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Meaning, Work, and Well-Being: Empirical Findings
Abstract
This chapter gives a comprehensive account of research state-of-the-art empirical findings on the positive links between finding meaning in work, personal health, and well-being. Von Devivere gives a detailed account of these results, their multitude of specific elements of meaning at work, individuals’ general meaning awareness, their sources of meaning, and the individual relevance of work for reaching individual meaning fulfillment. Von Devivere also highlights the effects of existential approaches on meaning at work, on perceived work load, and on individual work engagement. Moreover, this chapter also draws attention to Viktor Frankl’s differentiation between sources of meaning, to be empirically validated, and the construct of ultimate meaning, going beyond empirical testing, a distinction ever more relevant for a comprehensive understanding of meaning in today’s workplaces.
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The main purpose of this chapter is to introduce Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy to the twenty-first century, especially to positive psychologists interested in meaning research and applications. Frankl’s radically positive message of re-humanizing psychotherapy is much needed in the current technological culture. More specifically, I explain the basic assumptions of logotherapy and translate them into a testable meaning-seeking model to facilitate meaning research and intervention. This model consists of five hypotheses: (1) The Self-Transcendence Hypothesis: The will to meaning is a spiritual and primary motivation for self-transcendence; thus, it predicts that spiritual pathways (e.g., spiritual care, self-transcendence) will enhance meaning in life and well-being, even when other pathways to well-being are not available. (2) The Ultimate Meaning Hypothesis: It predicts that belief in the intrinsic meaning and value of life, regardless of circumstances, is more functional than alternative global beliefs. It also predicts that belief in ultimate meaning facilitates the discovery of meaning of the moment. (3) The Meaning Mindset Hypothesis: A meaning mindset, as compared to the success mindset, leads to greater meaningfulness, compassion, moral excellence, eudaemonic happiness, and resilience. (4) The Freedom of Will Hypothesis: People who believe in the inherent human capacity for freedom and responsibility, regardless of circumstances, will show higher autonomy and authenticity than those without such beliefs. (5) The Value Hypothesis of Discovering Meaning: Meaning is more likely to be discovered through creative, experiential, and attitudinal values that are motivated by self-transcendence rather than by self-interest. Together, they capture the complexity and centrality of meaning seeking in healing and well-being. In sum, Viktor Frankl emphasizes the need for a radical shift from self-focus to meaning-focus as the most promising way to lift up individuals from the dark pit of despair to a higher ground of flourishing. This chapter outlines the differences between logotherapy and positive psychology and suggests future research to bridge these two parallel fields of study for the benefit of psychology and society.
Literature on meaning in work indicates that a sense of meaning in work is inherently subjective, but impacted by different contexts. In the present paper, these contexts are operationalized by three inter-related levels: individual, work tasks, and organizational. Meaning in work is conceptualized in line with findings from an extensive research program exploring meaning in life. Analogously to meaning in life, meaning in work is defined as a sense of coherence, direction, significance, and belonging in the working life. Against this background, meaning in work and potential predictors have been measured and tested. A survey of employees from a broad variety of professions (N = 206) was conducted. As indicated by hierarchical multiple regression analysis, work-role fit, the significance of work tasks, socio-moral climate, and organizational self-transcendent orientation contribute positively to the prediction of meaning in work. Overall, the predictors account for 46% of the variance in meaning in work.
In the human quest for meaning, work occupies a central position. Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work, which often serves as a primary source of purpose, belongingness, and identity. In light of these benefits to employees and their organizations, organizational scholars are increasingly interested in understanding the factors that contribute to meaningful work, such as the design of jobs, interpersonal relationships, and organizational missions and cultures. In a separate line of inquiry, scholars of business ethics have examined meaningful work as a moral issue concerning the management of others and ourselves, exploring whether there are definable characteristics of meaningful work to which we have moral rights, and whether there are moral duties to ourselves and others to fulfill those rights. In this article, we examine contemporary developments in both disciplines about the nature, causes, and consequences of meaningful work; we explore linkages between these disciplines; and we offer conclusions and research opportunities regarding the interface of ethical and organizational perspectives on performing and providing meaningful work.
