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Your employees are calling: How organizations help or hinder living a calling at work
... Viver um chamado está relacionado ao fato de trabalhadores entenderem a profissão como um chamado, e ter a oportunidade de encontrar um trabalho no qual possam vivenciar de fato este chamado (Hirschi et al., 2019). Segundo Buis et al. (2024) viver o trabalho como um chamado pode reduzir o stress e ansiedade e melhorar a satisfação no trabalho. Desta forma, viver um chamado facilita a capacidade de um indivíduo atender suas necessidades psicológicas básicas, por outro lado, essas necessidades podem ser frustradas em caso de um chamado não atendido (Gazica & Spector, 2015). ...
Resumo Este estudo analisou o papel moderador da vivência de um chamado nas relações diretas entre perceber um chamado e satisfação no trabalho, satisfação com a vida, significado da vida, bem-estar existencial e compromisso com a carreira. A metodologia utilizada foi à quantitativa e descritiva. Os dados foram estimados por modelagem de equações estruturais (MEE). Os resultados demonstraram que somente a relação direta entre perceber um chamado e significado da vida foi suportada. Já no efeito da moderação de viver um chamado nas relações entre perceber um chamado com satisfação no trabalho, satisfação com a vida e bem-estar existencial foram suportadas. Palavras-chave: Carreira profissional. Perceber um chamado. Viver um chamado. Chamado ocupacional. Abstract This study analyzed the moderating role of experiencing calling in the direct relationships between perceiving a calling and job satisfaction, life satisfaction, meaning in life, existential well-being, and career commitment. The methodology used was quantitative and descriptive. The data were estimated through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results demonstrated that only the direct relationship between perceiving a calling and meaning in life was supported. However, the moderating effect of experiencing a calling on the relationships between perceiving a calling and job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and existential well-being was supported.
This study examined whether employees develop perceptions about 3 different types of fit: person-organization fit, needs-supplies fit, and demands-abilities fit. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 2 different samples strongly suggested that employees differentiate between these 3 types of fit. Furthermore, results from a longitudinal design of 187 managers supported both the convergent and discriminant validity of the different types of fit perceptions. Specifically, person-organization fit perceptions were related to organization-focused outcomes (e.g., organizational identification, citizenship behaviors, turnover decisions), whereas needs-supplies fit perceptions were related to job- and career-focused outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction, career satisfaction, occupational commitment). Although demands-abilities fit perceptions emerged as a distinct construct, they were not related to hypothesized outcomes (e.g., job performance, raises).
The literature suggests that contextualized personality measures yield stronger predictive validity. However, frame-of-reference (FOR) theory is underdeveloped, and existing work-FOR personality measures have several limitations. Integrating FOR research with the knowledge-and-appraisal personality architecture (KAPA) theoretical framework, we developed a new work-FOR personality measure: the 20-item ORG-B5. Study 1 summarizes the procedure used to select the items and tests its basic psychometric properties with two samples. Study 2 shows that the ORG-B5 has good convergent and discriminant validity and outperforms the Mini-Markers and the Mini-IPIP in its base psychometrics. Study 3 demonstrates that the ORG-B5 predicts work-engagement and leader-member exchange (LMX), while Study 4a and 4b shows incremental validity of the ORG-B5 above other Big Five measures in predicting work-engagement and LMX. Study 5 demonstrates measurement invariance between native and nonnative English speakers and compares the criterion and incremental validity of the ORG-B5 beyond another work-FOR measure. Study 6 demonstrates convergence between self- and coworker ratings of the ORG-B5 and its prediction of time-lagged self-reported engagement and LMX and supervisor-reported deviance and task performance. Given these results, we argue that the ORG-B5 is a reliable and short personality measure more appropriate than existing measures for organizational research.
