Fluid compensation in response to disappearance of the meaning of work

Meng, Liang; Ouyang, Feng

doi:10.1002/pchj.362

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 8 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…Since all the experimental data went lost, and they were not allowed to redo the experiment for time concern, the meaning of work could not be restored in the current experimental task. However, they could put their hearts and soul into the following experimental task so as to restore the meaning of participating in our experiments (Meng and Ouyang, 2020), which was exactly what we found in this study.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…In addition, while the unexpected termination of a work project is a small probability event, it is much more common that employees have to work on a meaningless work project in the first place. In this situation, a compensation effect induced by meaningless work may take place as well, as certain psychological and behavioral strategies (e.g., to work on something more meaningful) may be adopted to compensate for the insufficiency of meaning (Meng and Ouyang, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

Wei

Liu

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Meaningfulness has been suggested as one of the fundamental psychological needs, as one would actively pursue meaning in both his/her work life and personal life. Previous studies consistently showed that a lack of meaning in work would reduce one's autonomous motivation in the current job, which is the motivation to engage in self-determined activities driven by one's own interests or personal beliefs. However, researchers overlooked the fact that in work settings, it is not uncommon that people work on multiple tasks in a row. As a result, the cross-task effect of work meaningfulness remains understudied. Based on the meaning maintenance model (MMM) and the suggested fluid compensation strategy, we predicted that the disappearance of the meaning of work may induce a compensatory response and thus enhance one's autonomous motivation in an irrelevant ensuing activity. To test this hypothesis, we invited participants to work on an encyclopedic knowledge quiz in Session 1 and a StopWatch (SW) task in Session 2. A between-subject design was adopted. While participants in the control group successfully completed their tasks in Session 1, those in the experimental group encountered unexpected program quits by the end of the quiz, and their previous efforts suddenly became futile and meaningless. Electroencephalography was recorded during the experiment to measure reward positivity (RewP). In Session 2, a more pronounced RewP in the win-lose difference wave was observed in the experimental group in contrast to the control group, suggesting that the disappearance of the meaning of work enhanced one's autonomous motivation in an irrelevant activity that follows. Therefore, results of this study provided preliminary electrophysiological evidence for one's pursuit of meaning and the compensation effect induced by the disappearance of the meaning of work.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

Wei

Liu

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…While previous studies mainly examined effects of contextual factors and characteristics of the task itself on one's autonomous motivation (Deci and Ryan, 1985b;Bergin, 1999;Deci and Ryan, 2000;Gagné, 2014), our findings suggested that actually there are interplays between prior experience and one's motivation in the current activity. As it is a commonplace that a person would take part in several activities in a row, researchers may pay more attention to these dynamics and examine other influencing factors of one's motivation from an intertemporal perspective (Meng and Ouyang, 2020;Newton et al, 2020;Wei et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intrinsic motivation is typically defined as the performing of an activity out of interest, curiousness and enjoyment (Deci and Ryan, 1985b). As a broader construct that encompasses intrinsic motivation, autonomous motivation describes one's willingness and volition based on either values or interests (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016;Kuvaas et al, 2016;Meng and Ouyang, 2020). Previous studies have consistently suggested one's autonomous motivation level to be a crucial factor in affecting job performance, innovative behaviors, work engagement as well as academic attainment (Guo et al, 2014;Nunez and Leon, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spillover Effect of Autonomy Frustration on Human Motivation and Its Electrophysiological Representation

Fang

Wan

Zheng

et al. 2020

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…If used in a proper manner, competition can be a powerful motivator, which can effectively strengthen both autonomous and controlled motivation. While autonomous motivation refers to one’s natural tendency to be curious and interested, to look for challenges and develop skills and knowledge without external incentives ( Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2016 ; Meng and Ouyang, 2020 ), controlled motivation describes one’s engagement in an activity with the aim of attaining a reward or avoiding a punishment ( Ryan and Deci, 2017 ). In sports tournaments, athletes are highly motivated to outperform others and to win a prize, in which case the athletes are externally driven.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Desire for Success Awakens: Proof of Competence Restoration in a Non-competitive Environment

et al. 2021

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Pioneering studies reported that individuals who worked on a highly difficult task and experienced competence frustration beforehand would activate a restorative process and show enhanced autonomous motivation in a subsequent irrelevant activity. In this follow-up study, we explored the effect of prior competition outcome on one’s autonomous motivation in a subsequent non-competitive environment. According to our experimental manipulation, participants were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (a winning group and a losing group) and a control group. The experiment lasted for three sessions. Participants in the control group completed a single-player stop-watch (SW) task all along, while those in both treatment groups worked on a competitive SW task and competed for monetary rewards during Session 2 only. Electrophysiological data in Session 1 serve as the baseline and measure one’s trait-level autonomous motivation towards the SW game. For participants in the losing group, more pronounced difference wave of feedback-related negativity was observed in Session 3 compared with Session 1, suggesting enhanced autonomous motivation in Session 3. Such a pattern was observed in neither the winning group nor the control group. These results suggested that failure in a prior competition would activate one’s competence restoration in a subsequent non-competitive environment. Task difficulty and social competition are varied sources of competence frustration. Thus, our findings advanced understanding of the competence restorative process and helped clarify the dynamics between competition and human motivation.

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Fluid compensation in response to disappearance of the meaning of work

Cited by 10 publications

References 8 publications

Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

Man’s Pursuit of Meaning: Unexpected Termination Bolsters One’s Autonomous Motivation in an Irrelevant Ensuing Activity

The Spillover Effect of Autonomy Frustration on Human Motivation and Its Electrophysiological Representation

Desire for Success Awakens: Proof of Competence Restoration in a Non-competitive Environment

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