The field of psychology has been slow to recognize the importance of purpose for positive youth development. Until recently, purpose was understood, if at all, as a means of adapting to threatening conditions rather than as a motivator of good deeds and galvanizer of character growth. Moreover, in most psychological studies, purpose has been conflated with personal meaning, a broader and more internally oriented construct. This article offers a new operational definition of purpose that distinguishes it from meaning in an internalistic sense, and it reviews the existing psychological studies pertinent to the development of purpose during youth. The ar- ticle identifies a number of urgent questions concerning how—and whether—young people today are acquiring positive purposes to dedicate themselves to and, if so, what the nature of today's youth purposes might be. When Victor Frankl published the English edition of Man's Search for Meaning in 1959, the book's instant influence forced psychology to come to terms with the primary importance of high-level belief systems that had been considered derivative or epi-phenomenal by the major theories.1 The notion that ethereal constructs such as "meaning" and "purpose" could make a differ- ence—that they could motivate someone to do some- thing, or even shape a person's basic choices about how to live—seemed impossibly soft-headed and sentimen- tal to mainstream psychologists of that time. If the be- haviorist and psychoanalytic schools (the two best-known bodies of psychological work at midcentury) agreed on anything at all, it was that mean- ing, purpose, and other such belief systems were the products of more fundamental drives; that they were de- pendant on the drives for their shape, substance, and very existence; and that meaning and purpose were no more than marginal factors in behavioral development. To this entrenched materialist position, Frankl (1959) wrote (in the non-"degenderized" language of his day): Man's search for meaning is a primary force in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning. There are some authors who contend that meanings and values are "nothing but defense mechanisms, reaction formations and sublimations." But as for myself, I would not be willing to live merely for the sake of my "defense mechanisms," nor would I be ready to die merely for the sake of my "reaction for- mations." Man, however, is able to live and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values! (p. 121)
Many people desire work that is meaningful. However, research in this area has attracted diverse ideas about meaningful work (MW), accompanied by an equally disparate collection of ways of assessing MW. To further advance study in this area, the authors propose a multidimensional model of work as a subjectively meaningful experience consisting of experiencing positive meaning in work, sensing that work is a key avenue for making meaning, and perceiving one’s work to benefit some greater good. The development of a scale to measure these dimensions is described, an initial appraisal of the reliability and construct validity of the instrument’s scores is reported using a sample of university employees (N = 370) representing diverse occupations. MW scores correlated in predicted ways with work-related and general well-being indices, and accounted for unique variance beyond common predictors of job satisfaction, days reported absent from work, and life satisfaction. The authors discuss ways in which this conceptual model provides advantages to scholars, counselors, and organizations interested in fostering MW.
We present evidence suggesting that most people see their work as either a Job (focus on financial rewards and necessity rather than pleasure or fulfillment; not a major positive part of life), a Career (focus on advancement), or a Calling (focus on enjoyment of fulfilling, socially useful work). Employees at two work sites (n= 196) with a wide range of occupations from clerical to professional were unambiguous in seeing their work primarily in terms of a Job, Career, or Calling. Differences in respondents' relations to their work could not be reduced to demographic or occupational differences; an homogenous subset of 24 college administrative assistants were, like the total sample of respondents, distributed evenly across Job, Career, and Calling.
The purpose of this article is to initiate an effort to establish the constructs calling and vocation within counseling psychology. First, updated definitions of calling and vocation, developed with an eye toward stimulating research and providing useful practice applications, are proposed. Next, the authors explain how the constructs apply to the domain of human work, review empirical and theoretical work related to calling and vocation and their role in human functioning, and differentiate the terms from each other and related constructs. Finally, directions for basic and applied research on calling and vocation are suggested, and implications for career counseling practice are outlined.
The endorsement and deployment of character strengths in occupational contexts are two promising components for understanding how people create well-being. In this study, a model integrating character strengths, satisfaction with occupational activities, and meaning and well-being was proposed and tested in two samples of volunteers and a sample of working adults. The model fit the data well in all three samples. Results demonstrated that deploying strengths at work provided key links to satisfaction with voluntary and paid occupational activities and to meaning among both young and middle-aged volunteers, and adult working women. Among adult volunteers and paid workers, endorsing strengths was related to meaning, while both endorsing and deploying strengths were related to well-being. Together, these studies provide a model for understanding how strengths may play a role in how both volunteer and paid workers find meaning, well-being, and satisfaction.
