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Calling Attention to 20 Years of Research: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis of Calling

2019; Academy of Management; Volume: 2019; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5465/ambpp.2019.199

2376-7197

Shoshana Dobrow Riza, Hannah Weisman, Daniel Heller, Jennifer Tosti‐Kharas,

Religion, Society, and Development

Research on work as a calling has proliferated since its introduction into the organizational behavior literature over two decades ago. Conceptual reviews of calling have emerged recently, yet this area lacks the systematic, quantitative synthesis necessary to benefit future research. Based on a sample of 201 papers, this study provides the first comprehensive meta-analysis of the relationship between calling and the most frequently studied constructs in the literature. This approach first sheds light on what we know about calling's relationships with a range of work, career and life constructs, including outcomes as well as antecedents and correlates. Next, we examine the generalizability of our findings by directly comparing and contrasting our results for "calling" with "searching for calling" and by exploring study design and sample characteristics that might moderate calling's relationships with other constructs. Lastly, by assessing what we do not know in addition to what we do know from the extant calling literature, we outline an agenda for future research. Our findings speak to five major tensions in the literature: calling's dark versus bright side; self- versus other-focused definitions of calling; the process of searching for versus experiencing a calling; the distinction between calling and related constructs; and whether callings relate differently to work and career versus non-work outcomes. This meta-analysis provides a constructive review of extant research that will shape future theory and research on calling, as well as guiding practical recommendations about callings in the workplace, our careers, and life more generally.