Enhancing meaningful work through meaning in life: Mediating effect of prosocial organizational and individual behaviors

Yıl 2023, Cilt: 23 Sayı: 4, 531 - 542, 22.10.2023

Faruk Kerem Şentürk , Dilara Altunok

https://doi.org/10.21121/eab.1134695

Öz

The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of meaning in life (MIL) on meaningful work (MW) and to examine the mediating role of prosocial organizational behavior (POB) and prosocial individual behavior (PIB). Data were obtained from employees (600) working in different sectors in Düzce city center. A mediation model was designed and tested employing bootstrapping technique. The results showed that ML had significant effects on MW, POB, and PIB. The findings also demonstrated significant effects of POB and PIB on MW. Besides, the mediating roles of POB and PIB were confirmed. The current study highlights meaning in life, prosocial organizational and individual behaviors as key factors in understanding how employees' find their work meaningful. However, it should be noted that POB has a stronger mediating effect than PIB. In addition, this study suggests that managers focus on prosocial behaviors depending on the contribution to the search for meaning in life and work.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Meaningful work, meaning in life, prosocial organizational behavior

Kaynakça

• Adler, A. (2003). Yaşamın Anlam ve Amacı. (Çev. Kamuran Şipal). İstanbul: Say Yayınları.
• Akıncı, A. (2005). Hayata Anlam Vermede Dini Değerlerin ve Din Öğretiminin Rolü. Değerler Eğitim Dergisi, 3(9), 7-24.
• Allan, B. A., Douglass, R. P., Duffy, R. D., & McCarty, R. J. (2016). Meaningful work as a moderator of the relation between work stress and meaning in life. Journal of Career Assessment, 24(3), 429-440.
• Altıntaş, T. T. & Bıçakçı, M. Y. (2017). Erken Çocukluk Döneminde Prososyal Davranışlar. The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies, 57, 245-261.
• Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. (2012). How leaders kill meaning at work. McKinsey Quarterly, January 2012, 124-131.
• Arnold, K. A., Turner, N., Barling, J., Kelloway, E. K., & McKee, M. C. (2007). Transformational leadership and psychological well-being: The mediating role of meaningful work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12, 193–203.
• Ashmos, D. P. & Duchon, D. (2000). Spirituality at Work. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(2), 134–145.
• Balcı, O. & Ağ, C. (2019). Yaşamın Anlamı ve İşin Anlamlılığı Arasındaki İlişki. Uluslararası Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Araştırma Dergisi, 6(33), 348-362.
• Baron, R. M., & D. A. Kenny. (1986). The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research: Conceptual, Strategic, and Statistical Considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51(6): 1173–1182.
• Battista, J. & Almond, R. (1973). The Development of Meaning in Life. Psychiatry, 36(4), 409-427.
• Borman, W. C., & Motowidlo, S. J. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. In N. Schmitt, & W. C. Borman (Eds.), Personnel selection in organizations (pp. 71 ± 98). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Boyraz, G., Lightsey, O. R. & Can, A. (2013). The Turkish Version of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire: Assessing the Measurement Invariance Across Turkish and American Adult Samples. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95(4). 423-431.
• Brief, A. P. & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors. Academy of management Review, 11(4), 710-725.
• Byrne, B.M. (2010). Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS. Routledge Pub.: New York.
• Chalofsky, N. (2003). An emerging construct for meaningful work. Human Resource Development International, 6(1), 69-83.
• Chang, B., Cheng, J., Fang, J., & Dang, J. (2021). The Indirect Effect of Death Anxiety on Experienced Meaning in Life via Search for Meaning and Prosocial Behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1564.
• Curran, P. J., West, S. G., & Finch, J. F. (1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological methods, 1(1), 16-29.
• Çetin, F. & Fıkıkoca, A. (2010). Rol Ötesi Olumlu Davranışlar Kişisel ve Tutumsal Faktörlerle Öngörülebilir Mi?. Ankara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, 4(65), 41-66.
• Dambrun, M., & Ricard, M. (2011). Self-centeredness and selflessness: a theory of self-based psychological functioning and its consequences for happiness. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 15, 138–157.
• Dandona, A. (2013), Spirituality at Workplace. National Conference on Paradigm for Sustainable Business: People, Planet and Profit, 1-12.
• De Dreu, C. K., & Nauta, A. (2009). Self-interest and other-orientation in organizational behavior: implications for job performance, prosocial behavior, and personal initiative. Journal of applied psychology, 94(4), 913.
