission

publisher. Published by American Psychological Association 750 First Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Www.apa.org To order APA Order Department P.O. Box 92984 Washington, DC 20090-2984

Tel: (800) 374-2721; Direct: (202) 336-5510 Fax: (202) 336-5502; TDD/TTY:

(202) 336-6123

Online: www.apa.org/pubs/books E-mail: [email protected] In the U.K., Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, copies may be ordered from American Psychological Association 3 Henrietta Street Covent Garden, London WC2E 8LU England Typeset in Meridien by Circle Graphics, Inc., Columbia, MD Printer: Edwards Brothers, Inc., Lillington, NC Cover Designer: Mercury Publishing Services, Inc., Rockville, MD The opinions and statements published are the responsibility of the authors, and such opinions and statements do not necessarily represent the policies of the American Psychological Association. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Purpose and meaning in the workplace / edited by Bryan J. Dik, Zinta S. Byrne, and Michael F. Steger. — First edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4338-1314-6 — ISBN 1-4338-1314-9 1. Career development—Psychological aspects. 2. Job satisfaction. 3. Work—Psychological aspects. 4. Employees—Psychology. I. Dik, Bryan J. II. Byrne, Zinta S. III. Steger, Michael F. IV. American Psychological Association. HF5381.P876 2013 658.3001'9—dc23 2012043235

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A CIP record is available from the British Library. Printed in the United States of America First Edition http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14183-000

To my grandfathers, Ralph Dik, Howard P. Longstreet, and Ross W. Winters,

faithful examples of how to work and live with purpose and meaning. —Bryan J. Dik To myfather, J. P. M. Stofberg, who showed me what it meant to derive purpose and meaning from work. —Zinta S. Byrne

To Ava, Rowan, and LeAnn, who enable me to do better work

and remind me of what is meaningful. —Michael F. Steger

cepa V eotanyiy’ a

a ee Ps

i

ae

nd

ee

agai.

Bea: crete | 0%

ere ee aoen+e*

aan 7

ae

Fa

Es

rents

a

weehe o

f -

irs

or

eS

hing |

@ tirwsaw' dom

oes

4

©

he

Qa

Se ©

a

Oe

:

; -

aan

«

ae

ware

;

ip

-

ai) VArax

se,

ee

7

ey

Zap

eee

. @ = @SEhan,

&

=

7 =

é

a4

7

|

——

er § O18

Sai

~

Sj

Se

Py lew 1s 4m. OPE@ ger) + / ;

_

on

:

:

5

.

Contents CONT RGB UO FOREWORD

Sn

lax

Xi

LNT DU Cr LONe © 3

Cultivating a Meaningful Career

15

Chapter 1.

Career Construction: Heeding the Callofthe Heart Paul J. Hartung and Brian J. Taber

Chapter 2.

A Person—Environment Fit Approach

to Cultivating Meaning Jo-Ida C. Hansen

Chapter 3.

17

37

57 Meaningful Work and the Protean Career Douglas T. Hall, Elana Feldman, and Najung Kim

I Meaning Making on the Job

79

Chapter 4.

81 Job Crafting and Meaningful Work Wrzesniewski Amy and Justin M. Berg, Jane E. Dutton,

Chapter 5.

Employee Engagement and Meaningful Work William A. Kahn and Steven Fellows

105

vii

viii

|CONTENTS

Chapter 6.

Profane or Profound? Finding Meaning in Dirty Work 127 Blake E. Ashforth and Glen E. Kreiner

Chapter 7.

Promoting Meaning and Purpose at Work: A Social-Cognitive Perspective J51 Robert W. Lent

I Leading a Meaningful Organization Chapter 8.

Chapter 9.

