Meaning at work refers to the significance and purpose that individuals perceive in their work ( Song et al., 2018 ), and when employees perceive that their work is highly meaningful, they are more likely to be thriving at work in organizational networks through the mechanisms of resource exchange and interaction in the social embedding model, experiencing a state of vitality and learning at the same time. According to resource preservation theory, meaning of work, as an individual’s deep-seated recognition of occupational value and positive psychological experience, is not only a psychological resource for knowledge employees ( Shi et al., 2023 ), but also an important driving force for them to thriving at work. Meaning of work promotes the formation of strong motivation and commitment to work by enhancing knowledge employees’ perception of the value of work, which in turn has a significant impact on the dimensions of sense of learning and sense of vitality.

In the sense of learning dimension, employees with a high sense of meaning of work are more inclined to view their work as a way of self-growth and improvement ( Lin et al., 2022 ), actively seek new knowledge and skills through writing learning and knowledge sharing in socially embedded networks ( Zhao et al., 2023 ), and constantly challenge themselves to achieve personal and organizational progress. This positive learning attitude not only enhances employees’ professional competence, but also increases their confidence and adaptability in facing work challenges.

In the sense of vitality dimension, when employees feel the value and meaning of work, they are more likely to experience a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction at work, and this positive emotional experience translates into sustained enthusiasm and vitality at work through the transfer of emotional energy in the organization’s social network ( Ji & Xu, 2023 ). Employees with a high sense of meaning of work tend to devote themselves to their work with a fuller spirit, displaying a high degree of creativity and motivation ( Gao & Hu, 2023 ), and thus maintain lasting motivation and effectiveness at work.

According to the analysis of the questionnaire survey, it was found that the knowledge employees of Enterprise W attach importance to the realization of their self-worth, and when experiencing a higher meaning of work, they will show more vigor in their work and strive to obtain a higher level of knowledge accumulation and ability enhancement. Based on this, we propose the hypothesis:

H1a: The meaning of work can contribute to the formation of a sense of learning of thriving at work among knowledge employees.

H1b: The meaning of work can contribute to the formation of a sense of vitality of thriving at work among knowledge employees.

In the context of Chinese organizational management, “circle culture” has been deeply embedded in the organization’s operation mechanism as a figurative manifestation of difference sequence. When a leader-centered poorly ordered atmosphere is formed within the team, resource allocation shows significant circling characteristics ( Liu et al., 2009 ). The “insiders” in the center of power not only have priority access to information resources, decision-making and development opportunities, but also establish a special exchange relationship with the leader through emotional ties, forming a continuous cycle of resource gain. For “outsiders”, information shielding leads to ambiguous perceptions of organizational goals, and opportunity deprivation restricts the space for the development of their capabilities ( Wang et al., 2023 ). The solidification of this difference sequence pattern injects a strong relationship-oriented operating logic into the allocation of organizational resources, causing resource allocation to gradually deviate from the performance-oriented track.

According to resource conservation theory, resource conservation mechanisms are activated when employees perceive a systemic injustice in resource acquisition. From the perspective of the two-dimensional structure of thriving at work, the difference sequence atmosphere has a dual impact on employee energization and learning through differentiated resource provision. It is manifested in the vitality dimension as the attenuation of work enthusiasm and in the learning dimension as the weakening of developmental motivation ( Zeng & Liu, 2022 ). When access to organizational resources depends on relationship rather than value contribution, the meaning of work of “outsiders” is fundamentally questioned, their efforts are not translated into predictable organizational returns, and their career growth paths are blocked by non-institutional factors. The loss of meaning of work can lead to a loss of purpose and value confusion, resulting in “existential burnout”, i.e., not only a lack of energy to engage in work, but also a loss of cognitive frameworks for understanding the value of work ( Spreitzer et al., 2005 ). Based on this, we propose the hypothesis:

H2a: The stronger the difference sequence, the weaker the contribution of meaning of work to the sense of learning of thriving at work among knowledge employees.

H2b: The stronger the difference sequence, the weaker the contribution of meaning of work to the sense of vitality of thriving at work among knowledge employees.

The specific research model is shown in Figure 1 .

