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The last two decades have seen a significant uptick in research on meaningful work, defined as work that is purposeful and significant. Prior work has established the link between experienced meaningfulness and positive organizational and employee outcomes, revealed how workers can make their jobs more meaningful, and illuminated numerous downsides of experiencing one's work as meaningful. Recent reviews highlight that meaningful work has become a central topic in the organizational literature. At the same time, these reviews also highlight several limitations that currently hold the field back, including a predominant focus on calling orientations, an assumption that work orientations are static, a lack of standardized definitions and measures, and limited generalizability. Having now firmly established its place in the organizational literature, we believe it is time to "take stock" of where we are and, with a thought to addressing these limitations in mind, set the foundation for the next generation of meaningful work research. This symposium aims to take a step toward addressing this gap. It features the work of 13 early career researchers whose work begins to build on and move beyond these limitations. Guided by experienced scholars who will act as discussants, we hope this forum will encourage dialogue that will guide and enhance the next generation of meaningful work research. By showcasing diverse methods and topics, we also aim to attract scholars beyond the meaningful work community, fostering new perspectives and integrating them into the field. Work Meaningfulness During a Merger Author: Yuna Cho; HKU Business School, The U. of Hong Kong Author: Winnie Jiang; INSEAD Author: Lucas Dufour; Toronto Metropolitan U. How, why, and with what consequence passionate nurses cope with promotion out of meaningful roles Author: Solomiya Draga; U. of Toronto A change is gonna come: How life events shape changes in work orientation Author: Greg Fetzer; U. of Liverpool Author: Elise B. Jones; US Coast Guard Academy Finding and Feeling Meaningfulness in an Invisible Occupation Author: Luke Hedden; U. of Miami There's Always More You Can Do: The Perils of Being Too Passionate for Work Author: Kai Krautter; Harvard Business School Author: Wen Wu; Beijing Jiaotong U. Collective mental time travel as a way to unite dispersed stakeholders addressing grand challenges Author: Yuxin Lin; U. of Arizona Self-Imposed Constraints in Meaningful Work: The Role of Constraints and the Agency to Craft Them Author: Justine Murray; Harvard Business School Author: Kira Franziska Schabram; U. of Washington Author: Jon Michael Jachimowicz; Harvard Business School Thwarted Prosocial Impact in Organizations: Consequences, Mechanisms, and Boundary Conditions Author: Jordan Nielsen; Purdue U. Author: Daniel Goering; Missouri State U. Let My People Go Hunting and Gathering: The Meaning of Work in Rural Alaska Author: Shawn Xiaoshi Quan; U. of Washington Author: Kira Franziska Schabram; U. of Washington How Role Archetypal Narratives Shape the Experience of Meaningfulness Amidst Distress Author: Benjamin Alan Rogers; Boston College A Tripartite Approach to Meaningful Work: Examining Purpose, Significance, and Coherence Author: Sarah Ward; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Author: Vlad Costin; U. of Sussex Meaningful Work Ideology Theory (MWIT) Author: Molly L. Weinstein; Northwestern U. Author: Eli Finkel; Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern U. Pursue Your Higher (And) Lower Calling? A Construal Approach to Calling Orientation Maintenance Author: Hannah Weisman; Harvard Business School Author: Haoyue Zhang; Nanyang Business School, NTU Singapore Author: Stuart Bunderson; Wash U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional distress is a common workplace occurrence, with up to a third of the working population suffering from poor psychological health. Pressures on workers' psychological health have been particularly relevant in recent years, as workers have navigated work during the currently ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. Existing scholarship on workplace distress has recognized and focused on the causes and consequences of distress, as well as the characteristics of individual employees that impact their ability to cope with distressing events at work. However, less attention has been paid to the direct experience of distress, as well as the organizational and interpersonal factors that can help mitigate employee suffering. To consider these topics, we have assembled a panel of scholars who study distress and well-being within workplaces. Each panelist brings a theoretically unique perspective, contributing valuable insights into this important, timely, topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotions have important implications for workplace