It causes anger and disappointment, and can negatively affect employees' later motivation, write Adrian Chadi, Sabrina Jeworrek and Vanessa Mertin

Chadi, Adrian

Jeworrek, Sabrina

Mertins, Vanessa

LSE Research Online

Meaningless	work	threatens	job	performanceOpen,	transparent	communication	across	the	organisation	is	generally	associated	with	improved	employeemotivation	and	organisational	outcomes.	For	supervisors,	the	question	arises	how	to	deal	with	rather	inconvenientinformation,	such	as	in	the	case	of	a	project	failure.	Informing	employees	after	significant	investments	of	time	andeffort	might	lead	to	negative	effects	on	subsequent	work	motivation,	one	could	argue.	To	identify	a	causalrelationship	between	the	meaning	of	previously	completed	work	and	workers’	subsequent	work	performance,	weexploited	a	natural	working	environment	in	which	the	loss	of	the	job’s	meaning	occurred	as	a	matter	of	fact.	At	thesame	time,	it	was	possible	to	credibly	guide	only	part	of	the	workforce	to	believe	in	the	sudden	loss	of	meaning	byconducting	a	controlled	experiment.The	experimental	settingDue	to	the	necessity	of	collecting	inventory	data	on	business	reports	collected	over	decades,	we	hired	140workers	for	a	one-time	half-day	job.	At	first,	the	collection	of	business	reports	was	perceived	as	comprehensive,unique,	and	therefore	a	valuable	resource	for	researchers.	Subsequently,	however,	the	managing	directordecided	to	dissolve	the	archive	when	the	inventory	project	revealed	the	collection’s	fragmentary	character,	thebad	condition	of	some	reports,	and	the	increasing	online	accessibility	of	such	reports.Approximately	one	week	after	the	undertaking	of	the	inventory,	we	contacted	workers	and	invited	them	to	takepart	in	a	follow-up	survey	online.	We	randomly	assigned	each	worker	to	one	of	three	information	sets	that	werepart	of	the	questionnaire.	In	one	group,	we	simply	reminded	workers	about	the	meaning	of	their	previous	task(i.e.,	creating	a	database	for	research	purposes),	so	that	they	were	likely	to	still	believe	in	the	Original	Meaning.Additionally,	we	told	the	No	Meaning	group	that	the	managing	director	had	decided	to	dissolve	the	archive	afterthe	creation	of	the	database.To	study	how	employees	respond	to	a	new	purpose	after	the	original	one	had	disappeared,	a	third	group	receivedan	Alternative	Meaning	treatment.	Employees	got	to	know	that	their	previous	work	had	become	meaningless	withregard	to	its	stated	purpose,	but	we	also	informed	them	that	their	work	served	an	additional	purpose	notpreviously	communicated	(as	the	data	collected	in	the	course	of	the	inventory	project	could	be	used	for	researchin	the	field	of	personnel	economics,	see	Jeworrek	and	Mertins	2014).	Afterwards,	we	asked	participants	toanswer	a	series	of	similar	and	monotonous	survey	questions	to	support	ongoing	research	activities.	Since	thispart	of	the	questionnaire	was	not	paid	additionally,	participants	were	allowed	to	quit	the	survey	at	any	point	intime	and,	hence,	the	number	of	answered	questions	can	be	used	as	an	indicator	for	an	individual’s	motivation	towork.LSE Business Review: Meaningless work threatens job performance Page 1 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-19Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/07/19/meaningless-work-threatens-job-performance/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/Work	performanceDespite	the	short-term	nature	of	the	job	and	the	time	lag	between	the	tasks,	which	might	weaken	employees’responses,	the	data	reveal	a	strong	impact	of	previous	task	meaning	on	workers’	subsequent	motivation	(seeFigure	1).	This	effect,	however,	is	driven	by	those	workers	who	answered	our	survey	invitation	within	a	few	days.A	particular	subgroup	of	employees	did	not	respond	to	the	survey	invitation	until	they	received	a	final	call.	Theseworkers	do	not	seem	to	be	susceptible	at	all	to	the	variation	in	task	meaning.	Although	there	might	be	anexogenous	reason	for	the	delayed	answer,	such	as	limited	reachability	during	holidays,	it	could	also	constitute	aself-selection	related	to	particular	personal	characteristics.	For	instance,	one	may	think	of	low	loyalty	toward	theemployer	or	low	interest	in	continuing	the	relationship.	In	that	case,	they	are	generally	expected	to	be	lessmotivated	to	answer	the	survey	questions	across	treatments	and	presumably	less	responsive	to	the	informationabout	the	meaning	of	the	task.Figure	1:	Meaning	of	work	and	its	impact	on	work	performanceNote:	The	grey	bars	depict	the	average	number	of	answered	survey	questions	for	the	whole	sample,	including	those	workerswho	did	not	answer	until	they	received	a	final	call.	