MEANINGFUL OR MEANINGLESS? ORGANIZATIONAL CONDITIONS INFLUENCING DOCTORAL STUDENTS' MENTAL HEALTH AND ACHIEVEMENT

Aim/Purpose This paper presents a quantitative investigation of the organizational factors predicting the attrition of doctoral students' experience of meaning and how meaningful experience and meaningless work affect doctoral students' mental health and achievements. Background Today's academic environment subsumes neoliberal principles of individualism, instrumentality, and competition. Such an environment can harm doctoral stu-dents' meaningful experience. Universities' market-driven practices, indeed, can lower doctoral students' motivation and affect their mental health. Methodology In this paper, we referred to empirical knowledge to identify the ways through which today's academia erodes doctoral students' meaningful experiences. We hypothesized that environmental sources of meaning (e.g., coherence, signifi-cance, purpose, and belonging) become subsumed under neoliberal principles of individualism, instrumentality, and competition. Lower levels of sources of meaning directly predict the experience of meaningless work, which is linked to higher levels of anxiety, depression, and intention to quit among doctoral stu-dents. We conducted a cross-sectional study on a sample of N = 204 doctoral students who volunteered to participate by completing a survey with self-re-ported measures. We analyzed data collected via structural equation modelling to test the associations among the variables. Contribution The present paper represents one an attempt attempts to investigate doctoral students' experience as subsumed to market-driven principles of the neoliberal ideology. Findings Results of structural equation modelling show that higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms and intention to quit are associated with the lack of exter-nal supporting factors (i.e., PhD support), the perception of broad-based mana-gerial practices as meaningless and instrumental, and a general sense of empti-ness at work (i.e., meaningless work). Ultimately, doctoral students may strive to have a meaningful experience in today's academic environment. The experience of meaningless work leads to the risk of mental illness symptoms and quitting intention. Recommendations for Practitioners This study suggests to practitioners to improve doctoral students' well-being with multilevel interventions approach as well as including academic stakehold-ers to have broader practical implications. Recommendations for Researchers For researchers, it is suggested to focus on the managerial and organizational conditions of the academic environment that influence the basis of doctoral stu-dents' experience of doing a PhD. Impact on Society This study affords society the importance of prioritizing the academic environ-ment by looking at the meaning in work through the intersection of meaningful experience and meaningless work for doctoral students' mental health and achievement. Future Research Future research can consider the role of factors contributing to doctoral stu-dents' meaningful experience by probing doctoral programs to understand stu-dents' mental health and achievement.