Clients presenting with career-related concerns often desire a greater sense of meaning in their work. Therefore, incorporating the constructs of calling and vocation into the career counseling process may have utility. An overview of conceptual and empirical work on these constructs is provided. Drawing from recent integrated definitions of calling and vocation, the authors present suggestions for incorporating these constructs in practice. Counselors are encouraged to explore the extent to which clients feel a transcendent summons to a particular career, the extent to which clients’ careers bring meaning to their lives, and the extent to which clients’ careers serve society. For clients who wish to view their career as a calling or vocation, the authors provide strategies to help bring meaning and social purpose to their work lives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes the development of LAP, a multidimensional measure designed to assess the degree of existential meaning and purpose in life and the strength of motivation to find meaning and purpose. Principle component factor analyses performed on the responses of 219 undergraduates to the 56-item, 7-point Likert scale resulted in the extraction of 7 primary dimensions of life attitudes (life purpose, existential vacuum, life control, death acceptance, will to meaning, goal seeking, and future meaning to fulfill) and 3 higher order factors. The normative data showed that males scored significantly higher on the death acceptance dimension and on the total LAP compared to females. Age was significantly related to a number of the LAP factors for males but not for females. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Counseling psychologists often work with clients to increase their well-being as well as to decrease their distress. One important aspect of well-being, highlighted particularly in humanistic theories of the counseling process, is perceived meaning in life. However, poor measurement has hampered research on meaning in life. In 3 studies, evidence is provided for the internal consistency, temporal stability, factor structure, and validity of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a new 10-item measure of the presence of, and the search for, meaning in life. A multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity of the MLQ subscales across time and informants, in comparison with 2 other meaning scales. The MLQ offers several improvements over current meaning in life measures, including no item overlap with distress measures, a stable factor structure, better discriminant validity, a briefer format, and the ability to measure the search for meaning.
This study examined open-ended responses from 295 college students to questions regarding how they define the construct of calling, how having a calling influences their career development, and the extent to which the term “calling” may apply to areas of life other than work. Results indicated that students perceived a calling as originating from guiding forces, co-occurring with unique fit and well-being, having altruistic features, and extending to multiple life roles. These results largely support recent conceptualizations of calling in the career development literature, and suggest themes to explore in counseling with clients who desire to approach work as a calling.
Interest in meaning and meaning making in the context of stressful life events continues to grow, but research is hampered by conceptual and methodological limitations. Drawing on current theories, the author first presents an integrated model of meaning making. This model distinguishes between the constructs of global and situational meaning and between "meaning-making efforts" and "meaning made," and it elaborates subconstructs within these constructs. Using this model, the author reviews the empirical research regarding meaning in the context of adjustment to stressful events, outlining what has been established to date and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current empirical work. Results suggest that theory on meaning and meaning making has developed apace, but empirical research has failed to keep up with these developments, creating a significant gap between the rich but abstract theories and empirical tests of them. Given current empirical findings, some aspects of the meaning-making model appear to be well supported but others are not, and the quality of meaning-making efforts and meanings made may be at least as important as their quantity. This article concludes with specific suggestions for future research.
Link: https://hbr.org/2017/07/every-generation-wants-meaningful-work-but-thinks-other-age-groups-are-in-it-for-the-money
Philosophers have long argued that, since so much of an employee’s waking time is spent at work, and since their sense of self is tied to the work they do, businesses have a moral responsibility to make sure work is meaningful. If this is the case, managers need to understand what employees actually think is meaningful. Although researchers have searched for a comprehensive definition of meaningful work for years, there are still questions about whether definitions differ depending on age, race, family situation, etc. New research involving employee interviews and survey data finds that all generations tend to define meaning at work similarly. However, each generation believes the others are only in it for the money, don’t work as hard, and do not care about meaning. If each generation thinks this way, it’s not surprising that they treat each other differently than if they believe they are all striving for intrinsic meaning in their jobs.