outcomes. Equally important is how people respond to the expressed emotions of others. However, key questions remain regarding the antecedents and consequences of such emotion responses at work. In this symposium, we highlight the different perspectives on the causes and consequences of responding to the emotions of others in the workplace. The five papers presented cover the antecedents and work-related consequences of a broad range of emotion-response strategies (e.g., collective emotion regulation, emotion validation) and represent different theoretical and empirical perspectives (e.g., employing both laboratory and field studies). Our discussant, Gerben van Kleef, a leading scholar in the study of emotions in organizations, will close our symposium by synthesizing the presented papers and facilitating a discussion regarding the future directions for this area of research. Through this symposium, we aim to generate new insights about how scholars can continue to study and improve the research on responding to the emotions of others in the workplace. The Bad Faith Fallacy in Intergroup Judgment: Our Adversaries are Not as Emotional as We Think Author: Nadav Klein; INSEAD Putting Feelings into Words: The Impact of Affect Labeling on Voice Endorsement Author: Grace Simon; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Author: Michael Parke; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Take it on the Chin: Emotional Validation and Performance in Mixed Martial Arts Author: Niranjan Srinivasan Janardhanan; London School of Economics Author: Kira Franziska Schabram; U. of Washington Author: Santosh Srinivas; HEC Paris Emotion Culture Crafting: A Field Experiment of the Impact of Collective Emotion Regulation Author: Jacob Levitt; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Author: Elizabeth Baily Wolf; INSEAD When, Why, and How Responding to the Emotions of Others Influences Work Outcomes Author: Christina Bradley; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Author: Lindred L. Greer; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Author: Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks; U. of Michigan [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on meaningful work has highlighted factors at various levels of analysis that can contribute to sense of meaningfulness, such as individual callings, organizational purpose, and even societal discourse. However, a significant opportunity remains for examining the mechanisms by which experiences and expressions of meaningfulness occur across these various levels of analysis. The presentations in this symposium answer this important call by addressing cross-level influences on meaningful work such as team dynamics, interpersonal interactions, organizational pressures, occupational values and norms, and even societal influences. * Fusing vs. Forgoing: How Individuals Make Meaning of Their Work in Interconnected Contexts * Presenter: Siyin Chen; U. of Toronto, Rotman School of Management * Presenter: Winnie Jiang; INSEAD * The Collective Construction of Autonomy and Downstream Effects on Meaningful Work * Presenter: Laura Sonday; Kenan-Flagler Business School, U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Finding and Feeling Meaningfulness in an Invisible Occupation * Presenter: Luke Hedden; Boston College * Considering the "We" in "Me"aningfulness: The Impact of Called Members on Team Conflict * Presenter: Catherine Kleshinski; Indiana U. -Kelley School of Business * Presenter: Kira Franziska Schabram; U. of Washington * Presenter: Jennifer Tosti-Kharas; Babson College * Presenter: Tiffany Trzebiatowski; Colorado State U. * Presenter: Amy Wrzesniewski; Yale U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional distress is a common occurrence in workplaces, with up to a third of the working population suffering from poor psychological health. With the emergence of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, concerns surrounding psychological health in the workplace are particularly relevant. The effects of the pandemic have been felt widely across society, and have significantly changed the ways that people engage in their work. While much of the current research on workplace distress focuses on the causes and consequences of distress, little research investigates this process in "ordinary" workplaces, many of which were hit hardest by the pandemic. To consider this topic, we have assembled a panel of scholars who study distress and well-being within organizations. Together, these panelists will shed light on distress in the context of ordinary workplaces, as well as how suffering emerges in organizational contexts, and the types of behaviours that employees engage in to recognize, make sense of, and communicate about their own and others' distress [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As recent research shows, grief is an integral