Work meaningfulness and its impact on stress appraisal

The Transactional Model of Stress posits that stressors are cognitively appraised and those appraised as challenges or threats are coped with to return to homeostasis (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). This study incorporated job meaningfulness, the degree of significance one holds toward one’s job, into the Transactional Model of Stress as a mediator between appraisal and coping to determine its effect on turnover intent and burnout. Results indicated support for job meaningfulness as a mediator in the Transactional Model of Stress and meaning-focused coping’s significant negative relationship with turnover intent and the emotional exhaustion and cynicism facets of burnout and significant positive relationship with the professional efficacy component of burnout. An alternative model was presented and demonstrated strong, significant relationships between job meaningfulness and the outcome variables. A call is made to investigate task meaningfulness, the degree of significance held by an individual toward a piece of work. Implications and future directions are discussed.