When Work Becomes Empty: Explaining Meaning Loss in Algorithmic Organizations
Keywords:
meaning erosion, meaningful work, algorithmic management, digital work systems, work alienation, organizational behaviorAbstract
This article addresses a growing paradox in contemporary organizations where technological advancement enhances efficiency while simultaneously diminishing employees’ sense of meaningful work. Despite extensive research on meaningful work and digital transformation, existing literature remains fragmented and lacks a process-based explanation of how meaning deteriorates over time. To bridge this theoretical gap, the study aims to develop a mechanism-driven conceptual framework that explains the dynamic process of meaning loss in algorithmic and digitally mediated work systems. Drawing on an integrative analytical approach, the article synthesizes insights from meaningful work, digital work, and organizational behavior literature to conceptualize “meaning erosion” as a cumulative and structurally embedded process. The framework identifies key mediating mechanisms, including work fragmentation, depersonalization, instrumentalization, reduced autonomy, and identity disruption, that translate structural transformations into subjective experiences of declining meaning. The study contributes theoretically by reframing meaningful work as a dynamic construct, introducing meaning erosion as a novel explanatory mechanism, and offering a unified model that connects digital transformation to human sustainability outcomes, thereby providing a foundation for future empirical testing and organizational intervention.
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