Working toward a purpose: Examining the cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of work characteristics on sense of purpose
Sara J Weston, Patrick L Hill, M Teresa Cardador
*Journal of Personality*
Abstract
Employment appears to influence employees' sense of purpose, insofar as work roles can provide life direction and allow individuals to fulfill meaningful aims or have regular goal-related activity engagement. However, research is needed on which specific characteristics of the work predict employees' sense of purpose. The current study sought to quantitate the degree to which specific work characteristics, including skill variety, autonomy, coworker support, and supervisor support, were associated with initial levels and changes in purpose. Additionally, we examine positive and negative work-home spillover as moderators of these relationships. We examined hypothesized relationships in a subsample (N = 4,963) of a nationally representative panel study which included between two and three assessments of work characteristics, spillover, and sense of purpose, each roughly 10 years apart. Using multilevel models to assess within-person associations and lagged effects, we found that greater skill variety and coworker support but not autonomy or supervisor support, were associated with higher levels of purpose. Moreover, increases in purpose were associated with higher initial levels of skill variety. These relationships were not moderated by spillover. Individuals with skill variety and coworker support at work appear to experience the strongest levels of sense of purpose.
Why we asked
Plenty of people tell us that work gives their life meaning, and people who work do report a stronger sense of purpose than people who do not. That finding treats a job as one thing, though, and jobs differ enormously. A job can be varied or repetitive, lonely or full of good colleagues. We wanted to know which of those features are linked to feeling that your life has direction, and not only to feeling that your work is meaningful.
What we did
We used the Midlife in the United States study (MIDUS), which surveyed adults in 1994-1995, 2003-2004 and 2013. Our sample was the 4,963 people who answered the questions we needed at least twice. We looked at four work characteristics: skill variety (using many different skills), autonomy, coworker support and supervisor support. Purpose came from a three-item scale. We also asked whether the links depended on work-home spillover, meaning how much stress or good feeling carries between the office and home. We preregistered the analyses and report our deviations in the paper.
What we found
At the same point in time, people with more skill variety and more coworker support reported a stronger sense of purpose. Autonomy and supervisor support were not uniquely associated with purpose once the other characteristics were in the model. Across the roughly ten years between waves, people whose work started out with more skill variety tended to show larger increases in purpose. Spillover did not change any of these links.
The associations were modest, in line with other studies of change in purpose. The three-item purpose scale also had low reliability (alphas of about .29 to .35), so we treat these estimates as rough. In an exploratory analysis, higher purpose at the start was associated with later increases in autonomy and coworker support, so the arrow could run in both directions.
What it means
Varied, challenging work and friendly colleagues go along with a stronger sense of direction. Our data are observational, and we cannot say that redesigning a job would raise anyone’s purpose, though it would be a reasonable thing to test.
Work is one source of purpose among several.