One distinguishing feature of servant leadership is the proposition that servant leaders develop followers who also engage in serving behaviors. Drawing upon social learning theory, we argue that follower dispositional self-interest is a boundary condition affecting the transference of manager servant leadership to follower engagement in serving behaviors, and that follower serving self-efficacy is the underlying psychological mechanism. In a laboratory experiment (Study 1), we manipulated manager servant leadership and found support for the hypothesis that the positive relationship between manager servant leadership and follower serving behaviors is significantly enhanced for participants high in self-interest. The serving behaviors of participants low in self-interest was not affected by the degree to which the manager practiced servant leadership. In a field study (Study 2) with a sample representing 10 diverse organizations in Singapore, we replicated the findings. In another laboratory experiment (Study 3), we demonstrated that follower serving self-efficacy mediated the interactional effect found in the first two studies, supporting the social learning account for the transference of manager servant leadership to follower serving behaviors. Taken together, converging results from these three studies demonstrate that servant leaders are capable of bringing out serving behaviors especially among followers with a strong focus on their own self-interest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Workplace deviance research has expanded rapidly over the past decade. Despite the expansive body of research available, we have an incomplete understanding of the measurement, magnitude, and direction of relationships within workplace deviance's nomological network. We draw from 235 empirical samples of data (k = 235, N = 66,990) to conduct random-effects meta-analyses of interpersonal (k = 156, N = 42,239) and organizational (k = 206, N = 60,008) workplace deviance research so we can build the solid foundation necessary to advance the conversation in this literature. We use an exploratory meta-analytic approach and the horizontal contrasting method of theory elaboration to provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship between interpersonal and organizational deviance (ρ = .67, k = 110, N = 30,426) as well as determine the magnitude and generalizability (i.e., external validity) of relationships within their nomological networks. We find some evidence of differences (i.e., heterogeneity) in the measurement and magnitude of relationships across contexts. Overall, we conduct a state-of-the-art meta-analysis that leverages contemporary meta-analytic techniques and the extensive body of empirical workplace deviance research available to improve our understanding of the measurement of workplace deviance and relationships Acknowledgments: We thank Ernest O'Boyle and two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and supportive feedback. We thank Katherine Alexander, Phil Andolena, Sami Berrada, and Nataliya Potapenko for their help coding the meta-analytic data for our study.
Extant literature on work as a calling is primarily focused on individual factors. The role of social context, particularly the groups to which individuals belong, is largely unexplored despite the importance of others in the construction of meaning and the central role of groups in the organization of work. We seek to address this conspicuous gap by exploring work groups as a rich and relevant context in which individuals engage in the evaluative experiences inherent in the pursuit of calling. In so doing, we integrate research on calling with research on social identity theory and optimal distinctiveness in groups to present a conceptual typology of groups and calling. Our typology crosses the calling dimensions of search and presence with the identity motives of belonging and distinctiveness reflected in the group context, proposing six classifications of individual experiences of calling in these social contexts. Finally, we suggest practical considerations for individuals and groups in each of these classifications to help individuals satisfy unmet needs in identity motives related to calling, and to ultimately improve success in pursuing callings.
Over the past decade, research on work as a calling has seen a rapid growth, with hundreds of empirical articles on the topic having been published. Until recently, however, there has been no comprehensive theoretical model of work as a calling to guide research. Duffy, Dik, Douglass, England, and Velez (2018) published the Work as Calling Theory (WCT), which provides a comprehensive model of the predictors and outcomes of living out a calling. The present study provides the first empirical examination of the 20 propositions outlined within the predictor portion of this model. Using data collected from a sample of 424 employed adults living in the United States, from diverse social class backgrounds and occupations, we conducted latent variable structural equation modeling to evaluate the model propositions. Overall, we found full (17) and partial (1) support for 18 of the 20 model propositions, which included direct effects along with mediating and moderating effects. Person–environment fit, career commitment, and work meaning appear to be critical in helping to translate a perceived calling and access to opportunity into a lived calling. Additionally, calling motivation, organizational support, and job crafting may play a key role in helping employees with a calling experience more fit with their work environments. Taking these findings into consideration, we explore practical implications for career counselors and employers and highlight future directions for scholars using the WCT.
Moral forms of leadership such as ethical, authentic, and servant leadership have seen a surge of interest in the 21st century. The proliferation of morally-based leadership approaches has resulted in theoretical confusion and empirical overlap that mirror substantive concerns within the larger leadership domain. Our integrative review of this literature reveals connections with moral philosophy that provide a useful framework to better differentiate the specific moral content (i.e., deontology, virtue ethics, and consequentialism) that undergirds ethical, authentic, and servant leadership respectively. Taken together, this integrative review clarifies points of integration and differentiation among moral approaches to leadership and delineates avenues for future research that promise to build complementary rather than redundant knowledge regarding how moral approaches to leadership inform the broader leadership domain.
Notwithstanding the proliferation of servant leadership studies with over 100 articles published in the last four years alone, a lack of coherence and clarity around the construct has impeded its theory development. We provide an integrative and comprehensive review of the 285 articles on servant leadership spanning 20 years (1998–2018), and in so doing extend the field in four different ways. First, we provide a conceptual clarity of servant leadership vis-à-vis other value-based leadership approaches and offer a new definition of servant leadership. Second, we evaluate 16 existing measures of servant leadership in light of their respective rigor of scale construction and validation. Third, we map the theoretical and nomological network of servant leadership in relation to its antecedents, outcomes, moderators, mediators. We finally conclude by presenting a detailed future research agenda to bring the field forward encompassing both theoretical and empirical advancement. All in all, our review paints a holistic picture of where the literature has been and where it should go into the future.
