Meaninglessness: employee withdrawal across work contexts
Osama KhassawnehPurpose
This study asks how ordinary managerial practices lead employees to conclude that their work is meaningless, and what follows once they do. The study tests whether inefficient managerial practices, psychological contract violation and skills underutilization raise perceived meaninglessness of work; whether meaninglessness in turn predicts disengagement, turnover intention and absenteeism; and whether these links are stronger in nontraditional work contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
Employees in five sectors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) completed three surveys spaced over six weeks. The antecedents and work context indicators were measured at Time 1, perceived meaninglessness at Time 2 and the withdrawal outcomes at Time 3. Hypotheses were tested with multilevel structural equation modeling on 512 employees nested in 150 work units, with indirect and conditional indirect effects estimated by bias-corrected bootstrapping.
Findings
All three managerial conditions predicted higher perceived meaninglessness. Meaninglessness predicted disengagement, turnover intention and absenteeism and carried the effects of the three conditions on each outcome. The meaninglessness–withdrawal relationship was steeper in nontraditional than in traditional contexts.
Research limitations/implications
Measures were separated in time, but all came from employees. Supervisor ratings, administrative absence and turnover records, tests of measurement invariance across languages and sectors, finer-grained context indicators and experimental or panel designs would strengthen the inferences drawn here.
Practical implications
Managers can protect meaning by removing low-value procedures, managing promises openly and designing roles around what employees can do. A short meaning indicator in pulse surveys gives earlier warning than engagement or exit data. Where institutional buffers are thin, predictable scheduling, internal mobility and easy ways to raise concerns slow the translation of meaninglessness into withdrawal.
Originality/value
The article treats meaninglessness as a distinct appraisal rather than the low end of meaningfulness, shows that three managerial failures usually studied apart converge on it and identifies work context as the condition under which that appraisal becomes withdrawal. In doing so, it connects social exchange and self-determination accounts with the recent literature on quiet quitting, overqualification and nonstandard work.