5: Self and Other Focused Pathways to Meaningfulness in Native American Workers

The present study expands research on the work experiences of Native American employees by investigating work meaningfulness among Native American workers in US workplaces. We utilized Rosso et al.’s (2010) pathways to work meaningfulness model, specifically their proposed contribution and self-connection pathways, to guide our investigation of the roles of the work experiences of perceived Tribal social impact, perceived Tribal social worth, psychological safety, and workplace cultural wellbeing on work meaningfulness. Further, we explore whether work meaningfulness mediates the relationships between these work experiences and burnout and turnover intention at a subsequent time points. Our results revealed that levels of psychological safety and workplace cultural wellbeing at time 1 positively related to perceptions of work meaningfulness at time 2, work meaningfulness at time 2 was negatively associated with turnover intention and burnout at time 2, and that work meaningfulness mediates the relationships between psychological safety and workplace cultural wellbeing and turnover intention. We discuss potential implications for managers and organizational leaders.