Human Resource Management Essay: Employee Motivation and Engagement

This essay examines the significance of meaningfulness in the workplace, as highlighted by Carton's statement, and its impact on employee motivation and engagement within the field of Human Resource Management. The essay agrees with Carton's assertion that meaningfulness is paramount, surpassing other occupational aspects like income and job security. It draws upon theories of human motivation and job design to support this view, emphasizing how leaders can enhance work's meaning. The paper explores the role of leaders in fostering an environment where employees find purpose in their daily tasks, and how effective communication is crucial in connecting individual responsibilities with broader organizational goals. It acknowledges the potential for negative responses and inconsistencies in leadership support and provides references to relevant literature.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human resource Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Do you agree with Carton’s statement that “the meaningfulness of work…is more
important than any other occupational feature?”
Yes it is quite definitive that meaningfulness at work is more important than any
other occupational feature. Work is a social activity and it occupies the central place in the
lives of the people. The work in a person’s life is considered to be a building block which
helps a man to construct his form. Work can also be said to be an important element as it acts
as a source of civilization which helps in the proper unification of the religion, science, art,
technology, social cultures, economy and language (core.ac.uk 2020). A work can help a
person to mark his destiny in the globe. Work is also capable of providing a permanent
identity to the individuals. Such a capability helps a person to be easily recognized by the
others around him. The industrial revolution had changed the relationship in between work
and man permanently changes the concept of work (core.ac.uk 2020). In the new context the
people were unable to alienate their work life from that of their own personal life. The major
factor behind work has turned out to be the need for money. The need for money has
outclassed all the other needs that helps in the professional development of a person
(core.ac.uk 2020). Thus in other words money turned out to be the meaning and purpose of
work for a person.
Thus work which forms an important part of the modern life has thus alienated men
from his personal space after the industrial revolution. However, the change in times and the
development of the social and political scenarios across the globe resulted in an evolutionary
change which turned man into an economic human being where men could relate political,
social, cultural, religious and economic beings in their work (core.ac.uk 2020). The
development of these mentality was an important milestone in the development of
meaningfulness of work to the modern day human beings. Thus the contemporary
descriptions of work appears to be an activity that has a certain goal which describes the

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economical angle to the development of a work. Professionals of the modern days has
however something else to offer. The perception of work according to them can be termed as
something that is more than economic benefits. Work according to them is something that
provides aspects for expressing themselves, earning recognition and competence. The
presence of these elements acts as the motivating power for them and helps them to find the
meaningfulness to work.
According to, Chandra Srivastava and Joseph (2017) the perception of work as a
major and definitive feature of life in an organization has a vast significance among the
modern day employees. Daily responsibilities has much more importance to the people than
that of the organizational based occupational features. The occupational features which
includes job security, income and opportunities for the advancement in professional
development has less significance to the modern day employees as they have the aim to work
in such a manner that suits their own needs (Jung and Yoon 2016). The absence of meaning
in work can be harmful for the organizations as because in the absence of a proper purpose
and meaning to work, the employees tend to quit the work or are not able to provide their full
dedication and commitment to any tasks.
According to, Carton (2018) the role of leaders is also a major element that has a
crucial part in the development of meaning for a work. It is one of the most important
responsibilities of a leader to prepare an environment that can support the needs of the
employees and help them to find the exact meaning behind the work done by them
(journals.sagepub.com 2020). One of the most important tasks of the leaders is to describe the
major aims and goals of the organization to the employees which can act as a major source of
motivation behind the finding out of the meaning (Carton 2018). However, there are also
some negative responses from that of the people working in the organization as far as the role
of leaders to develop a meaningful goal for the employees. The inconsistency in the support

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of the leaders to help the employees develop a strong vision for their work and the lack of
effective communications is two of the major reasons behind the absence of proper support to
develop meaning to work for the employees (journals.sagepub.com 2020). An efficient and
developed communication by leaders with the employees can thus be said as a strong means
of support for the development of meaningfulness.

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References and Bibliography
Carton, A. M. (2018). “I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon”: How
NASA leaders enhanced the meaningfulness of work by changing the meaning of work.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(2), 323-369.
Chandra, S., Srivastava, S.C. and Joseph, D., 2017. Meaning of Work and Organizational
Citizenship Behavior for IT Employees: The Mediating Role of Affective Commitment.
Core.ac.uk. (2020). [online] Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/9554362.pdf
[Accessed 17 Feb. 2020].
Jung, H.S. and Yoon, H.H., 2016. What does work meaning to hospitality employees? The
effects of meaningful work on employees’ organizational commitment: The mediating role of
job engagement. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 53, pp.59-68.
MIT Sloan Management Review. (2020). What Makes Work Meaningful — Or Meaningless.
[online] Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-makes-work-meaningful-or-
meaningless/ [Accessed 15 Feb. 2020].
SAGE Journals. (2020). “I’m Not Mopping the Floors, I’m Putting a Man on the Moon”:
How NASA Leaders Enhanced the Meaningfulness of Work by Changing the Meaning of
Work - Andrew M. Carton, 2018. [online] Available at:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0001839217713748 [Accessed 15 Feb. 2020].