• Dirkx, J. (1995). Earning a living or building a life? Reinterpreting the meaning of work in the practice of workplace education. paper presented at the Academy of Human Resource Development Conference, San Antonio, TX.
• Dou, K., Wang, Y. J., Li, J. B., Li, J. J., & Nie, Y. G. (2018). Perceiving high social mindfulness during interpersonal interaction promotes cooperative behaviours. Asian J. Soc. Psychol. 21, 97–106.
• Flouri, E. & Sarmadi Z. (2016). Prosocial Behaviour and Childhood Trajectoried Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: The Role of Neighborhood and School Contetxts, Developmental Pschology, 52 (2), 253-258.
• Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.
• Frankl, V. E. (2009). İnsanın Anlam Arayışı (Çev. Selçuk Budak). Okuyan Us Yayınları: İstanbul.
• Fritz, M.S. & MacKinnon, D.P. (2007). Required Sample Size to Detect the Mediated Effect. Psychological Science, 18, 233-239.
• Goldman, M., & Fordyce, J. (1983). Prosocial behavior as affected by eye contact, touch, and voice expression. The Journal of Social Psychology, 121(1), 125-129.
• Göçen, A. & Terzi, R. (2019). Eğitim Örgütleri için Anlamlı İş Ölçeği. GEFAD/GUJGEF 39(3), 1487-1512.
• Grant, A. M. (2012). Leading with meaning: Beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. Academy of management journal, 55(2), 458-476.
• Gürbüz, S. (2019). Aracı, Düzenleyici ve Durumsal Etki Analizleri. Seçkin Yayınevi: Ankara.
• Gürses, İ., & Kuruçay, Y. (2018). Ergenlerde anlamsızlık ile ilgili problemlere dinin etkisi üzerine değerlendirmeler. İnönü Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, 9(1), 87-111.
• Hayes, A.F. & Rockwood, N.J. (2017). Regression-Based Statistical Mediation and Moderation Analysis in Clinical Research: Observations, Recommendations, and Implementation. Behavior Research and Therapy, 98, 39-57.
• Hayes, A.F. (2018). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. 2nd Edition. Guilford Publications: New York.
• Holbeche, L., & Springett, N. (2009). In search of meaning at work. Roffey Park Institute: UK.
• İşbaşı, J. Ö. (2000). Çalışanların Yöneticilerine Duydukları Güvenin ve Örgütsel Adalete İlişkin Algılamalarının Örgütsel Vatandaşlık Davranışının Oluşumundaki Rolü: Bir Turizm Örgütünde Uygulama. Akdeniz Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Antalya.
• Jaeger, B. (1994) ‘The meaning of work among the self-employed’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Saybrook Institute.
• Joireman, J., Daniels, D., George‐Falvy, J., & Kamdar, D. (2006). Organizational Citizenship Behaviors as a Function of Empathy, Consideration of Future Consequences, and Employee Time Horizon: An Initial Exploration Using an In‐Basket Simulation of OCBs 1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(9), 2266-2292.
• Kamber, A. (2014). Duygusal Emek Bağlamında Çalışmanın Anlamı ve İşe Yabancılaşma. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Denizli.
• Kapız, S. Ö. (2001). İşin Değişen Anlamı ve Birey Yaşamında Önemi, İş-güç Dergisi, 3(2).
• Kartopu, S. (2006). Dini Yaşayışta Hayatı Sorgulama, Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana.
• Katz, D. (1964). The Motivational Basis of Organizational Behavior. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 9(2), 131-146.
• Kim, H. Y. (2013). Statistical notes for clinical researchers: assessing normal distribution (2) using skewness and kurtosis. Restorative dentistry & endodontics, 38(1), 52-54.
• Klein, N. (2017). Prosocial behavior increases perceptions of meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(4), 354-361.
• Klein, N., Grossman, I., Uskul, A. K., Kraus, A. A., & Epley, N. (2015). It pays to be nice, but not really nice: Asymmetric reputations from prosociality across 7 countries. Judgment and Decision Making, 10, 355–364.
• Lee, H. J. (2001). Willingness and Capacity: The Determinants of Prosocial Organizational Behaviour Among Nurses in the UK. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 12(6), 1029–1048.
• Lips-Wiersma, M. & Wright, S. (2012). Measuring the Meaning of Meaningful Work: Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale (CMWS). Group & Organization Management, 37(5), 655-685.
• McNeely, B.L. & Meglino, B.M. (1994). The role of dispositional and situational antecedents in prosocial organizational behavior: An examination of the intended beneficiaries of prosocial behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79(6), 836–844.
• Moorman, R. H., Niehoff, B. P. & Organ, D.W. (1993). Treating Employees Fairly and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Sorting the Effects of Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Procedural Justice. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 6, 209–225.
• Morse, N. & Weiss, R. (1955). The Functıon and Meanıng of Work and the Job. American Sociological Review, 20(2), 191-198.