The research object of this paper focuses on the knowledge employees of Enterprise W. Enterprise W is a human resource service company, which has a higher percentage of knowledge employees compared to other employees and is a core member of the company’s development. The survey was conducted in the form of an electronic questionnaire, which was distributed in the enterprise group through the head of the human resources department of Enterprise W. To ensure the privacy of the participants and the credibility of the questionnaire, all the participants filled out the questionnaire in an anonymous manner. When the questionnaires were further screened, questionnaires with incorrectly filled in polygraph questions and highly consistent choices were eliminated. The questionnaire survey totaled 198 questionnaires, 22 invalid questionnaires were screened out, 176 valid questionnaires, and the recovery rate of the questionnaires was about 88.89%. The sample distribution is shown in Table 1 .

To ensure rigor, the variable measurement scales used in this paper are derived from well-established scales that have been validated in multiple studies. Considering the factor of difference sequence, a variable with Chinese local cultural characteristics, this paper prioritizes the use of scales that have been widely followed and validated in Chinese contexts. In order to ensure that the questionnaire can comprehensively and accurately reflect the real situation of the target group, before formally carrying out the questionnaire research, interview work is carried out to preliminarily understand the working status and working atmosphere of knowledge employees in W enterprises. Likert’s five-point scale was used for all scales in this paper.

1) Dependent variable: Thriving at work. In this paper, we referred to the measurement scale of Spreitzer et al. (2012) to develop the measurement of thriving at work, which consists of two dimensions, sense of learning and sense of vitality, with the sense of learning dimension consisting of 5 questions, such as “At work, I am always learning”, and the sense of vitality dimension consisting of 5 questions, such as “At work, I am always energized”. The Cronbach’s α value for this scale in this paper is 0.847.

2) Independent variable: Meaning of work. We utilized the meaning of work scale developed by Steger et al. (2012) , which consists of 10 items such as “The work I do has meaning”. The Cronbach’s α of this scale in this paper is 0.851.

3) Moderator variable: Difference sequence. In this paper, we used the difference sequence scale developed by Liu et al. (2009) , which includes three dimensions of interdependence, biased treatment, and crony roles, with a total of 11 items. The interdependence dimension includes 6 items such as “The supervisor has frequent contact with individual subordinates”, the biased treatment dimension includes 3 items such as “I feel that the supervisor treats his subordinates differently throughout the team”, and the crony roles dimension includes 2 items such as “There are specific subordinates who assist the supervisor in solving some routine tasks”. The Cronbach’s α of this scale in this paper is 0.875.

We used SPSS 27.0 to test the reliability of all variables, the results of data analysis are shown in Table 2 . The Cronbach’s α values for each variable of entrepreneurship, knowledge management, knowledge inertia and organizational resilience of Science and Technology-based SMEs are all higher than 0.7, which indicates that the internal consistency of the research scales is high. The KMO values are all greater than 0.7, and the p-values of the Bartlett’s test of sphericity are all significant, so that the structural validity passes the test.

Note: *** indicates p < 0.001.

In this paper, we used SPSS 27.0 to calculate the mean and standard deviation of the model variables and the Pearson correlation coefficient between the variables to verify the correlation between each variable, and the results are shown in Table 3 . According to the results in Table 3 , meaning of work is significantly positively correlated with sense of learning, sense of vitality among knowledge employees (r = 0.562, p < 0.01; r = 0.671, p < 0.01). Significantly positive correlation between sense of learning and sense of vitality among knowledge employees (r = 0.630, p < 0.01). Difference sequence of knowledge employees is significantly negatively correlated with meaning of work, sense of learning, and sense of vitality (r = −0.188, p < 0.05; r = −0.226, p < 0.05; r = −0.368, p < 0.01). The high degree of correlation between the variables provides strong support for the regression analysis.

Note: * indicates p < 0.05, ** indicates p < 0.01.

1) Main effects test. The regression results are shown in Table 4 . From Model 1, meaning of work has a significant positive effect on sense of learning of thriving at work (β = 0.654, p < 0.001), and Hypothesis H1a is valid. From Model 3, meaning of work has a significant positive effect on sense of vitality of thriving at work (β = 0.871, p < 0.001), and Hypothesis H1b is established. Comparison of the regression coefficients revealed a stronger facilitating effect of meaning of work on the perceptions of sense of vitality thriving at work.

