{"id":6508,"date":"2025-10-16T09:57:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=6508"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:58:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:58:02","slug":"helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Others Is the Secret to Finding Work Meaningful"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

A lesson for organizations\u2019 leaders and employees alike: You don\u2019t have to do that much to make a significant impact on the lives of others and find meaning in your work. Sometimes making an effort to the best of your ability is sufficient.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jaqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Coyle-Shapiro<\/a> of California State University, San Bernardino, and the London School of Economics (LSE)\u2014who cowrote an Academy of Management Journal article<\/a><\/em> on this topic with Harry Barkema and Eva le Grand, both of LSE\u2014noted that many schoolteachers who live and work in slums and aren\u2019t highly educated have a strong desire to make a difference in the lives of their students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese teachers were spending some extra time with students they because they lived in the slums and knew what the challenges these kids faced. Through that knowledge, they were able to have make a difference in the lives of those students, Coyle-Shapiro said. \u201cThe surprising thing about that piece of research is these teachers were able to kind of tweak their job a little and do things that were extra, not defined in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis made a huge difference in terms of the slum school kids whose futures weren\u2019t particularly bright,\u201d she said. \u201cThrough that interaction, you know, the teachers were able to impart an ambition and an aspiration for these kids that they were commenting, \u2018I want to be a doctor\u2019 or \u2018I want to be a teacher,\u2019 and yet, at the same time, the teacher wasn’t doing something incredibly different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lasting impact that it\u2019s had on me is that making a difference in the lives of others doesn\u2019t involve millions of pounds, but at an individual level, it just involves doing something a little differently, a little more empathetically, a little more thoughtfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lessons learned<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coyle-Shapiro\u2019s advice for bosses is to give employees more autonomy so that they can craft their jobs in ways that have greater impact. Workers should seek out positions that facilitate them creating more meaningfulness in their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly for frontline workers that are dealing with clients or beneficiaries outside the organization, leaders and managers shouldn\u2019t shackle them with rules and procedures to a great extent,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, decision-makers should allow employees to have some autonomy in terms of what they do for the clients and the beneficiaries outside the organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s primarily because employees need to have a little bit of autonomy, and that allows them to craft a role that will give them greater purpose and meaningfulness, and as a result of that, have a greater positive impact on their beneficiaries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher A lesson for organizations\u2019 leaders and employees alike: You don\u2019t have to do that much to make a significant impact on the lives of others and find meaning in your work. Sometimes making an effort to the best of your ability is sufficient. Academy of Management Scholar Jaqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Coyle-Shapiro of California […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,29,44,46],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-6508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-careers","category-emotions","category-motivation","category-well-being"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHelping Others Is the Secret to Finding Work Meaningful - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Helping Others Is the Secret to Finding Work Meaningful\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-16T09:57:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-16T09:58:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":457,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/rich-man-gives-to-poor-man.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"CAREERS\",\"EMOTIONS\",\"MOTIVATION\",\"WELL-BEING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/helping-others-is-the-secret-to-finding-work-meaningful\\\/\",\"name\":\"Helping Others Is the Secret to Finding Work Meaningful - 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