Perceiving work as a calling has been positioned as a key pathway to enhancing work-related well-being. However, no formal theory exists attempting to explain predictors and outcomes of living a calling at work. To address this important gap, this article introduces a theoretical, empirically testable model of work as a calling - the Work as Calling Theory (WCT) - that is suitable for the contemporary world of work. Drawing from research and theory in counseling, vocational, multicultural, and industrial-organizational psychology, as well as dozens of quantitative and qualitative studies on calling, the WCT is presented in three parts: (a) predictors of living a calling, (b) variables that moderate and mediate the relation of perceiving a calling to living a calling, and (c) positive (job satisfaction, job performance) and potentially negative (burnout, workaholism, exploitation) outcomes that result from living a calling. Finally, practical implications are suggested for counselors and managers, who respectively may seek to help clients and employees live a calling.
Leader-member exchange (LMX) pertains to the exchange relationship between supervisors and subordinates. While prior results validated LMX’s critical role in the workplace, less is known about “what has been input and exchanged” to cultivate this dyadic relationship. In this study, a resource framework based on conservation of resources theory (COR) was developed as an alternative theoretical perspective in investigating relationships between LMX and its correlates. Three groups of resources which has incorporated newly studied and existing correlates of LMX and existing constructs that could not be easily fitted into other theoretical frameworks were argued as antecedents to LMX. COR theory highlights the important role of LMX in transforming instrumental resources into favorable outcomes. The model also incorporates two types of LMX consequences: employee competitiveness and organizational enhancements. The findings contribute to the LMX literature by identifying the types of resources that are valuable in cultivating a high-quality LMX relationship, which in turn relates to the competitiveness of employees and their contribution that can enhance organizational effectiveness. Overall, the study findings indicate that LMX is significantly related to various antecedents and outcomes. Implications for theory development and directions for future research are also discussed.
Combining the lifespan developmental perspective with the process perspective of entrepreneurship, we develop hypotheses on the role of age in the entrepreneurial process. Specifically, we expect that younger people have a more extensive future time perspective than older people, which makes it more likely for younger (vs. older) people to transition from opportunity identification to forming entrepreneurial intentions. Further, we expect that older people have greater prior entrepreneurial experience than younger people, which makes it more likely for older (vs. younger) people to transition from forming entrepreneurial intentions to engaging in entrepreneurial activity. We tested our hypotheses using longitudinal data from 343 working adults from Australia across 12 months with three measurement waves. Results supported our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that age-related constructs can facilitate and hinder transitions in the entrepreneurial process.
An important and underexamined issue in the study of callings concerns the challenges people face in pursuing a calling and how they negotiate those challenges. This process may be especially intense and consequential because callings involve work that is rooted in people's values and that matters a great deal to them. Drawing on narrative interviews with 50 animal shelter workers, we identify three different "calling paths" that evolve as employees respond to the challenges they encounter. While all individuals in our study entered animal shelter work with similar passion and purpose, and faced similar kinds of challenges, those on different paths interpreted challenges differently, had different emotional responses to them, engaged in different kinds of enacted sensemaking, and developed different accounts of themselves and their guiding purpose, through which they interpreted subsequent challenges. The result was the emergence of three increasingly divergent calling paths over time, culminating in different emotional, psychological, and behavioral outcomes. Based on these findings, we develop a model of the recursive process through which individuals negotiate the challenges of a calling, contributing to the literatures on callings and employee responses to workplace challenges.
PurposeA work orientation represents a person’s beliefs about the meaning of work – the function work plays in the person’s life and the constellation of values and assumptions the person holds about the work domain. Research has suggested that adults tend to favor one of three primary work orientations: job, career, or calling. Empirical studies have shown that adults with different primary work orientations tend to experience different work and career outcomes; however, scholars have not analyzed how or why an individual first develops a work orientation. In this study, we take a first step toward investigating the origins of adults’ work orientations.
Design/methodology/approachWe propose hypotheses drawing on extant literature on the development of work values and occupational inheritance. We test hypotheses using a retrospective research design and survey methodology, with a sample of working adults.
FindingsWork orientations are developed through socialization processes with parents during adolescence. There are different patterns of development across the three work orientation categories: stronger calling orientations are developed when both parents possess strong calling orientations; stronger career orientations develop in accordance with fathers’ career orientations; and job orientations are related more to the nature of the adolescent’s relationship with parents than with parents’ own work orientations.
Originality/valueThis research provides the first empirical study of the origin and development of work orientations.
Research limitations/implicationsThis research offers insight into ways generations are connected through the perceived meaning of their work, even as the nature of work changes. We encourage future scholars to use this as a starting point for research on the development of work orientations, and to continue exploring these questions using additional methods, particularly longitudinal study designs.
