Managers' perceptions of meaningfulness in the future work
Lemmetty, S., & Riivari, E. (2024). Managers' perceptions of meaningfulness in the future work. Journal of Advances in Management Research, Early online. https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr-09-2023-0281
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Journal of Advances in Management ResearchDate
2024Copyright
© Soila Lemmetty and Elina Riivari. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited
Purpose
Meaningfulness at work means experience of work as important, satisfying and valuable. It is a key factor in promoting individual growth, strengthening the belief in one's own abilities and supporting a sense of belonging and commitment to the organization. In this paper, we explore managers' perceptions of meaningful work in the future, focusing on managers' talk about meaningful work and its promotion in their organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for the study consists of 25 stories of future working life collected from Finnish managers in spring 2022, using the empathy-based method.
Findings
From managers' stories of future working life, we identified two overarching perception categories of meaningful work: (1) Perceptions of contexts underlining the experience of meaningfulness: evolving technologies, developing expertise and demands and change in working life values and (2) Perceptions of management practices determining meaningful work: leader-centered, distant and technical management practice versus participatory and interactive management practice.
Originality/value
The research produces a new and detailed understanding of the ways in which managers talk about decreasing and increasing meaningfulness at work and management practices related to it. As the research is qualitative in nature and based on a small dataset, its results cannot be generalized. Instead, it strengthens and sharpens the previous understanding of meaningful work and the future of work.
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EmeraldISSN Search the Publication Forum
0972-7981Keywords
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https://converis.jyu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/243182941
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