Meaningful and meaningless work under destructive organisational context

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Abstract
Purpose: This study examines how destructive organisational contexts are associated with employees’ experiences of meaningful and meaningless work (MLW) and identifies psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Two independent Polish employee samples were used. Study 1 employed a three-wave design (N = 1,966) to test Self-Determination Theory (SDT)-based longitudinal indirect associations linking organisational destructive context (ODC) to meaningful and MLW through basic psychological need frustration (NF), with autoregressive controls. Study 2 employed a two-wave design (N = 386) to test Conservation of Resources (COR) theory-informed boundary conditions involving grit and job growth mindset (JGM). Findings: In Study 1, ODC was prospectively associated with higher NF, which was associated with lower meaningful work and higher MLW; both longitudinal indirect associations were significant. Study 2 replicated the component associations and showed that grit attenuated the ODC– NF association, while JGM attenuated both NF –meaning associations. Originality/value: The study distinguishes meaningful from MLW, introduces ODC as a higher-order destructive work context and specifies an SDT-based core process with COR theory-informed, relationship-specific boundary conditions.
Funding Information
  • Dekaban Liddle Fellowship (Dariusz Turek)
  • National Science Center (UMO-2023/51/B/HS4/01654 Dariusz Turek)

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