In two cross-sectional studies, we explored the motivational orientations correlates of the character strength of grit and its two component facets: perseverance of effort and consistency of interests over time. Specifically, we examined how individual differences in grit are explained by distinct approaches to pursuing happiness in life: pleasure in immediately hedonically positive activities, meaning in activities that serve a higher, altruistic purpose, and engagement in attention-absorbing activities. In both samples, grit demonstrated medium-sized associations with an orientation toward engagement, small-to-medium associations with an orientation toward meaning, and small-to-medium (inverse) associations with an orientation toward pleasure. These motivational orientations differentially related to the two facets of grit: pursuing engagement was more strongly associated with perseverance of effort, whereas pursuing pleasure was more strongly (inversely) associated with consistency of interests over time. Collectively, findings suggest that individual differences in grit may derive in part from differences in what makes people happy.
Following a review of literature on the leader-member exchange model of leadership, the model's methodological and theoretical problems are discussed. First, it is argued that leader-member exchange is a multidimensional construct and should be measured accordingly. Second, it is noted that the leader-member exchange developmental process has not been fully explicated. In addressing these problems, a three dimensional conceptualization of the leader-member exchange construct is proposed and a model of the leader-member exchange developmental process is presented.
A paucity of research has compared estimation methods within a measurement invariance (MI) framework and determined if research conclusions using normal-theory maximum likelihood (ML) generalizes to the robust ML (MLR) and weighted least squares means and variance adjusted (WLSMV) estimators. Using ordered categorical data, this simulation study aimed to address these queries by investigating 342 conditions. When testing for metric and scalar invariance, Delta chi(2) results revealed that Type I error rates varied across estimators (ML, MLR, and WLSMV) with symmetric and asymmetric data. The Delta chi(2) power varied substantially based on the estimator selected, type of noninvariant indicator, number of noninvariant indicators, and sample size. Although some the changes in approximate fit indexes (Delta AFI) are relatively sample size independent, researchers who use the Delta AFI with WLSMV should use caution, as these statistics do not perform well with misspecified models. As a supplemental analysis, our results evaluate and suggest cutoff values based on previous research.
While a positive view of calling has been ubiquitous since its introduction into the literature over two decades ago, research remains unsettled about the extent to which it contributes to various aspects of the good life: an optimal way of living well via worthwhile endeavors. Further, scholars have identified two conceptual types of calling, marked by internal versus external foci; yet their differential impact on outcomes indicative of the good life, such as eudaimonic and hedonic well-being (characterized by the experience of purpose and meaning versus pleasure and happiness, respectively), is unknown. Through a meta-analysis of 201 studies, we provide the first systematic review focused on these two fundamental theoretical issues in the calling literature: how strongly related callings are to outcomes in the domains of work and life and which type of calling (internally or externally focused) more strongly predicts these outcomes, if either. We find that callings more strongly relate to outcomes indicative of the good life than recently argued. We further find that callings are more strongly linked to work than to life outcomes and to eudaimonic than to hedonic outcomes. The two types of calling converge in being associated with many similar outcomes, but they show some divergence: internally focused callings are more positively related to hedonic outcomes and less positively related to eudaimonic outcomes, relative to externally focused callings. This finding supports a view of callings as hierarchically structured, with a higher-order calling factor composed of two correlated yet distinct lower-order calling types. Integrating our meta-analytic findings with relevant literatures, we propose a theoretical model that addresses psychological and social need fulfillment through which different types of callings contribute to the good life.
There is an increasingly prevalent expectation in contemporary society that employees be passionate for their work. Here, we suggest that employers and employees can have different understandings of passion that potentially conflict. More specifically, we argue that although employers may often be well-intentioned, their emphasis on employee passion may at times amount to normative control and reflect a means to attain valued work outcomes. In contrast, employees may primarily view their pursuit of passion as an opportunity to self-actualize, and thereby, view passion as an end in itself. We propose that when employees notice that these two understandings of passion diverge, they experience uncertainty in adjudicating which understanding of passion—their own or their employer’s—to privilege. Critically, employees may feel responsible for and subsequently seek ways to reduce this uncertainty, and doing so places added demands that impedes employees’ ability to perform. We discuss why employers may not necessarily recognize how their understanding of passion can create challenges for employees, and examine the difficulties employers face in attempting to resolve the tensions employees experience. Subsequently, we develop an agenda for future research that highlights how individual, organizational, and cultural differences may lead to variation in divergent understandings of passion, and the critical role managers could play in helping address employees’ uncertainty.
