Tan, Kim-Lim, Cham, Tat Huei, and Sim, Adriel K.S. (2023) What Makes Social Work Meaningful? Evidence for a Curvilinear Relationship of Meaningful Work on Work Engagement with Psychological Capital as the Moderator. Human Service Organizations Management, Leadership and Governance, 47 (3). pp. 218-235.

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Abstract

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the curvilinear relationship between social workers’ meaningful work and work engagement. Data gathered from 223 social workers reveal that the relationship between meaningful work and work engagement showed a U-shaped curve when psychological capital is low. In contrast, this relationship showed an inverted U-shaped curve when psychological capital is high. Our study makes significant contributions to the literature in the following ways. First and foremost, this is the first paper that provides an established base to validate the momentary and changing nature of meaningful work empirically. Second, we further addressed how the fluctuating nature of meaningful work can be addressed through individuals’ demographic variables of psychological capital. Finally, our results provide managerial interventions that support businesses in advancing the understanding of psychological processes in contexts related to the broad area of work and in organizations.

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