<p>Job crafting refers to work-related behaviors employees take to make their job better fit with their preferences. While job crafting is based on the premise that employees can make such proactive changes on their own volition, recent work has suggested social context plays an important role in determining whether an employee has the opportunities and ability to engage in job crafting. Such contextual factors include the level of support one’s manager provides as well as one’s ability to obtain instrumental resources such as information and advice as well as emotional resources such as social support from the wider organizational community. Applying conservation of resources (COR) theory, Study 1 proposes that when a manager is perceived to provide a low level of support, employees can leverage their social network in order to engage in job crafting initiatives. For instance, when one’s manager offers relatively little encouragement and availability, it can hinder their subordinate’s ability to engage in job crafting. Additionally, when one’s manager has relatively low status in the organization, they may be less able to help their subordinates develop a network to obtain the types of instrumental resources that fuel job crafting behaviors. Findings based on a survey of 276 full-time workers suggest that employees seeking to job craft can compensate for their manager’s shortcomings by building bonding social capital in the former scenario (i.e., when the manager offers little encouragement and availability) and bridging social capital in the latter (i.e., when the manager has relatively low status). Study 2 focuses on the extent to which employees with differing dispositions towards their work engage in different kinds of job crafting behaviors. Findings from survey data (<em>n</em> = 307) suggest that compared to career orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as a means for advancement and status enhancement), calling orientation (i.e., the tendency to view work as one’s “calling” in life) reduces the tendency for employees to engage in withdrawal behaviors. However, both calling and career orientation were associated with the tendency to proactively leverage technological and other knowledge-based resources in the execution of their work. Additionally, the study tests how virtual work contexts may influence how employees across different dispositional types engage in specified forms of job crafting. Findings suggest these dynamics persist regardless of telecommuting frequency. Implications for theory and practice are provided for both Studies 1 and 2. </p>

The circular economy (CE) is increasingly recognized as a pivotal driver for achieving sustainability. Nonetheless, it has been criticized for neglecting the social dimension of sustainability. While job creation is often touted as a significant social benefit of the CE, there is a conspicuous gap in discussions about the quality of the jobs it generates. By drawing on organizational behavior theory, this study investigates the quality of jobs in the CE with a specific focus on meaningfulness. The research questions explore the key factors contributing to job meaningfulness in CE roles, the impact of heightened awareness of the CE on workers' perceived meaningfulness, and the mechanisms through which such awareness affects meaningfulness. To address these questions, a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was conducted, involving employees from two CE companies in the United States. The study assessed factors such as autonomy, skill variety, co-worker relations, knowledge of the CE, perceived social impact, perceived social worth, and experienced job meaningfulness. An intervention was then implemented on a treatment group, consisting of a five-minute training video explaining the CE concept, its benefits, and the role of workers in the CE. The findings reveal that the video intervention effectively increased employees' perception of task significance, perceived social impact, experienced meaningfulness, and awareness of the CE's impact on society and environment, as well as their perception of their contribution to the CE, the organization's contribution to the CE, and the societal value of the CE. This study highlights the importance for CE companies to provide employees with general training on the CE. Additionally, it provides initial evidence of the potential of a CE to increase human well-being, especially when considered from the eudemonic perspective of what gives life meaning rather than purely economic measures of well-being. / Master of Science / This study looks at the kind of jobs created by the circular economy (CE) and how they affect sustainability and well-being. The CE is about making the best use of resources and, as a consequence, to reducing waste, but it has been criticized for not paying enough attention to how it affects people's lives and jobs. This research focuses on understanding what makes a job in the CE meaningful and how CE knowledge may affect how workers feel about their jobs. To do this, employees at two CE companies in the U.S. were studied. The research looked at how much control employees have over their work tasks, the variety of skills that are demanded by their work, and how they get along with their co-workers, as well as their familiarity with the concept of the CE. The sampled workers were separated into two groups (treatment and control). The treatment group watched a video that explained what the CE is and how their work contributes to it and to a better world. The study found this video made these workers feel that their work had a bigger impact and that their jobs were more meaningful. It also made them see the CE as something that helps society and the environment. The main research contribution is that companies in the CE should give their employees training and lessons about what the CE is. By doing so, workers may increase their experienced meaningfulness on the job, which could enhance an individual's overall happiness and productivity at work. This research also shows the need for discussions on sustainability and the CE to include what gives meaning to our lives when we are thinking of human well-being.

