IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jamrpp/jamr-09-2023-0281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Managers' perceptions of meaningfulness in the future work

Author

Listed:
  • Soila Lemmetty
  • Elina Riivari

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Soila Lemmetty & Elina Riivari, 2024. "Managers' perceptions of meaningfulness in the future work," Journal of Advances in Management Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(2), pages 219-237, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:jamrpp:jamr-09-2023-0281
    DOI: 10.1108/JAMR-09-2023-0281
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JAMR-09-2023-0281/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JAMR-09-2023-0281/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/JAMR-09-2023-0281?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jamrpp:jamr-09-2023-0281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.