Emerging from distinct perspectives, decent work and meaningful work are fundamental aspects of contemporary work with profound implications for individuals, organizations, and society. Decent work reflects basic workplace conditions to which all employees are entitled, whereas meaningful work is aspirational, reflecting significance at work. Following a conceptual and empirical review of scholarship on decent work and meaningful work, we draw from psychology of working theory to connect the two constructs. We argue that need satisfaction serves as the primary connector, and societal context, organizational conditions, and individual practices (in order of effectiveness) promote access to each type of work. We suggest future research directions broadening the available scholarship and methods used, promoting a focus on the complex intersection of macrolevel and psychological factors as well as interdisciplinary approaches in determining the quality of work, and engaging in intervention research to improve the way in which people live and work together.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Volume 10 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The Work as a Calling Theory (WCT) predicts that career calling fosters job performance. A quantitative summary of previous work supports this prediction and shows that the relation between calling and job performance is moderate in size ( ρ = .29, K = 11, N = 2286) . Yet, the environmental conditions that modulate this relation are completely unknown. According to an interactionist perspective, we argue that calling may predict performance only when job demand is low. Results of a multisource study on salesmen and managers dyads ( N= 965) partially supported this prediction. We observed that highly demanding work environments, characterized by pressure to perform, high workload, and unachievable deadlines, suppress the positive relation between calling and self-reported performance. Job demand directly impairs performance and suppresses the positive effect of career calling. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.
Relationships are central to understanding what occurs in the workplace. The leader-member exchange (LMX) approach dominates the literature on relational dynamics of leadership. Research supports LMX as a mediator between leadership and outcomes, and this reflects the centrality of relationships at work. However, LMX is not a leadership theory. We critically review the literature on LMX, with discussion of the requirements for “good” theory and how LMX falls short. We acknowledge some attempts through the years to develop theory to guide LMX research. The concept of “exchange” was not original to LMX. Our review of social exchange theory reveals that, contrary to the common approach, LMX is not consonant with exchange theory. Other attempts at theory offer partial explanations that do not capture leader-member relational dynamics. Some promising approaches to studying leader-member relationships have emerged in recent years. We offer suggestions for future theory and research and advocate for a return to role theory and the development of emotional sociocognitive approaches.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Volume 9 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Within the last two decades, social science research on work as a calling has rapidly grown. To date, knowledge regarding prevalence and demographic differences of calling in the United States derives from data collected mainly from regionally limited and/or occupationally homogenous samples. The present study used data from the Portraits of American Life Study, a nationally stratified panel study of religion in the United States (U.S.), to estimate calling’s prevalence in the U.S. Our findings represent the first known population estimates of seeking, perceiving, and living a calling in the U.S. Results revealed that calling is a relevant concept for many U.S. adults, with 43% endorsing “mostly true” or “totally true” to the statement “I have a calling to a particular kind of work.” Small differences for presence of and search for a calling emerged across age groups, employment statuses, and levels of importance of God or spirituality. For living a calling, significant differences were identified only for importance of God or spirituality, contrasting with previous findings that suggested that living a calling varies as a function of income and social status. Implications for research and practice are explored.
Experiencing work as a calling has been described as the ideal of a truly positive experience of work. But what we know about how called professionals construct identities as people who are called to their work is incomplete. Discussions about callings are often framed as narratives—stories of people’s callings—yet little is known about how professionals incorporate a wide variety of life events into coherent stories that support their identity claims. To understand this process, we analyzed the narratives of 236 individuals from four professions. We found two ways our participants identified their callings: discernment and exploration. Discerners journeyed toward their destiny, which was their one true calling. Explorers actively searched for work they loved, but destiny played no role. Through a series of lived experiences, called professionals’ identities took shape as they were enacted, with their callings strengthening over time. After identifying their calling, each of these professionals engaged in two crucial processes for integrating self and work as they lived their calling. Like other professionals, called professionals sought legitimacy in their fields by demonstrating mastery and receiving affirmation. Yet their sense of calling simultaneously propelled them to craft personal authenticity through tailoring their own unique enactment of the role.
Information communication technologies (ICTs; e.g., smartphones) enable employees to work anywhere and anytime, blurring work and family boundaries. Building on this trend, this study draws from work‐family border/boundary theory to examine antecedents and consequences of employees’ weekly experiences of ICT demands (i.e., being accessible and contacted for work after hours via ICTs). A sample of 546 elementary teachers completed a registration survey and a weekly diary for five weeks. Multilevel modeling results suggest ICT demands as a form of work intrusion in the home can constitute a source of significant weekly strain (i.e., negative rumination, negative affect, insomnia). As border‐crossers, teachers’ adoption of a technological boundary tactic (i.e., keeping work email alerts turned off on mobile phones) was related to lower weekly ICT demands. As important border‐keepers at work, school principals’ work‐family support was related to teachers’ lower weekly ICT demands, whereas parents’ after‐hours boundary expectations were related to teachers’ higher weekly ICT demands. Moreover, teachers’ boundary control was found as a mediating mechanism by which the two border‐keepers influenced teachers’ ICT demands−negative rumination link. That is, teachers who received fewer boundary expectations and/or more work‐family support had greater boundary control, which in turn, buffered the ICT demands‐negative rumination relationship.
