Later, Spreitzer’s (1992, 1995) model of empowerment measured Meaning as a
discrete component of Empowerment using three item statements:
The work I do is very important to me (Meaning 1)
My job activities are personally meaningful to me (Meaning 2)
The work I do is meaningful to me (Meaning 3)
And this operationalisation was then adapted for use in a hospitality context by
Fulford and Enz (1995) and then by Hancer and George
(2003) using the following three item statements:
My work is very important to me
My job activities are meaningful to me
I care about what I do on my job
The core concepts articulated by Hackman and Oldham remain in place
throughout these examples: Work meaning = (a) work which is ‘meaningful to
me’ and (b) work which is non-trivial (‘important to me’). Unfortunately, the
‘meaning of meaning’ remains unclear (a criticism that can also be levelled at
‘importance’, since the characteristics/criteria which define importance are not
articulated either).
In the light of the nebulous nature of the ‘meaning of meaning’ in the
transformational leadership and work motivation literature, a review of the wider
organisational psychology literature was undertaken to provide insights into this
construct. Guiding this search were the definitions for the Work Values and Work
Meaning factors described in Section 5.1 as:
- Work Values reflect an individual’s disposition toward work in general
- Work Meaning reflects an individual’s attitude to their current job
In the general organisational psychology field, James and James (1989) specified
and tested a hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) ‘model of meaning’
containing four first-order factors: Role Stress and Lack of Harmony (6 items);
Job Challenge and Autonomy (3 items); Leadership Facilitation and Support (5
items); and Workgroup Co-operation, Friendliness, and Warmth (3 items) and
where each of these factors explained some of the variance in a second-order
factor labelled Psychological Climate. Meaning was defined by James and James
as a set of beliefs that are informed by learned responses to, and interpretations
of, environmental stimuli. The model was confirmed using a sample consisting of