Alleviating state boredom through search for meaning and affirmation of workplace heroes
ISSN: 2040-8269
Article publication date: 29 March 2021
Issue publication date: 13 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Employee boredom is of concern to organizations because of its impact on employees’ quality of work life and productivity. This study aims to test the regulation of workplace boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes to contribute to theory by examining the relationships between the variables and to practice by uncovering the potential of workplace heroes in alleviating state boredom.
Design/methodology/approach
Using online surveys and structured interviews for a mixed-method study, data were collected for state boredom, meaning in life and hero affirmation at work for a quantitative study, and data from the open-ended questions provided further insights regarding hero affirmation at work for a qualitative study.
Findings
Spearman rank-order correlations concluded correlations between state boredom and meaning in life. However, unlike personal heroes that influence meaning in life, workplace heroes were found not to. The qualitative analysis revealed three prime differences between workplace and personal heroes: proximity, symbolic representation of ideologies and qualities admired in the heroes. These reasons entailed that state boredom was not regulated by workplace heroes.
Originality/value
The model of Coughlan et al. (2019) explored trait boredom regulation through meaning in life by personal heroes. This study tested for the regulation of state boredom through meaning in life by workplace heroes; thus, contributing to theory through a nuanced model with enhanced usefulness in practice. The study also further dissects the concept of heroes by uncovering differences between workplace and personal heroes that perpetrated the differences in the findings.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Compliance and Ethical Standards.
Plagiarism Declaration: Some part of the manuscript overlapped with dissertation of Ms Margaux Giannaros. The data nor the dissertation have been used for any publications.
Grant numbers and/or funding information: None.
Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data, materials, and code availability: Data and codes can be made available upon request.
Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Citation
Dharani, B., Giannaros, M. and April, K. (2021), "Alleviating state boredom through search for meaning and affirmation of workplace heroes", Management Research Review, Vol. 44 No. 9, pp. 1298-1319. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-08-2020-0490
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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