Contact with beneficiaries has been described as the most important job characteristic for increasing the salience of meaningful work. However, our understanding of beneficiary contact has primarily been limited to positive experiences with beneficiaries, despite the fact that many jobs are defined as much by the negative experiences with beneficiaries as they are by the positive. To increase understanding of negative beneficiary contact, I draw from identity theory to propose that negative experiences with beneficiaries have a dual effect on employees. Whereas negative contact may make employees feel unappreciated (low perceived social worth), it may also lead employees to believe they are engaging in self-sacrifice for worthy cause—a relatively positive interpretation of such experiences. In a study of 257 registered nurses from a large academic medical center, these hypotheses were supported. However, contrary to expectations, the effects of beneficiary contact on employee perceptions of social worth and self-sacrifice were not contingent upon their willingness to relate to beneficiaries (perspective taking and affective commitment to beneficiaries). Only perceived social worth was found to predict job satisfaction, and neither social worth nor self-sacrifice predicted job performance. Longitudinal analyses suggested that beneficiary contact is reciprocally related to employee’s work perceptions over time, but neither factor predicted changes in job satisfaction. Overall, findings suggest that negative beneficiary contact makes employees feel less appreciated, but also serves as a badge that signifies a willing sacrifice for a worthy cause. Moreover, perceived self-sacrifice may have a more complex relationship with employee outcomes than originally thought.

Current literature on the developmentally disabled indicates they represent a large untapped labor pool that is significantly inhibited in its inclusion in the community. To address this unnecessary isolation, Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency in Cobb County, Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a dynamic and robust theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement at RitC, I adapted the CVF to concentrate on the dimensions of organizational focus, strategy formation and motivational traits to understand and guide service innovation in a voluntary organization. My research aided RitC’s development of a program to provide meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. From a theoretical standpoint, I have added new knowledge on managing service innovation in voluntary organizations and adapted CVF for understanding and guiding service innovation in that particular context.

