Beyond duty: How meaningful work transforms the presence of calling into performance

Abstract

Purpose: Although experiencing a calling is often assumed to enhance employee performance, empirical evidence remains mixed, and the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. Drawing on research on meaningful work, this study examines whether and how calling translates into employee performance by proposing meaningful work as a mediating mechanism linking calling to in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Design/methodology: We tested our hypotheses using multi-source data from 548 employees and 119 supervisors. Employees reported their sense of calling and experienced meaningful work, while supervisors evaluated employee performance (in-role and OCB). Structural equation modeling, path analysis, and bootstrapping procedures were used to assess the proposed mediation model.

Findings: Calling is positively related to both in-role performance and OCB through the experience of meaningful work. Meaningful work mediates these relationships, indicating that perceiving work as meaningful is the mechanism through which calling translates into higher performance. In the absence of meaningful work, calling alone does not significantly enhance performance.

Practical implications:  Organizations that foster meaningful work can leverage employees’ sense of calling to enhance both in-role performance and extra-role contributions. This approach benefits companies through higher productivity and discretionary effort, while employees also benefit through improved performance and a stronger sense of purpose and fulfilment in their roles.

Originality/value: This study advances theory on calling and work outcomes by identifying meaningful work as the central mechanism linking calling to performance. By demonstrating that calling does not directly enhance performance in the absence of experienced meaningfulness, the findings help reconcile inconsistent prior results and refine theoretical assumptions about the performance implications of calling.