bosses are superfluous

Meaningful work is something we all want. Bosses play no role in fostering a sense of meaningfulness at work -- but they do have the capacity to destroy it and should stay out of the way, new research shows.

Professor Bailey says: "In experiencing work as meaningful, we cease to be workers or employees and relate as human beings, reaching out in a bond of common humanity to others.”

 He explained, “We were anticipating that our data would show that the meaningfulness experienced by employees in relation to their work was clearly associated with actions taken by managers, such that, for example, transformational leaders would have followers who found their work meaningful, whereas transactional leaders would not. Instead, our research showed that quality of leadership received virtually no mention when people described meaningful moments at work, but poor management was the top destroyer of meaningfulness.”