Meaningful work is something we all want. The psychiatrist Viktor Frankl famously described how the innate human quest for meaning is so strong that, even in the direst circumstances, people seek out their purpose in life.1 More recently, researchers have shown meaningfulness to be more important to employees than any other aspect of work, including pay and rewards, opportunities for promotion, or working conditions. Meaningful work can be highly motivational, leading to improved performance, commitment, and satisfaction. But, so far, surprisingly little research has explored where and how people find their work meaningful and the role that leaders can play in this process.
We interviewed 135 people working in 10 very different occupations and asked them to tell us stories about incidents or times when they found their work to be meaningful and, conversely, times when they asked themselves, “What’s the point of doing this job?” We expected to find that meaningfulness would be similar to other work-related attitudes, such as engagement or commitment, in that it would arise purely in response to situations within the work environment. However, we found that, unlike these other attitudes, meaningfulness tended to be intensely personal and individual; it was often revealed to employees as they reflected on their work and its wider contribution to society in ways that mattered to them as individuals. People tended to speak of their work as meaningful in relation to thoughts or memories of significant family members such as parents or children, bridging the gap between work and the personal realm. We also expected meaningfulness to be a relatively enduring state of mind experienced by individuals toward their work; instead, our interviewees talked of unplanned or unexpected moments during which they found their work deeply meaningful.
Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology presents a broad overview of contemporary empirical research and theoretical work on the meaning/purpose in life construct from two perspectives - Positive psychology and Existential psychology. Although they may have common ground, these perspectives have only recently come into fruitful dialogue. They may, in fact, be viewed as more complementary than strictly opposing. Positive psychology's focus on human strengths tends to emphasize the brighter side of human functioning, whereas existential psychology, traditionally, tends to address the more unsettling aspects of human existence, such as guilt, suffering, and mortality. Despite their different approaches, both positive and existential psychology have come to view meaning and meaning awareness as central psychological (and philosophical) factors, relevant both for human striving and for human coping.
Written by an international and interdisciplinary assembly of leading researchers in existential and positive psychology and related disciplines, this book includes twenty-one chapters on current trends and topics in meaning oriented clinical and theoretical psychology.
This article has the dual purpose of expanding an understanding of the relationship between subjective and objective careers, and describing one condition under which the subjective career takes on particular salience: when the person feels a sense of calling in his or her career (that is, a sense of purpose, that this is the work one was meant to do.) This sense of calling does not necessarily have to be connected to a set of religious beliefs. We present a model of psychological success based on the career as a calling in order to clarify relationships between the subjective and objective career, and we offer propositions related to the model. Further, we offer a case study to illustrate the notion of the career as a calling, as proposed in the model. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We tested the hypothesis that employees are willing to maintain their motivation when their work is relationally designed to provide opportunities for respectful contact with the beneficiaries of their efforts. In Experiment 1, a longitudinal field experiment in a fundraising organization, callers in an intervention group briefly interacted with a beneficiary; callers in two control groups read a letter from the beneficiary and discussed it amongst themselves or had no exposure to him. One month later, the intervention group displayed significantly greater persistence and job performance than the control groups. The intervention group increased significantly in persistence (142% more phone time) and job performance (171% more money raised); the control groups did not. Experiments 2 and 3 used a laboratory editing task to examine mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. In Experiment 2, respectful contact with beneficiaries increased persistence, mediated by perceived impact. In Experiment 3, mere contact with beneficiaries and task significance interacted to increase persistence, mediated by affective commitment to beneficiaries. Implications for job design and work motivation are discussed.
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The Meaning in Life (ML) Scale and Uniscale were developed to assess the sense of purpose, beliefs, and faith of patients in hospice and rehabilitative programs. Specialists have called for such instruments as meaning in life is not adequately measured by quality of life measures. The reliability and validity of the measures were tested with 257 English and French patients in long term care facilities in Montreal. The internal consistency of the responses to the 15 items in the ML Scale and the stability of the measures over a two week period were at acceptable levels. With respect to construct validity, the direction and magnitude of the correlation of the measures with those of subjective well-being, social support, pain, activities of daily living, quality of life, and social desirability were generally as predicted. Further research is required to determine the utility of the ML Scale and Uniscale in clinical research.
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