Lönearbete utgör en väsentlig del av de flesta människors liv. Därför är det viktigt för individen och samhället att det finns mening med arbetet, och att det upplevs som meningsfullt. Barnmorskor tillhör en yrkeskategori som upplever sitt arbete som meningsfullt. Syftet med denna kvalitativa intervjustudie var att undersöka vad sex kvinnliga barnmorskor upplever som meningen med sitt arbete ur ett individ- och samhällsperspektiv samt vad de upplever som meningsfullt i arbetet. Genom en fenomenologisk metod framställdes essensen från barnmorskornas upplevelser. Med begreppet Mening i studien avses syftet eller värdet med arbetet och begreppet meningsfull betyder att arbetet har en djupare innebörd. Den teoretiska och begreppsliga referensramen bygger på tre övergripande meningar med arbetet, att arbeta för: 1) Ekonomiska resurser. 2) Sociala behov och självförverkligande. 3) Andra människors behov. Resultatet av studien visar att ur ett individperspektiv upplevde barnmorskorna att meningen med arbetet var att det var omväxlande, vilket innefattar variation i arbetstempo och möten med olika kollegor och patienter. Meningen med arbete ur ett samhällsperspektiv var att skapa positiva upplevelser, som handlar om ett gott bemötande av patienter, vilket skapar positiva bilder i samhället av vården och att få barn. Upplevelser av meningsfullhet består av att det finns ett behov av barnmorskornas kompetens, och att de är involverade i andra människors unika händelse i livet. Barnmorskorna värdesätter att arbeta för andra människor och samhällets nytta, vilket gör att de intar en altruistisk attityd till arbetet. Barnmorskorna arbetar nära livet självt och med sin kompetens gör de viktig skillnad i människors liv, något som bidrar till upplevelsen av ett meningsfullt arbete. / Paid work is a major part of most people’s life. It is therefore important for individuals, and society as a whole, that there is meaning in the work being performed and it is perceived as meaningful. Midwives belong to a category of workers who perceive their work as meaningful. The intention of this qualitative interview study was to explore what six female midwives perceived as the meaning of work from an individual and society perspective. The aim was also to reveal what they perceived as meaningful in their work. By using a phenomenological method the essence of the midwives experiences was revealed. The concept of meaning in this study is to be understood as the aim or value of work. Meaningfulness is the concept used to describe a deeper meaning of work. The theoretical framework is based upon three generalised work aims, working for: 1) Financial resources. 2) Social needs and the need for self fulfilment. 3) Other people’s needs. The result shows that on an individual level the midwives experienced meaning in their work due to its changeable nature, which includes variations in tempo and encounters with different colleagues and patients. The meaning of work on a societal level was to create positive experiences among patients based on how there were treated. Good treatment generates positive images of the health care system and also of having children. Experiences of meaningfulness are based in the patient´s need for the midwives competence, and their involvement in other people’s unique life experience. Midwives value working for other people and benefiting society; this gives them an altruistic attitude towards work. They work with the intimacies of life, and their role influences other people’s lives, which contributes to the midwives feeling of having a meaningful job.

This study examines the relationship between supervisors’ transformational leadership behaviors and their work groups’ subsequent affective well-being and job satisfaction under specific moderating conditions (collective efficacy and perceptions of meaningful work). Longitudinal data from 42 work groups in a Canadian government organization was used to test the proposed relationships. Work groups’ collective efficacy has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and positive group affective well-being. Specifically, groups with lower levels of collective efficacy exhibit a stronger relationship between transformational leadership behaviours and both affective well-being and job satisfaction.

Current literature on the developmentally disabled indicates they represent a large untapped labor pool that is significantly inhibited in its inclusion in the community. To address this unnecessary isolation, Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency in Cobb County, Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a dynamic and robust theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement at RitC, I adapted the CVF to concentrate on the dimensions of organizational focus, strategy formation and motivational traits to understand and guide service innovation in a voluntary organization. My research aided RitC’s development of a program to provide meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. From a theoretical standpoint, I have added new knowledge on managing service innovation in voluntary organizations and adapted CVF for understanding and guiding service innovation in that particular context.

This study examines the relationship between supervisors’ transformational leadership behaviors and their work groups’ subsequent affective well-being and job satisfaction under specific moderating conditions (collective efficacy and perceptions of meaningful work). Longitudinal data from 42 work groups in a Canadian government organization was used to test the proposed relationships. Work groups’ collective efficacy has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between transformational leadership and positive group affective well-being. Specifically, groups with lower levels of collective efficacy exhibit a stronger relationship between transformational leadership behaviours and both affective well-being and job satisfaction.

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In this paper, we propose organizations can leverage the storytelling process to convey corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions and events. In doing so, organizations may mitigate the major challenges that hinder positive returns from CSR initiatives–awareness and skepticism. We propose a conceptual model that demonstrates the effects of CSR storytelling. Specifically, we propose the storytelling process yields positive impacts on internal and external stakeholder outcomes including increasing employees’ thriving and meaningful work, as well as the attitudes and trust of multiple external stakeholders. To support the proposed relationships in our model, we apply narrative transportation theory and complement it with theory and literature on brand outcomes, CSR, positive organizational psychology, and communication. We discuss our contributions and highlight the value of continued research at the intersection of storytelling, CSR, and internal and external organizational outcomes.