The significance of task significance: Job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions.
Abstract
Does task significance increase job performance? Correlational designs and confounded manipulations have prevented researchers from assessing the causal impact of task significance on job performance. To address this gap, 3 field experiments examined the performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions of task significance. In Experiment 1, fundraising callers who received a task significance intervention increased their levels of job performance relative to callers in 2 other conditions and to their own prior performance. In Experiment 2, task significance increased the job dedication and helping behavior of lifeguards, and these effects were mediated by increases in perceptions of social impact and social worth. In Experiment 3, conscientiousness and prosocial values moderated the effects of task significance on the performance of new fundraising callers. The results provide fresh insights into the effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions of task significance, offering noteworthy implications for theory, research, and practice on job design, social information processing, and work motivation and performance.
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“In addition, not all jobs might enable individuals to make valuable task contributions (Grant, 2008).”
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- Authors
- Grant, A. M.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- Corresponding author
- Grant, Adam M.
- ORCID
- Grant, Adam M.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2008
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 108-124
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W2085479960
- Cited by
- 1,114
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 70 · 2025: 68 · 2024: 86 · 2023: 102 · 2022: 63 · 2021: 71 · 2020: 88 · 2019: 78 · 2018: 77 · 2017: 69 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 33 · 2013: 63 · 2012: 47
- FWCI
- 52.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- American Psychological Association
- Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employee Performance and Motivation
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Employee Performance and Management
- Keywords
- task significance, employee performance, job dedication, helping behavior, social impact, social worth, conscientiousness, prosocial values, lifeguards, job design, social information processing, employee motivation, boundary conditions
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Altruism, Attitude, Career Mobility, Culture, Employee Performance Appraisal, Female, Humans, Job Satisfaction, Male, Motivation, Occupations, Social Conditions, Social Values
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