When the meaning of work has disappeared: Experimental evidence on employees' performance and emotions

摘要

Information sharing between employees and management has been linked to improved employee motivation and organizational outcomes. The study looked into how the communicated meaning of previously completed work affects workers' current performance. The study adopted experimental research design, wherein each worker was randomly assigned to one of three information sets: 1. Reminded workers about the meaning of their previous task (i.e., creating a database for research purposes), 2. Managing director had decided to dissolve the archive after the creation of the database, and 3. Informed employees that their previous work had become meaningless with regard to its stated purpose and their work served an additional purpose not previously communicated. Then the groups were measured in terms of employees' willingness to exert real effort across the three groups. In order to isolate the pure effect of task meaning from the interplay with monetary incentives, an incomplete contract with a fixed payment independent of performance was implemented. The results showed that there was a strong impact of previous task meaning on workers' subsequent motivation. Furthermore, employees seem to forgive their employer for cancelling a project if another and still valid purpose is credibly communicated. The treatment effects were robust across various specifications but are driven by those workers who answered a survey invitation within a few days. A particular subgroup of employees termed as latecomers did not seem to be susceptible at all. (42 refs.)