Say you’re a lawyer, and you’re evaluating competing job offers — one from a law firm, and the other for a general counsel role in a tech company. Which one should you take?
Research: The More Essential Your Job Is to Your Company, the Happier You’ll Be
It’s never easy to choose between two strong, competing job offers. In this piece, the authors argue that while any one person’s choice will be influenced by a host of factors, research suggests that one factor to consider carefully is the extent to which the role is crucial to the organization’s mission. Roles that are “lynchpins” — a lawyer in a law firm, a marketer in a marketing agency, a programmer at a tech company — confer a host of benefits on the people who take them. Specifically, studies show that people in lynchpin roles are more likely to feel that their work is meaningful, have a higher emotional commitment to the organization, and feel less job insecurity and burnout. Based on this research, the authors suggest that managers would be wise to put in extra effort when it comes to engaging their more peripheral employees, since these people are less likely to find their work intrinsically motivating.