When Work Feels Meaningful, People Are More Likely to Stay

We think of retention as a question of conditions: pay, workload, career path. New research on knowledge workers suggests something else matters just as much — whether the work itself still feels meaningful.

What the study says

In their 2025 article, Joanna Wandycz-Mejias, José Luis Roldán and Alvaro Lopez-Cabrales examine the role of work meaningfulness in relation to turnover intention and job satisfaction among knowledge workers. Framed through self-determination theory, the study explores whether meaningful work should be seen as a central factor in understanding how people relate to their jobs, rather than as a secondary or desirable extra. (cambridge.org)

The findings suggest that work meaningfulness had significant effects on both job satisfaction and turnover intention. Meaningfulness emerged as a particularly strong predictor of job satisfaction while also playing a role in reducing the intention to leave. In practical terms, this means that when people experience their work as worthwhile and coherent, the effect is not limited to how satisfied they feel in the present. It may also influence whether they can imagine a future for themselves in that work. (cambridge.org)

Why it matters

For professionals working with people development, this is an important reminder that dissatisfaction is not always the deepest issue. A person may appear functional, competent, and outwardly stable, while inwardly experiencing a gradual erosion of meaning. That erosion may not show up immediately as disengagement or resignation, but it can still weaken energy, commitment, and long-term sustainability.

For organisations, the study suggests that retention cannot be understood only as a matter of incentives, workload, or managerial technique. It is also a question of whether people can recognise themselves in what they are doing and in how they are doing it. If meaningfulness matters, then retention becomes partly a question of whether work remains inwardly livable, not merely outwardly manageable. (cambridge.org)

Our take

At Point of Value, this study resonates strongly with a core assumption: values matter because they are closely tied to meaning. When a person can no longer live what matters through their work, the issue is not only dissatisfaction. Something more fundamental may be at stake.

From a PoV perspective, this is why values should not be treated simply as attractive words or static descriptions. The deeper question is whether what matters to a person can actually be lived in practice: in their role, in their relationships, and in the wider organisational context. For those working with people day to day, this study is a useful reminder that questions of meaning and value congruence are not peripheral. They may be closely connected to whether a person feels inwardly sustained by their work, or gradually drained by it.

Source

Wandycz-Mejias, J., Roldán, J. L., & Lopez-Cabrales, A. (2025). Analyzing the impact of work meaningfulness on turnover intentions and job satisfaction: A self-determination theory perspective. Journal of Management & Organization.

At Point of Value, this is the kind of gap we work with directly — not whether people are satisfied, but whether what actually matters to them can still be lived. Curious to know more, Business & Organisations is the place to continue.