part of organizational life as well as the experience which spills over from one domain to another. Nevertheless, we know relatively little about: (1) the processes involved in experiencing life-related and work-related grief, (2) the impact such grief has on a griever as well as their colleagues, (3) what circumstances make this experience lighter or harder, and (4) how colleagues, leaders, and organizations can best help to grieving employees as they move through grief towards recovery. Thus, our symposium includes qualitative and quantitative research that enriches the understanding of the phenomenon of a grieving employee, provides research-based recommendations for organizations in managing and interacting with a grieving colleague, and, therefore, strongly contributes to the Academy of Management's conference theme "Creating a Better World Together". The symposium includes five papers showcasing the impact of personal and professional grief on employees' work and non-work lives. Together with discussion, led by Dr. Sally Maitlis, the papers aim to provide insight into the consequences of grief and mourning for employees, their colleagues, and organizations, build an emerging community of scholars focused on issues related to grief and the work-life interface, and generate a strong program of future academic research. * From Grieving to Career Change: How a Personal Grief-Inducing Event Affects Professional Identity * Presenter: Lidiia Pletneva; ESSEC Business School * Ambivalence in the Early Stages of Compassion: The Relational Process of Noticing Suffering * Presenter: Ashley Elizabeth Hardin; Washington U. in St. Louis * Presenter: Liza Yasemin Barnes; U. of Colorado, Boulder * Presenter: Kristina Marie Workman; Cornell U. * Presenter: Kira Franziska Schabram; U. of Washington * The Vicious Solitude of Grief in the Work and Non-work Lives of Police Officers * Presenter: Kimberly Rocheville; Creighton U. * Keeping Mom and Pop Alive: Collective Mourning and Continuity during Rapid Organizational Growth * Presenter: Hilary Hoyt Hendricks; U. of Michigan * "Fake it till you make it?" On surface acting and depression following the loss of a loved one * Presenter: Hadar Freidin; Tel Aviv U. * Presenter: Sharon Toker; Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social scientists have long been preoccupied with defining and understanding optimal human functioning. Over the past century, pragmatists (James, 1890), needs scholars (Alderfer, 1969; Maslow, 1943), salutogenic theorists (Hobfoll, 1989), and those contemplating the broader meaning of life (Frankl, 1984), have all taken a stab at outlining what it means to live life well. These approaches, however, have faced various critiques, such as not being applicable to the whole spectrum of human experiences (May, 1969), being too tautological (Priem & Butler, 2001; Russell, 2004; Thompson & Cooper, 2001) or reductionist (Geller, 1982), or lacking empirical support (Wahba & Bridwell, 1976). Moreover, to date, no grand theory of human sustainability encompassing ideas from these various streams of thought has emerged. This symposium reaches across disciplines to "broaden our sight," by applying dynamic energy budget theory (DEBT), a widely validated theory of biology, to understand human sustainability within organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perception of work as meaningful, especially as a calling, has long fascinated psychologists and management scholars. While existing research has provided us valuable insights on how individuals subjectively experience meaningful work-- particularly a calling--for those who perceive a specific line of work as meaningful, we still have not yet answered questions that are arguably most relevant and consequential to their careers: whether and how this perception influences their career outcomes, such as income, promotion, and career transition. This symposium brings together eight scholars and four papers that aim to share preliminary discoveries and encourage scholarly discussions on how perceiving work as meaningful, especially as a calling, may help, hurt, or otherwise affect individual outcomes pertaining to their career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade of research has highlighted the benefits of being compassionate to oneself in times of suffering. Despite this, many remain hesitant to practice it, fearing the interpersonal backlash that stems from beliefs that self-compassion is selfish or even self-indulgent. In this research, we consider the implications of sufferer self- compassion for others' perceptions, feelings, and behaviors toward the sufferer. Drawing on social information processing theory, we propose that sufferer self- compassion facilitates others' felt compassion for the sufferer, in turn encouraging supportive behaviors toward the sufferer. We tested and found support for our predictions in