171

Doing Well, Doing Good, and Doing With: Organizational Practices for Effectively Cultivating Meaningful Work 173 Michael G. Pratt, Camille Pradies, and Douglas A. Lepisto Transformational Leadership and Meaningful Work

197

Fred O. Walumbwa, Amanda L. Christensen, and Michael K. Muchiri

Chapter 10. Connecting the Dots: Coaching Leaders to Turn Values Into Meaningful Work 217 Dianne R. Stober, Stefanie Putter, and Lauren Garrison NED ABOUT

77335) THE

EDITORS

247

Contributors Blake E. Ashforth, PhD, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe Justin M. Berg, PhD candidate, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Zinta S. Byrne, PhD, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Amanda L. Christensen, PhD candidate, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe Bryan J. Dik, PhD, Colorado State University, Fort Collins Jane E. Dutton, PhD, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Elana Feldman, PhD candidate, Boston University School of Management, Boston, MA Steven Fellows, PhD candidate, Boston University School of Management, Boston, MA Lauren Garrison, MS, Colorado State University, Denver Douglas T. Hall, PhD, Boston University School of Management, Boston, MA Jo-Ida C. Hansen, PhD, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Paul J. Hartung, PhD, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Rootstown William A. Kahn, PhD, Boston University School of Management, Boston, MA Najung Kim, PhD candidate, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA Glen E. Kreiner, PhD, Smeal College of Business, Pennsylvania State University, State College Robert W. Lent, PhD, University of Maryland, College Park Douglas A. Lepisto, PhD candidate, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA Michael K. Muchiri, PhD, School of Management and Information Systems, CQUniversity, Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia David G. Myers, PhD, Hope College, Holland, MI

X

GOW

TREO

ORS

Camille Pradies, PhD candidate, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA Michael G. Pratt, PhD, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA Stefanie Putter, MS, C Cubed, Denver, CO Michael F. Steger, PhD, Colorado State University,

Fort

Collins;

North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa Dianne R. Stober, PhD, C Cubed, Fort Collins, CO Brian J. Taber, PhD, Oakland University, Rochester, MI

Fred O. Walumbwa, PhD, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe Amy Wrzesniewski, PhD, Yale School of Management, Yale University, New Haven, CT

David G. Myers

Foreword There are still two sorts of jobs. Of one sort, a [person] can truly say, “I am doing work which is worth doing. It would still be worth doing if nobody paid for it. But as I have no private means, and need to be fed and housed and clothed, I must be paid while I do it.” The other kind of job is that in which people do work whose sole purpose is that of the earning of money; work which need not be, ought not to be, or would not be, done by anyone in the whole world unless it were paid.

—C. S. Lewis, The World's Last Night

write from Holland, Michigan, which in 2010 was named “America’s second happiest city” by the Gallup Organization (based on data from its daily Gallup-Healthways WellBeing Index; http://well-beingindex.com/). Having come to know several of the CEOs of Holland’s major corporations during my 43 years at Hope College, I conclude that their efforts to create purpose and meaning in the workplace have borne some fruit. As religiously motivated humane capitalists, they have operated their businesses not only to create products and profits but also to provide quality of life for their workers (their “members,” as the 7,500-employee Haworth, Inc., respectfully calls its staff). These companies were, and some still are, locally owned the ventures whose owners and workers rubbed shoulders at “Why games. soccer school at and , grocery store, in worship h do I do what I do?” mused Haworth founder G. W. Hawort homeka Nebras to me (87 years old, born in a sod house on a those cars stead). “I look out my office window and see all on me in the parking lot. All those people are depending their es, mortgag their to provide for their car payments, re furnitu office livelihood.” As we together toured his main and designing manufacturing plant, where workers were xl

xii

FOREWORD

industriously producing work environments that aimed to suit workers’ needs, the seemingly universal facial response to seeing their legendary founder was a broad smile and a warm greeting. Among the most remarkable people I have known here was industrialist John Donnelly, whose company, the Donnelly Corporation (now Magna Donnelly), manufactured most mirrors found in U.S.-made cars. Part of his effort to do good, beyond making safety-enhancing car mirrors, was to create meaningful, involving work experiences. To involve his employees with a sense of entrepreneurial teamwork, Donnelly organized them into Scanlon plan-guided, self-managed work groups. When times were good, as they generally were, employees shared in the profits; when times were bad, top executives took pay cuts. In this company, the parking lot had no executive parking spaces. After seeing the aging Donnelly slip on the parking lot ice one day, his employees plotted a gift: a parking lot sign near his office designating John Donnelly’s parking place. Although grateful, he promptly removed the sign and hung it in his office. For Donnelly, an idea about the self-esteem and involvement of every employee was more important than a parking place or another million car mirrors. Shortly before his death at the age of 74, Donnelly wrote me, “What will I have achieved in life if all I have done is to make car mirrors— there has to be more to it than that.” A devout Catholic, Donnelly was inspired by his faith to focus on what he could do for the greater good rather than what he could gain for himself alone. Another huge local employer, Herman Miller, Inc. (America’s second largest office furniture manufacturer), has repeatedly been both a “most admired company” and one of the “100 best companies to work for” in Fortune executive surveys (Herman Miller, Inc., 2010).! While under the leadership of its founder D. J. DePree and sons Hugh DePree and Max DePree (author of Leadership Is an Art, on employee-empowering management), Herman Miller functioned as if people mattered. It organized its workers into small teams. Long before most Americans knew about the Japanese corporation-as-family model, Herman Miller employees were participating in decisions about their work, sharing in the company’s profits, and becoming company stockholders after only a year of service. Instead of a human resources director, the company had a “Vice President for People,” whose concerns included nurturing employee morale, fostering employee suggestions, and facilitating communications. Underlying this participative approach to Management is a corporate philosophy that workers are happier and more productive when

