What enables us to better experience our work as meaningful? The importance of awareness and the social context

Abstract

Why does becoming more aware of yourself and your wider work environment enable you to experience greater meaningful work? Drawing upon mindfulness-to-meaning and interpersonal sensemaking theories, we argue that in a state of awareness individuals are cognitively flexible and are able to interpret relevant interpersonal cues in ways that enable them to experience their work as meaningful. Study 1 is a quantitative diary study over a period of six weeks that tests the state-level relationships between awareness, cognitive flexibility, and meaningful work. We find that awareness is, directly and indirectly, related to three of four dimensions of meaningful work via cognitive flexibility. Study 2 qualitatively explores what individuals cognitively attend to in the social context when they reflect upon the most meaningful work events that occurred each week, over four weeks. Findings reveal that ambivalent work events are experienced as meaningful when individuals attend to interpersonal cues in their work context that convey a sense of worth, care, and/or safety. Overall, our paper advances knowledge about meaningful work as a state-level experience that is facilitated by awareness, cognitive flexibility, and cues from the social context. It shows the importance of integrating meaningful work, mindfulness, and interpersonal sensemaking literatures.

Searching for meaning in a disruptive world – Constructing a lexicon of the meanings of meaning

“…Meaning, as it applies to the workplace, is not a concept whose importance still needs to be motivated (Albrecht et al, 2021;Lysova et al, 2022), but a construct that needs better understanding and clarity (Lips-Wiersma et al, 2022). Greater construct clarity regarding the meanings of meaning is essential to promote valid research and to implement impactful practices to advance meaningfulness in the workplace.…”

“…Research increasingly demonstrates meaningful work to mean different things to different people Michaelson, 2019). That which constitutes meaningful work is subjective and intensely personal (Bissola et al, 2021;Lips-Wiersma et al, 2022;Lysova et al, 2022;Smids et al, 2020). Work is meaningful when the individual experiences it as meaningful (Michaelson, 2021) and when it facilitates meaning-making (Allan et al, 2019;Steger et al, 2012).…”

“…Work is meaningful when the individual experiences it as meaningful (Michaelson, 2021) and when it facilitates meaning-making (Allan et al, 2019;Steger et al, 2012). Meaningful work thus relates to meaningful experiences, rather than characteristics of the work itself (Allan et al, 2019;Lips-Wiersma et al, 2022;Lysova et al, 2022;Steger, 2017). Work that is meaningful for one person could be less meaningful for another (Lips-Wiersma et al, 2022;Michaelson, 2021).…”

“…Work that is experienced as meaningful has substantial positive consequences for both individuals and organisations (Allan et al, 2014;Schnell & Hoffmann, 2020;Steger, 2017). Meaningful work is consistently correlated with a host of work and well-being constructs, such as greater life satisfaction and life meaning (Steger et al, 2012), lower levels of anxiety and depression (Steger et al, 2012;Ward & King, 2017), higher job performance and organisational commitment, and more intrinsic motivation (Lysova et al, 2022;Steger et al, 2012).…”

Employee reactions to CSR in the pursuit of meaningful work: A case study of the healthcare industry

“…We follow the suggestion that the individual pursuit of meaningful work may be best understood as a dynamic and ongoing process, characterised by the importance attributed to subjective meanings and interpretations that lead individuals to discover the significance of their work (Mitra and Buzzanell, 2017 ; Lysova et al, 2022 ). Considering that (positive) meaning-making of work is a subset of sensemaking (i.e., the process through which individuals assign meaning to aspects of life, including work) (Weick, 1995 ), we would expect that employees could actively reflect on CSR in relation to the meaningfulness of their work and that these interpretations would function as cues for further action (Weick, 1995 ).…”