Latent variable models and interaction effects have both been common in the organizational sciences for some time. Methods for incorporating interactions into latent variable models have existed since at least Kenny and Judd, and a great many articles and books have developed these methods further. In the present article, we present an empirical review of the methods that organizational science investigators use to test their interaction hypotheses. We show that it is very common for investigators to use fully latent methods to test additive portions of their models, but to abandon such methods when testing the multiplicative portions of their models. By contrast, investigators whose models do not contain interactions tend to stick with fully latent methods throughout. As there is little rational basis for this pattern, it is likely due to continued discomfort regarding the proper application of existing fully latent methods. Thus, we end by offering R code that implements some of the more sophisticated fully latent approaches, and by offering a sequence of decisions that investigators can follow in order to choose the best analytic approach.
With this article, we open a special issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior on “Calling and Careers: New Insights and Future Directions.” Calling has become an important emerging topic of study in vocational psychology and organizational behavior, as the exponentially increasing volume of published studies on the topic indicates. After summarizing the aims of the special issue, we introduce each of the nine studies of calling and careers selected for inclusion. These studies initiate fresh research directions in key domains of calling research, such as: a) the conceptualization of calling, b) the emergence and development of calling, c) positive and negative effects of calling, and d) further theoretical development related to the construct. Together with the authors of these studies, we hope this special issue succeeds in moving the scholarly conversation on calling and careers forward.
The literature does not provide a clear answer about the development of callings over time. It has been hypothesized that a calling is a consequence of positive experiences in a domain (a posteriori hypothesis), or that it is the antecedent of career choices and development (a priori hypothesis), or both (reciprocal hypothesis). To investigate which hypothesis better describes the development of a calling, a three-wave longitudinal study was conducted in which we tested the temporal precedence between calling and (1) engagement in learning activities, (2) clarity of professional identity, and (3) presence of a supportive social environment. Four competing structural equation models were estimated and compared. The results suggest that clarity of professional identity, engagement in learning, and social support positively predict calling rather than the opposite, and that they provide support for the a posteriori hypothesis of calling development. Students who are actively engaged in their studies and have a clear idea of their occupational future are more likely to develop a calling over time. In addition, the results suggest that the presence of a supportive environment helps students to develop their calling. Implications for theory and research on calling are discussed.
The concept of work as a calling has the potential to provide unique and powerful insights into how individuals relate to their work and organizations. However, although this concept may be one of the oldest in the study of work—harking back to the Protestant Reformation—its impact on mainstream OP and OB research has been limited. We review the research literature on work as a calling, and identify several issues that are preventing research in this area from reaching its potential—issues of definition, differentiation, generalizability, and relevance. We consider each of these questions and propose a path forward. Central to that path forward is an integrated conceptualization of calling—what we call a transcendent calling—that puts dual emphasis on the inner requiredness of passion and enjoyment and the outer requiredness of duty and destiny. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior Volume 6 is January 21, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
With more individuals wanting their work to be meaningful, rather than just a source of income, more organizations recognize that fostering meaningful work is crucial for engaging their employees. Although scholars from diverse disciplines have made valuable efforts to examine how individual, job, organizational, and societal factors contribute to meaningful work, there is still no cohesive understanding of how these factors relate to one another and, thus, how organizations can proactively foster experiences of meaningful work for their employees. This paper reports the results of a multilevel review on the factors that contribute to workers’ experiences of meaningful work and discusses how these factors are related to each other to enable the experience of meaningful work in ways that organizations can promote. Our review suggests that to enable individuals to move beyond satisfying their basic needs by constructing their own sense of meaningful work, organizations should build and maintain work environments characterized by a) well-designed, good-fitting, and quality jobs that provide opportunities to job craft, b) facilitative leaders, cultures, policies and practices, and high-quality relationships, and c) an access to decent work. Our review demonstrates that there is a need for scholars to develop a theory that explains how individual, organizational and societal factors interact to foster meaningful work in organizations. Future research should also explore how organizations can target personality and societal factors that contribute to meaningful work.
Objective: Researchers conceptualize grit as the combination of two facets: perseverance of effort and consistency of interests toward long‐term goals. We tested the reliability of grit facet scores across the globe and examined how differently each grit facet related to well‐being and personality strengths.
Method: An international sample of 7,617 participants from 6 of the 7 continents (excluding Antarctica) completed an online survey.
