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Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory
This paper examines the concept of “contributing to society” in the context of meaningful work and calling. While previous studies have identified it as a significant dimension within these concepts, little attention has been paid to trying to conceptualize it. Also, with “self-oriented” fulfillment...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10264608/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37325769 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1186547 |
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author | Bryant, Rowdy Lysova, Evgenia I. Khapova, Svetlana N. |
author_facet | Bryant, Rowdy Lysova, Evgenia I. Khapova, Svetlana N. |
author_sort | Bryant, Rowdy |
collection | PubMed |
description | This paper examines the concept of “contributing to society” in the context of meaningful work and calling. While previous studies have identified it as a significant dimension within these concepts, little attention has been paid to trying to conceptualize it. Also, with “self-oriented” fulfillment being an important aspect of the experience of meaningfulness, the understanding of contribution to society might be more complex than being simply an “other-oriented” concept. In response to this conceptual unclarity, we define contributing to society as a belief individuals hold about whether tasks positively impact work beneficiaries. We integrate this with Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) to determine the expected task value of such belief. Our argument is that fulfillment of a contribution depends on three factors: (1) the expectation of a contribution based on someone's calling and expected meaningfulness; (2) the extent to which the employee is invested in the task, the costs of such task, whether the beneficiary and impact value and the utility for the self and beneficiary match the preference; (3) the extent to which this contribution is sufficient considering someone's expectation. Therefore, the expected task value can differ between individuals concerning the number and types of beneficiaries and the extent and value of the impact. Moreover, in this way contributions to society should also be perceived from a self-oriented perspective to be fulfilling. This original concept offers a theoretical framework and a research agenda that proposes new avenues of inquiry for calling, meaningful work, contributing to society, and related fields such as job design, and public policy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10264608 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102646082023-06-15 Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory Bryant, Rowdy Lysova, Evgenia I. Khapova, Svetlana N. Front Psychol Psychology This paper examines the concept of “contributing to society” in the context of meaningful work and calling. While previous studies have identified it as a significant dimension within these concepts, little attention has been paid to trying to conceptualize it. Also, with “self-oriented” fulfillment being an important aspect of the experience of meaningfulness, the understanding of contribution to society might be more complex than being simply an “other-oriented” concept. In response to this conceptual unclarity, we define contributing to society as a belief individuals hold about whether tasks positively impact work beneficiaries. We integrate this with Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) to determine the expected task value of such belief. Our argument is that fulfillment of a contribution depends on three factors: (1) the expectation of a contribution based on someone's calling and expected meaningfulness; (2) the extent to which the employee is invested in the task, the costs of such task, whether the beneficiary and impact value and the utility for the self and beneficiary match the preference; (3) the extent to which this contribution is sufficient considering someone's expectation. Therefore, the expected task value can differ between individuals concerning the number and types of beneficiaries and the extent and value of the impact. Moreover, in this way contributions to society should also be perceived from a self-oriented perspective to be fulfilling. This original concept offers a theoretical framework and a research agenda that proposes new avenues of inquiry for calling, meaningful work, contributing to society, and related fields such as job design, and public policy. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10264608/ /pubmed/37325769 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1186547 Text en Copyright © 2023 Bryant, Lysova and Khapova. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Bryant, Rowdy Lysova, Evgenia I. Khapova, Svetlana N. Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title | Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title_full | Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title_fullStr | Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title_full_unstemmed | Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title_short | Calling for a meaningful contribution? Bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
title_sort | calling for a meaningful contribution? bridging contributing to society with motivation theory |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10264608/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37325769 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1186547 |
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