'Herman Miller, Inc. (2010, March 5). Herman Miller again tops industry in FORTUNE’s ‘most admired” companies survey [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.hermanmille r. com/about-us/press/press-releases/all/herman-miller-again-tops-industr y-in-fortunesmost-admired-companies-survey.html

Foreword

they are respected, cared about, and involved. Max DePree (1989) wrote, “Words such as love, warmth, personal chemistry are certainly pertinent” (p. 60).? To judge from informal comments heard over the back fence and about town, Herman Miller’s participative management made for a workforce with much higher than average morale, and even today some of that ethos survives (although the CEO’s salary is no longe? constrained, as it was under the DePrees, to 20 times the average

full-time worker’s compensation). For Herman Miller’s humane capitalists, high-level employee morale was good for business. Compared with depressed employees, those with higher levels of well-being often have lower medical costs, higher work efficiency, and less absenteeism (Ford, Cerasoli, Higgins, & Deccesare, 20113; Shockley, Ispas, Rossi, & Levine, 2012*). Thus, just as investing in prenatal care and preventive well-baby care can reduce net medical costs, so can investing in employee well-being help the bottom line. By 2011, every dollar invested in Herman Miller in 1990 was worth nearly $9. Such success has also marked the Fleetwood Group, a 165-employee manufacturer of educational furniture and wireless electronic clickers. When the founder gave 45% of the company to his employees, who later bought out other family stockholders, it paved the way for the Fleetwood Group to become one of America’s first employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) companies. Today, every employee owns part

of the company and, as a group, they own 100% of Fleetwood. The more years they work, the more they own, yet no one owns more than just 5%. Like every CEO, Doug Ruch works for his stockholders, who happen to also be his employees. and As a company that endorses “servant leadership” and “respect Fleetn.d.)?, care for each team member—owner” (Fleetwood Group, during wood prioritizes people above profits. Thus, when orders lagged leaderto icated commun ers the recent recession, the employee-own Ergo, the comship that job security meant more to them than profits. answering pany paid otherwise idle workers to do community service: like. In tough phones, building Habitat for Humanity houses, and the , with conproceeds business times and in good, the company tithes the tributions averaging more than $6,000 per employee.

NY: Doubleday. 2DePree, M. (1989). Leadership is an art. New York,

re, A. L. (2011). Relationships Ford, M. T., Cerasoli, C. P., Higgins, J. A., & Deccesa work performance: A review and health ural between psychological, physical, and behavio . 185-204 25, Stress, @ Work and meta-analysis. Levine, B. L. (2012). A meta-analytic 4Shockley, K. M., Ispas, D., Rossi, M. E., &

affect, discrete emotions, and organizainvestigation of the relationship between state . 377-411 25, tional performance. Human Performance, ed from .. . employee owned. Retriev 5Bleetwood Group. (n.d.). About us: Christ centered