Results: Confirmatory factor analyses and omega reliability coefficients indicated that the 12 items from the original Grit Scale were multidimensional and reliably measured perseverance of effort and consistency of interests. Concurrent validity analyses showed that perseverance of effort was moderately to strongly related to subjective well‐being, beliefs about well‐being, and personality strengths, whereas consistency of interests had weak or negative correlations with these outcomes. The stronger relations with perseverance of effort were replicated across 7 regions of the world. The presence of overall grit was supported in individualistic countries, but not collectivistic countries (Latin America, Asia).
Conclusions: We discuss the multidimensionality of grit, including a conceptual understanding of overall grit and how it may differ across cultures. We suggest well‐being and strengths researchers study grit facets separately due to their differential validity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Interpersonal trust is associated with a range of adaptive outcomes, including knowledge sharing. However, to date, our knowledge of antecedents and consequences of employees feeling trusted by supervisors in organizations remains limited. On the basis of a multisource, multiwave field study among 956 employees from 5 Norwegian organizations, we examined the predictive roles of perceived mastery climate and employee felt trust for employees' knowledge sharing. Drawing on the achievement goal theory, we develop and test a model to demonstrate that when employees perceive a mastery climate, they are more likely to feel trusted by their supervisors at both the individual and group levels. Moreover, the relationship between employees' perceptions of a mastery climate and supervisor-rated knowledge sharing is mediated by perceptions of being trusted by the supervisor. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of our findings are discussed.
Using a two-study design (total N = 1232), this paper examines the relationship between calling and employability. We suggest that, on the one hand, calling can positively relate to employability due to individuals' engagement in proactive professional development (PPD). On the other hand, calling can negatively relate to employability due to the career inflexibility that is associated with having a calling. The results of Study 1 revealed that calling does not directly relate to employability. When accounting for PPD in the calling-employability relationship, we found that calling positively and indirectly relates to occupational expertise dimension of employability, while it relates negatively and directly to personal flexibility dimension of employability. Findings from Study 2 showed that calling indirectly relates to employability both positively through PPD and negatively through career inflexibility. The findings from the two studies suggest the double-edged nature of a calling in relation to employability. The importance of these findings for understanding the career-related outcomes of calling is discussed.
This article presents a cognitive model of empowerment. Here, empowerment is defined as increased intrinsic task motivation, and our subsequent model identifies four cognitions (task assessments) as the basis for worker empowerment: sense of impact, competence, meaningfulness, and choice. Adopting an interpretive perspective, we have used the model also to describe cognitive processes through which workers reach these conclusions. Central to the processes we describe are workers' interpretive styles and global beliefs. Both preliminary evidence for the model and general implications for research are discussed.
Drawing on career construction theory, this study examined the relationship between calling and work engagement and subjective career success (i.e., career satisfaction) and the mediating role of career adaptability with a sample of 832 Chinese employees. Results from a time-lagged survey study showed that: (1) calling (measured at time 1) positively related to an employee's career adaptability, work engagement, and career satisfaction (measured at time 2), and (2) career adaptability mediated the relationship between calling and work engagement and career satisfaction. Based on the findings, theoretical and practical implications of this study and directions for future research are discussed.
The present studies examined the potential dark side of perceiving and living a calling with diverse samples of employed adults. In Study 1, living a calling and life meaning were found to suppress the relation between perceiving a calling and life satisfaction, resulting in these variables being significantly, negatively related. This suggests that perceiving a calling may predict decreased well-being when it is not lived out and does not provide meaning. In Study 2, participants living a calling did not experience greater burnout, workaholism, or organizational exploitation. Additionally, counter to hypotheses, living a calling was found to be a significant buffer in the relation of burnout/exploitation and job satisfaction. Specifically, the slope of the relation between living a calling and job satisfaction was more pronounced with individuals experiencing high levels of burnout/exploitation. These findings suggest that living a calling may help individuals in difficult working conditions maintain job satisfaction.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work ethic and grit. Several direct relationships were examined at the dimension and broader construct-level, as well as each variable's relationships with external variables. Work ethic and grit were moderately correlated at the broader construct-level, both related to conscientiousness, and several dimensions of the constructs were related. Work ethic explained significant incremental variance in job satisfaction and turnover intentions above and beyond grit. However, grit explained incremental variance in stress above and beyond work ethic. Study implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
In confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the use of maximum likelihood (ML) assumes that the observed indicators follow a continuous and multivariate normal distribution, which is not appropriate for ordinal observed variables. Robust ML (MLR) has been introduced into CFA models when this normality assumption is slightly or moderately violated. Diagonally weighted least squares (WLSMV), on the other hand, is specifically designed for ordinal data. Although WLSMV makes no distributional assumptions about the observed variables, a normal latent distribution underlying each observed categorical variable is instead assumed. A Monte Carlo simulation was carried out to compare the effects of different configurations of latent response distributions, numbers of categories, and sample sizes on model parameter estimates, standard errors, and chi-square test statistics in a correlated two-factor model. The results showed that WLSMV was less biased and more accurate than MLR in estimating the factor loadings across nearly every condition. However, WLSMV yielded moderate overestimation of the interfactor correlations when the sample size was small or/and when the latent distributions were moderately nonnormal. With respect to standard error estimates of the factor loadings and the interfactor correlations, MLR outperformed WLSMV when the latent distributions were nonnormal with a small sample size of N = 200. Finally, the proposed model tended to be over-rejected by chi-square test statistics under both MLR and WLSMV in the condition of small sample size N = 200.