• Öcal, H. & Sarnıç, A. (2017). Dönüştürücü Liderliğin Prososyal Örgütsel Davranış Üzerindeki Etkileri ve İmalat Endüstrisinde Bir Araştırma. Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 19(2), 107-125.
• Örgev, M. & Günalan, M. (2011). İşyeri Maneviyatı Üzerine Eleştirel Bir Değerlendirme. Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, 1(2), 51-64.
• Podsakoff, P. M., & Organ, D. W. (1986). Self-reports in organizational research: Problems and prospects. Journal of management, 12(4), 531-544.
• Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of applied psychology, 88(5), 879.
• Preacher, K.J. & Hayes, A.F. (2004). SPSS and SAS Procedures for Estimating Indirect Effects in Simple Mediation Models. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 36, 717-731.
• Raykov, T. & Marcoulides, G.A. (2006). A First Course in Structural Equation Modeling. Mahway, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey.
• Rodríguez-Ardura, I., & Meseguer-Artola, A. (2020). How to prevent, detect and control common method variance in electronic commerce research. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 15(2), 1-5.
• Rosso, B. D., Dekas, K. H., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2010). On the meaning of work: A theoretical integration and review. Research in Organizational Behavior, 30, 91-127.
• Schaefer, C. & Darling, J. (1996) Spirit Matters: Using Contemplative Disciplines in Work and Organizational Life , a study funded by the Fetzer Institute and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York: High Tor Alliance for Organization and Community Renewal.
• Seçer, İ. (2018). Psikolojik Test Geliştirme ve Uyarlama Süreci, Ankara: Anı Yayıncılık.
• Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410–421.
• Shek, D. T. L., Ma, H. K., & Cheung, P. C. (1994). Meaning in life and adolescent antisocial and prosocial behavior in a Chinese context. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 37(4), 211–218.
• Socrates (2004). Sokrates’in Savunması, Çev. Teoman Aktürel, Remzi Kitabevi, İstanbul.
• Stavrova, O., & Luhmann, M. (2016). Social connectedness as a source and consequence of meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 11, 470–479.
• Steger, M. F., Frazier, P., Oishi, S., & Kaler, M. (2006). The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 53, 80–93.
• Steger, M. F. & Dik, B. J. (2009). If one is looking for meaning in life, does it help to find meaning in work. Applied Psychologhy: Healt And Well-being, 1(3), 303-320.
• Steger, M.F. & B.J. Dik (2010), ‘Work as meaning: Individual and organizational benefits of engaging in meaningful work’, in P. Linley, S. Harrington and N. Garcea (eds), Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work, New York: Oxford University Press, pp.131–42.
• Steger, M.F., S. Oishi & T.B. Kashdan (2009), ‘Meaning in life across the life span: Levels and correlates of meaning in life from emerging adulthood to older adulthood’, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4 (1), 43–52.
• Steger, M., Kawabata, Y., Shimai, S. & Otake, K. (2008). The Meaningful Life in Japan and the United States: Levels and Correlates of Meaning in Life. Journal of Research in Personality, 42(3), 660-678.
• Steger, M. F. (2012). Making meaning in life. Psychological Inquiry, 23(4), 381–385.
• Toptaş, B. (2017). Öğretmenlerin İşlerini Anlamlı Bulma Düzeyleri Ve İşlerini Anlamlı Bulmalarını Etkileyen Etmenler. Abant İzzet Baysal Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 18(1), 521-542.
• Trommsdorff, G., Friedlmeier, W., & Mayer, B. (2007). Sympathy, Distress, and Prosocial Behavior of Preschool Children in Four Cultures. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31(3), 284-293.
• Van Dyne, L. & LePine, J. A. (1998). Helping and voice extra-role behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41(1), 108-119.
• Vollhardt, J. R. (2009). Altruism born of suffering and prosocial behavior following adverse life events: A review and conceptualization. Social Justice Research, 22(1), 53-97.
• Vural, G., Güney, S., & Metin-Orta, İ. (2021). İşin Anlamlı Bulunmasının Örgütsel Vatandaşlık Davranışlarına Etkisi: Sosyal Hizmet Kuruluşlarına İlişkin Bir Çalışma. Toplum ve Sosyal Hizmet, 32(2), 459-481.
• Wang, T., Gao, J., Jia, Y., & Wang, C. L. (2022). The double-edged sword effect of adaptation strategy on performance: The mediation of legitimacy and synergy. Journal of Business Research, 139, 448-456.
• Yang, Z., Su, C., & Fam, K.-S. (2012). Dealing with institutional distances in international marketing channels: Governance strategies that engender legitimacy and efficiency. Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 41–55.
• Yeoman, R. (2014). Conceptualising meaningful work as a fundamental human need. Journal of Business Ethics, 125(2), 235-251.
• Zhu, Y. (2013). Individual behavior: In-role and extra-role. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(1), 23-27.