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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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Autores principales: Bryant, Rowdy, Lysova, Evgenia I., Khapova, Svetlana N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
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.
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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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