Through two qualitative studies, we examine how members of a particularly demanding occupation conduct identity work to negotiate an optimal balance between personal and social identities. Findings are based on open-ended survey responses from and in-depth interviews with Episcopal priests. We first explore the situational and vocational demands placed on those in challenging occupations, along with the identity tensions that often result from those demands. We then specify and classify several identity work tactics that ameliorate these demands and tensions by differentiating or integrating personal and social identities. To synthesize findings, we develop a theoretical model of identity work.
My purpose in this article is to develop a better understanding of individuals who achieve extraordinary psychological success. To this end, this paper explores various facets of an extreme form of subjective career success that transcends any particular job or organizational context: having a calling. Firstly I offer background from the careers literature, followed by a review of the existing literature on having a calling and related constructs: 1) work preferences, particularly intrinsic motivation (Amabile et al, 1994); 2) work engagement and flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Kahn, 1990; May et al, 1999); 3) work orientations, including a calling orientation (Wrzesniewski et al, 1997); 4) good work (Gardner et al, 2000; Gardner et al, 2001); and 5) a discerned, conscious sense of having calling (Weiss et al, 2003; Hall & Chandler, Working paper). I then put forward a new, integrated typology for having a calling, which ideally could be used across different populations, in different contexts (e.g., both bounded and boundaryless), and can differentiate within populations. Lastly, I suggest directions for future research, including making propositions about several types of consequences of having a calling - both positive and negative.
I describe a test of linear moderated mediation in path analysis based on an interval estimate of the parameter of a function linking the indirect effect to values of a moderator—a parameter that I call the index of moderated mediation. This test can be used for models that integrate moderation and mediation in which the relationship between the indirect effect and the moderator is estimated as linear, including many of the models described by Edwards and Lambert (200710.
Edwards, J.R., & Lambert, L.S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12, 1–22.[CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®]View all references) and Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes (200743.
Preacher, K.J., Rucker, D.D., & Hayes, A.F. (2007). Assessing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185–227.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references) as well as extensions of these models to processes involving multiple mediators operating in parallel or in serial. Generalization of the method to latent variable models is straightforward. Three empirical examples describe the computation of the index and the test, and its implementation is illustrated using Mplus and the PROCESS macro for SPSS and SAS.
Whether Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) is a unidimensional or a multidimensional construct was assesed through the development and validation of a multidimensional measure. Item analysis involving 302 working students, followed by construct and criterion-related validation using 249 employees representing two organizations resulted in a multidimensional LMX scale. The results provided support for the affect, loyalty, and contribution dimensions identified by Dienesch and Liden (1986), as well as a fourth dimension, professional respect.
Most studies of work focus almost exclusively on secular antecedents of "work commitment," "work involvement," and work as a "central life interest." We argue that religion also influences the way people think of work. We use data from 1,869 Protestants and Catholics to test a theory that includes six religious factors, five work conditions, and other personal attributes. Work-related factors have the most effect, followed by religion, especially religious commitment and social justice beliefs. Among personal attributes, education, family income, and gender have a significant effect on orientations toward work.
Religious and spiritual variables have largely been excluded from organizational research. Yet, there is a growing body of literature that suggests religion and spirituality have a significant and substantive role in influencing employees’ attitudes and behaviors at work. This paper aims to add to this literature by looking at the relationships of spiritual calling with job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment after accounting for a range of demographic, religious, and work controls. Furthermore, we explore the interactive effect of spiritual calling and job satisfaction on organizational commitment. The data are drawn from a nationally representative sample of 771 adults in the United States. The results provide evidence of a positive relationship between spiritual calling and both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Additionally, our results support the interaction of spiritual calling and job satisfaction explaining additional variance in organizational commitment. Specifically, not only is organizational commitment strongest when spiritual calling and job satisfaction are both strong, but the results also indicate that spiritual calling is positively associated with organizational commitment even if one’s job is not very satisfying.