Work Meaningfulness and Employees’ Intention to Stay: A Systematic Review and Preliminary Meta-Analytic Synthesis

Employee retention remains an important organisational concern, and work meaningfulness has been proposed as one factor that may encourage employees to remain with their organization. However, direct quantitative evidence on its association with intention to stay remains limited. This study aimed to synthesise the available quantitative evidence on the association between work meaningfulness and employees’ intention to stay through a systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis.

The review followed the PRISMA 2020 framework. Searches were conducted in EBSCOhost, Emerald Insight, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. Four eligible studies were included in the quantitative synthesis. Effect sizes were based on zero-order correlation coefficients and synthesised using Fisher’s r-to-z transformation under a random-effects model with the Sidik–Jonkman estimator. Knapp–Hartung adjustment was applied to confidence intervals and statistical inference.

The pooled association between work meaningfulness and intention to stay was positive and statistically significant (r = .526, 95% CI [.227, .734], p = .013). Substantial between-study heterogeneity was observed (Q = 48.695, p < .001; I² = 94.38%; τ² = .0456). The 95% prediction interval ranged from −.179 to .874, indicating considerable uncertainty in the magnitude and potential direction of the association across comparable settings.

The findings suggest that work meaningfulness is positively associated with employees’ intention to stay, although the substantial between-study heterogeneity indicates that this association may vary across occupational and organisational contexts. The findings should therefore be interpreted cautiously given the small number of included studies and substantial between-study heterogeneity.

The findings provide preliminary evidence of a positive association between work meaningfulness and employees’ intention to stay. However, the small evidence base and substantial heterogeneity warrant cautious interpretation. Further primary research across diverse occupational and organisational contexts is needed to clarify the consistency and boundary conditions of this association. The findings suggest that meaningful work may be considered as one component of broader retention strategies, although the evidence does not establish a causal effect.