The	blue	bars	cover	only	those	workers	who	responded	after	the	first	surveyinvitation.Alternative	meaning	and	conclusionsEmployees	seem	to	“forgive”	their	employer	for	canceling	a	project	if	another	and	still	valid	purpose	is	crediblycommunicated.	When	comparing	the	means	of	answered	survey	questions,	it	becomes	obvious	that	providing	analternative	meaning	for	the	previously	conducted	job	absorbs	the	negative	performance	effect	of	the	loss	of	theoriginal	meaning	completely.	Apparently,	it	does	not	matter	that	the	task’s	original	meaning	was	lost:	what	countsis	that	it	had	a	meaning	at	all.By	analysing	whether	individual	personality	traits	do	matter	in	this	context,	we	find	that	distrustful	individualsperform	significantly	worse	than	trustful	ones,	probably	because	they	might	suspect	that	the	supplied	alternativetask	meaning	would	become	similarly	futile.LSE Business Review: Meaningless work threatens job performance Page 2 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-19Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/07/19/meaningless-work-threatens-job-performance/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/Since	participants’	earnings	did	not	depend	on	their	behaviour	and,	the	situation	mirrored	the	incompletecontracts	that	are	typical	of	employment	relationships.	Hence,	our	findings	have	some	practical	implications	forhow	companies	deliver	feedback	and	organise	work.	The	evidence	suggests	that	providing	information	on	workwhich	has	turned	out	to	be	futile	does	not	only	prompt	feelings	such	as	disappointment	and	anger	but	it	cantrigger	negative	consequences	for	employees’	subsequent	motivation	as	well.To	counter	these	possible	implications,	the	identification	of	an	alternative	purpose	can	help	compensate	for	theexperienced	loss,	and	supervisors	may	be	well	advised	to	anticipate	these	behavioural	effects	in	their	informationstrategy.	If	employees’	experiences	and	perceptions	from	a	half-day	job	already	trigger	the	observed	negativeeffects,	it	seems	very	likely	that	the	effects	on	behaviour	and	emotions	arising	from	a	loss	of	meaning	in	longerprojects	will	be	even	more	severe.♣♣♣Notes:This	blog	post	is	based	on	the	authors’	paper	When	the	Meaning	of	Work	Has	Disappeared:	ExperimentalEvidence	on	Employees’	Performance	and	Emotions,	Management	Science,	Vol.	63,	Issue	6	(2017)The	post	gives	the	views	of	its	authors,	not	the	position	of	LSE	Business	Review	or	the	London	School	ofEconomics.Featured	image	credit:	Hard	at	“work”,	by	Winter	Jefferson,	under	a	CC-BY-NC-2.0	licenceOR	Work,	by	caio_triana,	under	a	CC0	licenceBefore	commenting,	please	read	our	Comment	Policy.Adrian	Chadi	is	a	Research	Assistant	(Post-Doc)	at	Institute	for	Labour	Law	and	IndustrialRelations	in	European	Union	(IAAEU)	and	department	of	Personnel	Economics	at	the	University	ofTrier.	His	main	research	interests	are:	labour	markets,		personnel	economics,	happiness	research,behavioural	economics	and	the	economics	of	education.	Sabrina	Jeworrek	is	Assistant	Professor	for	Applied	Microeconometrics	at	Otto	von	GuerickeUniversity	Magdeburg	as	well	as	a	member	of	the	Department	Structural	Change	and	Productivityat	IWH	since	October	2016.	She	received	her	Bachelor	and	Master	degree	in	Economics	andInstitutions	at	Philipps	University	Marburg,	her	PhD	at	Trier	University	at	IAAEU	(Institute	forLabour	Law	and	Industrial	Relations	in	the	European	Union).	In	August	2016,	she	successfullydefended	her	thesis	on	“The	Behavioral	Impact	of	Non-Monetary	Workplace	Characteristics:Laboratory	and	Field	Experimental	Evidence”.Vanessa	Mertins	is	a	professor	of	business	management	at	University	of	Vechta,	focussing	on	themanagement	of	social	services.	She	studied	mathematics	and	economics	at	the	TUKaiserslautern,	the	University	of	Saarland,	and	the	University	of	Newcastle	upon	Tyne.	Later	shetaught	and	researched	at	the	University	of	Saarland	as	well	as	at	the	Institute	for	Labour	Law	andLabor	Relations	in	the	European	Union	(IAAEU)	of	the	University	of	Trier.	In	2009,	she	receiveda	PhD	in	economics	from	the	University	of	Giessen	with	a	work	on	procedural	fairnesspreferences.	LSE Business Review: Meaningless work threatens job performance Page 3 of 3		Date originally posted: 2017-07-19Permalink: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2017/07/19/meaningless-work-threatens-job-performance/Blog homepage: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/

Meaningless work threatens job performance

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