The role of morale as a positive psychological construct distinct from the construct of depression was examined using data from a longitudinal study of 1,685 U.S. soldiers on a peacekeeping mission to Kosovo. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed morale was best predicted by indices of engagement in meaningful work and confidence in unit functioning and leadership, whereas depression was best predicted by deployment stressors and...

Service employees often perceive their actions as harming and benefiting others, and these perceptions have significant consequences for their own well‐being. We conducted two studies to test the hypothesis that perceptions of benefiting others attenuate the detrimental effects of perceptions of harming others on the well‐being of service employees. In Study 1, a survey of 377 transportation service employees and 99 secretaries, perceived prosocial impact...

The validity of Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model was assessed by conducting a comprehensive review of nearly 200 relevant studies on the model as well as by applying meta‐analytic procedures to a large portion of the data. The evidence indicated that the available correlational results are reasonably valid in light of the issues examined. Results tended to support the multidimensionality of job characteristics, but...

This article illustrates how work contexts motivate employees to care about making a positive difference in other people's lives. I introduce a model of relational job design to describe how jobs spark the motivation to make a prosocial difference, and how this motivation affects employees' actions and identities. Whereas existing research focuses on individual differences and the task structures of jobs, I illuminate how the...

Does task significance increase job performance? Correlational designs and confounded manipulations have prevented researchers from assessing the causal impact of task significance on job performance. To address this gap, 3 field experiments examined the performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions of task significance. In Experiment 1, fundraising callers who received a task significance intervention increased their levels of job performance relative to callers in...

The meaning of work literature is the product of a long tradition of rich inquiry spanning many disciplines. Yet, the field lacks overarching structures that would facilitate greater integration, consistency, and understanding of this body of research. Current research has developed in ways that have created relatively independent domains of study that exist in silos organized around various sources of meaning and meaningfulness. In this...

Supporting one’s family is a major reason why many people work, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of family motivation. Drawing on theories of prosocial motivation and action identification, we propose that family motivation increases job performance by enhancing energy and reducing stress, and it is especially important when intrinsic motivation is lacking. Survey and diary data collected across multiple time points in...

A search of the published literature identified 11 empirical studies that reported links between religion, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth. A review of these 11 studies produced three main findings. First, these studies show that religion and spirituality are usually, although not always, beneficial to people in dealing with the aftermath of trauma. Second, that traumatic experiences can lead to a deepening of religion or spirituality....

Wide variability exists with respect to how breast cancer survivors respond to common psychological and psychosocial challenges of their disease, ranging from posttraumatic stress disorder to posttraumatic growth. This cross-sectional study examined contextual, disease-related, and intraindividual predictors of posttraumatic growth in 224 randomly selected breast cancer survivors. A series of hierarchical regression analyses found that age at diagnosis, marital status, employment, education, perceived intensity of...

In the aftermath of a severely stressful event, in addition to reporting negative changes, people also report personal growth. The degree to which reports of posttraumatic growth by 41 women who survived breast cancer could be corroborated by their husbands was examined. Because the breast cancer experience is an equally stressful event for husbands and may present an opportunity for growth, the degree to which...