The mismanaged soul: existential labor and the erosion of meaningful work

Katherine Bailey, Adrian Madden, Kerstin Alfes, Amanda Shantz and Emma Soane

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Meaningful work has been defined as work that is personally enriching and that makes a positive contribution. There is increasing interest in how organizations can harness the meaningfulness of work to enhance productivity and performance. We explain how organizations seek to manage the meaningfulness employees experience through strategies focused on job design, leadership, HRM and culture. Employees can respond positively to employers’ strategies aimed at raising their level of experienced meaningfulness when they are felt to be authentic. However, when meaningfulness is lacking, or employees perceive that the employer is seeking to manipulate their meaningfulness for performative intent, then the response of employees can be to engage in “existential labor” strategies with the potential for harmful consequences for individuals and organizations. We develop a model of existential labor, drawing out a set of propositions for future research endeavors, and outline the implications for HRM practitioners.

Keywords: existential labor; meaningful work; job design; values. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-09-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Published in Human Resource Management Review, 1, September, 2017, 27(3), pp. 416-430. ISSN: 1053-4822

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/68342/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:68342

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().