2) Moderating effects test. In order to reduce the impact of multicollinearity on the results of the regression analysis, the variables involved in the interaction terms were centered before testing for moderating effects. From Model 2, the difference sequence negatively moderated the facilitating effect of meaning of work on sense of learning thriving at work (β = −0.350, p < 0.001), and Hypothesis H2a holds. From Model 4, the coefficient of the interaction term between difference sequence and meaning of work is not significant, indicating that difference sequence has no moderating effect between meaning of work and sense of vitality thriving at work, and Hypothesis H2b does not hold.

Note: * indicates p < 0.05, ** indicates p < 0.01, *** indicates p < 0.001, the value of t is in parentheses.

In order to present a more intuitive picture of the moderating effect of difference sequence climate on the relationship between meaning of work and thriving at work, this paper plots the moderating effect for thriving at work-sense of learning and thriving at work-sense of vitality, as shown in the panel of Figure 2 . As can be seen from Figure 2(a) , the slope becomes smaller when the difference sequence atmosphere is at a higher level, indicating that the difference sequence atmosphere plays a negative moderating effect between the meaning of work and the sense of learning of thriving at work. And Figure 2(b) shows that the slopes of the two lines are the same regardless of the level of difference sequence, suggesting that there is no moderating effect of difference sequence between the meaning of work and the sense of vitality of thriving at work.

First, expanding the explanatory boundaries of social embedding models. We verified the differentiated driving mechanism of the two dimensions of thriving at work (sense of learning/sense of vitality), and revealed the response logic of the two paths of “cognitive-emotional” of knowledge employees, which breaks through the generalized discussion of the overall dimensions of thriving at work in the traditional research.

Second, deconstructing the double-edged sword effect of differential management. The discovery of the hidden destructive mechanism of difference sequence on the organizational learning system echoes the phenomenon of “institutional disintegration” of informal structures on formal management mechanisms in the Chinese context, providing localized empirical support for the theory of power change.

Third, reframing the prioritization framework for knowledge employees’ motivation. Confirmation of the higher sensitivity of the sense of vitality to the perception of meaning suggests that managers need to prioritize the reinforcement of the communication of the value of work (as opposed to mere skills training), which is of revelatory value for precise human resource interventions in the knowledge economy.

The first step is to focus on psychological perception to improve the meaning of work. By sharing the organization’s vision and goals with employees, employees can feel how their work has a positive impact on the organization and society, and realize the value of their careers. Training is closely related to the meaning of work ( Ju, 2021 ), and providing regular training and learning opportunities for employees encourages them to develop new skills and knowledge so that they can achieve self-improvement in their work and increase the sense of accomplishment they experience at work.

The second is to weaken relational differences and establish an atmosphere of fairness. Team leaders should focus on fairness and equity in the workplace, making everything work-oriented, ensuring that all team members have equitable access to the necessary resources and support, and reducing the difference sequence that results from unequal distribution of resources.

The third is to create favorable conditions for thriving at work. Centered around a people-centered approach, it is important to develop and nurture employees while paying attention to their individual circumstances. For example, before organizing training, adequate investigation and evaluation are carried out to ensure that the content and form of training are determined to match the actual needs of the employees and to effectively improve their work skills.

Given the complexity of the paper itself and the objective limitations faced in the actual research process, some limitations of the current research results still inevitably exist. First, the data collection in this paper only takes the way of employees’ unilateral self-evaluation, and the rigor needs to be improved. In order to obtain more comprehensive and effective research data, further research should consider the introduction of the assessment strategy of mutual pairing between leaders and employees. Second, the data collection in this paper is centralized and may not adequately reflect the dynamic effects of variables over time. Third, we have selected only one company in the field of human resources as our research sample and the results obtained may not be generalizable. Future research could select more firms and fields to expand the sample and increase the generalizability of the results. Fourth, our study’s measure of difference sequence may not fully capture the complex internal-external relationship dynamics within teams. More comprehensive measures, including qualitative data or observations, could be considered in the future to better understand how these dynamic relationships occur in practice.