The public sector in the UK is teetering on the brink of a crisis. Trust in government has tanked; productivity has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, and satisfaction with the NHS is the lowest ever recorded at just 24%. While some pay disputes have been resolved, recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that many public sector workers report rising levels of exhaustion, poor mental health, excessive workloads and ongoing dissatisfaction with their pay. The CIPD argue these trends most likely prefigure ‘a slide towards mediocrity’, as employees express less willingness to put in extra effort to help their organisations.
These are worrying developments at a time when strengthening our public services is fundamental to improving the quality of life in the UK, and to addressing the critical health, security and environmental challenges we face.
What can be done? While continued financial investment in the public sector is clearly essential, looking more deeply at the work we are asking public servants to perform, how we are asking them to work, and the context within which they carry out this work also has a foundational role to play in bolstering morale, motivation and performance. Crucially, based on our research, we argue that paying close attention to meaningful work in the public sector is vital.
Meaningful work is work that is evaluated and experienced by the individual as positive, intrinsically valuable and significant. Research has linked meaningful work to a host of positive outcomes, such as increased well-being, employee engagement, work motivation, job satisfaction, job commitment and employee performance and reduced turnover intentions. Recently, McKinsey suggested that employees increasingly seek out meaning and purpose at work, and that this trend may provide the public sector with a unique advantage when it comes to closing the talent gap. Indeed, the role of meaningful work in attracting and engaging talent is perhaps nowhere more pertinent and critical.
Many employees enter the public sector primarily because they are motivated by serving the greater good, which is a crucial factor in making work more meaningful. However, for public institutions to enjoy the benefits of meaningful work, they should not assume that this is enough – it is what happens after people enter the workplace that determines whether this initial sense of meaningfulness is sustained over time. Moreover, meaningfulness is not inherent in specific occupations or contexts of work. While meaningfulness is something that individuals find for themselves within their work, there is much that institutions and organisations can do to actively design work environments that foster meaningfulness by considering job-level and organisational factors.
Research has shown that meaningful work comprises four central dimensions: individuation, contribution, self-connection, and unification. Individuation arises when individuals feel their skills and efforts are uniquely valuable for solving problems. A sense of contribution occurs when people see their work makes a difference. Self-connection occurs when work aligns with personal values and one’s sense of self. Unification arises from sense of belonging and harmony with colleagues. An understanding of these four dimensions can help employers find opportunities to enhance employees’ experiences of meaningful work.
For example, a large body of research has investigated the role of job design in influencing meaningful work. Designing jobs to provide autonomy, skill variety and task variety can directly influence experiences of meaningfulness for employees, particularly via the individuation pathway. Moreover, the relational architecture of jobs — or the way in which jobs are designed to include social interactions, opportunities for collaboration and contact with the beneficiaries of one’s work — is important for meaningful work. Experimental studies have demonstrated that when we perceive we are helping others through our work this can significantly increase experiences of meaningfulness. Thus, to foster the dimension of contribution, managers should help provide regular opportunities to engage with the communities or individuals that employees serve and to receive positive feedback.
Contextual and organisational factors also influence meaningfulness. Bureaucracy, understaffing and austerity measures can have a significant negative impact on employee engagement, and by extension meaningfulness. When people are overworked, or are given impossible targets to achieve, it is hard for them to sustain a sense of meaningfulness. As a result, the role of the leader is especially important in creating a positive, nurturing environment where meaningfulness can thrive.
Research has also shown that meaningful work is a significant mediator between leadership and employee outcomes in the public sector. High-quality relationships between employees and managers can positively affect employees’ sense of contribution by increasing their understanding of how their work relates to the larger organisation. A seminal study highlighted how leaders can act as ‘architects’, helping employees build bridges between their daily tasks and the more abstract goals of the organisation. Equally, creating an environment where active conversations take place about meaningful work can also make a significant difference.
There is much that organisations can do to facilitate meaningful work for their employees. If the public sector is to meet the pressing challenges of our time, it must recognise that employees will not automatically find their work meaningful through public service motivation. Instead, it is vital to create a working environment that fosters a sense of meaningfulness, drawing on all four of the dimensions of meaningful work. Will leaders take the necessary steps to redesign work, foster connection, and remove barriers that stifle meaningfulness, or will the sector miss the opportunity to engage the very talent it needs to drive societal progress?
Dr Anna Lelia Sandoghdar (Future of Work Strategist, G-Research)
Katie Bailey, Professor of Leadership and HRM, Northumbria University and Emerita Professor of Work and Employment, King’s College London