Testing work meaning violation as a mediator between organizational dehumanization and emotional exhaustion

This study examined the mediating effect of work-meaning violation between organizational dehumanization and emotional exhaustion. Path analysis was performed with a two-wave dataset of 574 participants. In line with the hypotheses, results showed that after controlling for the effects at Time 1, work meaning violation at Time 2 mediated the association between organizational dehumanization at Time 2 and emotional exhaustion at Time 2. However, additional analysis showed that organizational dehumanization at Time 1 did not predict emotional exhaustion at Time 2 when other variables were simultaneously considered. Limitations and implications are discussed.