m http://www. fleetwoodgroup.com/about-us.ht

xiii

XiV

FOREWORD

Fleetwood employees “act like they own the place,” noted Ruch. Employee ownership attracts and retains talented people, “drives dedication,” and gives Fleetwood “a sustainable competitive advantage.” With stock growth averaging 17% a year, Fleetwood was named the 2006 National ESOP of the Year. Ruch seeks to sustain the “ownership culture” and to inspire his employee—colleagues to share his own keen sense of calling. As a faith-motivated person, he quoted Frederick Buechner (1993): “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” (p. 95).° Another multi-thousand Holland employer, the Prince Corporation, began with its invention of the automotive lighted visor and expanded to produce a host of interior dashboard car parts. Its family owners, who are well known for their support of conservative political and religious causes, also managed to create an employee-supportive corporate culture, complete with a spectacular (and free) employee health—fitness club that employees raved about. One employee, after the company’s sale in the aftermath of its founder’s sudden death, reflected on its former culture: “I’ve been asked hundreds of times why I worked where I did with my education and my only answer has always been, ‘You'd just have to work there to understand.’” The founding family’s locally invested wealth was also partly returned to our community through their gifts of the city’s senior citizen complex, its arts center, and a renewed downtown, complete with an environmentally friendly snowmelt system that uses waste hot water to warm streets and sidewalks. When the company was sold, employees took out a full-page newspaper ad saying simply, “Thank you, Elsa,” after the founder’s widow gave them $100 million from the cash proceeds. Some of these companies have also enabled people to balance family life with meaningful work through family friendly flextime and jobsharing opportunities. That also is true of Worth Publishers, with whom I have worked closely as one of its authors for nearly 3 decades. The women who lead the company (as president and publisher) have supported their staff by adjusting their work schedules and locations to suit their avocational needs. My texts and their teaching supplements are created thanks to editorial, artistic, and marketing leadership talent who work from home offices from Alaska to Florida. My longtime book development editor, who formerly worked in the company’s New York office, now works 30 hours a week from a home office in Anchorage, with no lost time in daily travel and few work-related clothing, meal, and transportation expenses. At home, she is free to work at 6 A.M. while her children sleep and to adjust her daytime hours around family commitments.

“Buechner, F. (1993). Wishful thinking: A theological ABC. New York, NY: HarperOne.

Foreword | XV

Across varied occupations, some people view their work as a job, an unfulfilling but necessary way to make money. Others view their work as a career, an opportunity to advance from one position to a better position. The rest—those of us who may view our work as a calling, a fulfilling and socially useful activity, or who view our work as engaging and fulfilling—report the highest satisfaction with their work and with their lives. For example, all of us who work together at Worth Publishers to create teaching products feel blessed with meaningful work—work through which we can aim to do good while doing well. Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace offers counselors, human resources managers, and organizational leaders insights for creating the meaningful sort of work to which I refer in this foreword. This volume’s all-star team of contributors provides ideas for matching employee strengths to job tasks, creating work environments that optimize employee engagement, crafting jobs that express and affirm workers’ gifts, and coaching staff on career planning. By so doing, the volume offers possibilities for making every community a happier place. Kudos to Bryan J. Dik, Zinta S. Byrne, Michael F. Steger, and their contributing authors for their state-of-the-art reflections on how organizational policies, workplace leaders, career counselors, and employees themselves can create work in which people can engage as a meaningful career and possibly even a purposeful calling—work that feels intrinsically worth doing, even if nobody is paid for it.

| tino soe aan a

yy

vl 7

atone SS

|

oF

-

4

PONG

ae

io “we

Aap hesPind

sl

iP

a yg.

gatos

ot ie ens nat Wrage! aed

‘a

arr

sd Wi

Deauate sean

tang Rrnd -

py

ed

hina wRinsaligese teres 7

ee

sscmemammane

ce 7 we

uch

BORED

oh ar

Ve

rare

vpn

“eer

oa

1949

sp

= sales aielhy anew erat

4

oe ee

¥

paces Sh

:

oe

Gets

tal emerge Pay ae

ee

(Q0 okt Mtrorer Asa at + Oe @raeh

ili

vy&, $26 °Sive? erp arene Tell 088 ae

PRM

ie gi? PR Sgn

a? Wor no.ene Set Se

ee)

Che yah

ath

sles

cP Mi Ae AMie et apy iota (hati mas Ninw—aile cr 4eda

4oracle ee

+

=

onek

freon,

Oo lero = Ver Rees

eten hg writin

seme a haiti ead anvto—\eeteb ; 7

-

én

7

a aete

; ‘men

a

SS

S é

90! a ewe