a laboratory experiment of 242 participants participating in 121 dyadic, face-to-face interactions. Contrary to the concern that sufferer self-compassion might trigger punitive evaluations or treatment from surrounding others, our results suggest that sufferers' self-compassion can instead spill over to fuel others' compassionate behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loneliness in the workplace is an increasingly prevalent experience, and has been described as an epidemic with pernicious effects for individuals and organizations. These include reduced creativity, poorer job performance, and other effects on general well-being. While experiences of unmet belonging in organizations have been studied primarily through the specific lens of ostracism, loneliness is a broader affective phenomenon that can occur independently of being ostracized and have different outcomes. As research on loneliness is still in its early stages, this symposium aims to offer a more general exploration of when and how employees feel lonely at work, and the outcomes of such negative experiences. To do so, four papers adopting diverse theoretical approaches are presented to advance understanding of the emerging phenomenon loneliness at work, in particular its antecedents and consequences. The Effects of Network Brokerage on Workplace Loneliness Presenter: Jessica Rae Methot; Rutgers U. Presenter: Daniel Z. Levin; Rutgers U. Presenter: Hanbo Shim; Rutgers U. It's Lonely Out There: How Loneliness Outside Work Might Impact Life At Work Presenter: Kevin W. Rockmann; George Mason U. Presenter: Marie-Rachel Jacob; EMLYON Business School Affective Responses in Leader-Member Exchange Relationship: Exploring Workplace Loneliness as a Key Mediating Factor Presenter: Hakan Ozcelik; California State U. Sacramento Loneliness Spirals at Work: Functional and Dysfunctional Effects on Social Anxiety and Helping Presenter: Deirdre Gobeille Snyder; Providence College Presenter: William J. Becker; Virginia Tech Presenter: Michael Christian; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although both established as fields in their own right, meaningful work (Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski, 2010; Lepisto & Pratt, 2017) and identity (Ashforth, Rogers, & Corley, 2011; Petriglieri & Obodaru, 2018) are inextricably linked; both drive important outcomes in organizations. In spite of these close connections, however, very little empirical or theoretical work has attempted to theorize the separate but interacting roles of identity and meaningfulness. For example, work on callings (Schabram & Maitlis, 2017) and organizational identification (Ashforth & Mael, 1989; Pratt, 1998) have provided two tentative pathways for how meaningful work and identity can be connected. Nevertheless, several theoretical questions remain: how are meaningfulness and identity linked? Is identity a necessary part of meaningfulness (or vice versa)? What mechanisms link the two? We would like to bring together researchers on identity and meaningful work to address this intersection. The purpose of this panel symposium is to engage a group of illustrious panelists in a discussion around (1) panelists' interpretation of how one might influence the other or be a necessary condition; (2) challenges in linking these two concepts; (3) possible avenues for research theoretically and empirically - e.g. measurement, quantitative, qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the breadth of work on prosocial behavior over the better part of the past century (Barnard, 1938; Bateman & Organ, 1983; Katz & Kahn, 1966), most work continues to take a fairly limited view of the prosocial act itself, examining mostly singular, static, dyadic episodes. In response, the literature has called for research that address the role of time in prosocial episodes and studies prosocial phenomena from both short- and long-term perspectives (Bolino & Grant, 2016). In this symposium we answer that call by presenting a collection of manuscripts that represent diverse theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of the temporal dynamics of prosocial behavior. How and Why Compassion Episodes can Amplify or Deplete Cycles of Compassion within an Organization Presenter: Reut Livne-Tarandach; U. of Oregon How Mutuality Generates Multiplex Peer Developmental Relationships Over Time Presenter: Jessica Rae Methot; Rutgers U. Presenter: Michael S. Cole; Texas Christian U. The Relationship Between Beliefs about Accepting Coworker Help and Long Term Career Outcomes Presenter: Phillip S. Thompson; Virginia Tech When the Thought Doesnt Count: Unhelpful Help and Unmet Needs in Organizations Presenter: Colin Muneo Fisher; U. College London Presenter: Julianna Pillemer; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Presenter: Teresa M Amabile; Harvard U. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]