Want to Be Engaged in Your Career? Be Indispensable.Taking on more responsibility will energize you, according to new research.

ByNina Zipkin

Shutterstock

How do you know if a career move is right for you?

While cultural fit, how your skillset matches up with the needs of the job description and the company's mission would certainly figure into your choice to take a position, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and Washington State University, how integral your role is to the success of the company impacts how happy you will be in a new job.

Namely, someone who is a "lynchpin" in his or her company's day-to-day activities is more engaged in work.

Related:3 Essentials for Making a Big Splash at Your New Job

The professors identified the four elements that make someone a lynchpin. The first is how critical the work you are doing in the position is to the long-term goals and mission of your company. The second is whether the work you are producing can be substituted by another position. The third is if no one were to do this work, how quickly would other work activities grind to a halt. And the fourth is if no one were doing this work, how keenly the absence be felt.

While the flipside of being an integral part of the company's operations could mean the increased stress of always having to be on call, in a survey of 700 employees the researchers found that when a role had these four factors, "it predicted more meaningful work, more emotional organization commitment, and less job insecurity and burnout. We found no downsides," explained Lixin Jiang, Thomas Tripp and Tahira Probst in theHarvard Business Review.

Related:7 Signs It's Time to Transition From Employee to Entrepreneur

Ultimately, if you are weighing the pros and cons of taking on more responsibility in your company or your career in general, Jiang, Tripp and Probst advise taking the leap.

"Although core positions often come with greater responsibility, employees should understand, counter to conventional wisdom, that such a position may belesslikely to burn them out," they wrote. "Conversely, accepting a peripheral position may have unanticipated adverse consequences as a result of not being "in the thick of things.'"

Wavy Line
Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

特约撰稿人。包括领导、媒体、技术and culture.

Nina Zipkin is a staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers leadership, media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Thought Leaders

So, You've Been Hacked. These are the Best Practices for Business Leaders Post-Hack

The lasting effects of a cyber incident can impact an organization's reputation, customers, workforce, databases and network architecture.

Business News

An 81-Year-Old Florida CEO Just Indicted for a $250 Million Ponzi Scheme Ran a Sprawling Senior Citizen Crime Ring

Carl Ruderman is the fifth senior citizen in the Miami-Fort-Lauderdale-Palm Beach metropolitan area to face charges in connection with the scam.

Resumes & Interviewing

This AI Resume Tool is Only $29.97 So You Can Make Job-Hunting Easier

Expand your growth potential with this back-to-school sale.

Money & Finance

Want to Become a Millionaire? Follow Warren Buffett's 4 Rules.

企业家是不能过度指狗万官方望太多a company exit for their eventual 'win.' Do this instead.

Business News

How One Couple Became Multi-Unit, Multi-Brand Franchise Owners

When Matt and Anne Evers took the leap to buy a franchise, they never imagined they'd grow to 13 locations across two brands just eight years later.