The Moral Conditions of Work

The characterization of meaningful work as objective or subjective is subject to considerable disagreement. While broadly agreeing that meaningfulness has both objective and subjective aspects, this chapter seeks to transcend this debate by separating the moral conditions of work from the concept of meaningful work. Workplace ethics are important pathways for experiencing meaningfulness in work and in life. The chapter argues that most of the objective features of meaningful work are related to the moral conditions of work. These include, for example, being treated fairly and with respect, having personal autonomy on the job, and working in safe environments. When the moral conditions of work are present, then work becomes worthy of a human being. By teasing out the moral from the meaningful, the author shows us how advances in humanizing the conditions of work arise out of struggles between employers and workers over who controls the work process.

Fostering the Human Spirit

This chapter introduces a positive ethical framework for supporting the experience of meaningfulness at work. Three specific virtues are conceptually linked to meaningfulness (humanity, courage, and transcendence) and a number of character strengths that these encompass (such as morality, gratitude, and spirituality). It is argued that experiencing meaningfulness is more likely to result in the experience of positive emotions, contributing to a positive ethical culture at work and producing a “virtuous upwards spiral” of positive agency. Positive emotions attract more support and facilitate positive social relations inside and outside the workplace. Evidence about the links between meaningfulness and volunteering are explored in turn to consider what organizations might do to foster positive work culture. The chapter recognizes the potential for conflict and paradox between virtues and character strengths. However, even paradoxes and conflicts of this kind can generate positive experiences.

Callings

This chapter connects the literatures on callings and meaningful work. It examines the meaningful nature of calling by separating the idea of perceiving a calling from actually living one. It is argued that callings, whether prompted from within the person or externally, underpin meaningful engagement with work at the social or personal level because they provide people with purpose. Those who pursue a calling are shown to experience more meaningful outcomes such as well-being and work satisfaction, but are exposed to the “dark side” of callings too often manifest in workaholism, burnout, and exploitation. Those who perceive a calling, but who choose not to pursue it, can access sources of life meaning through job crafting opportunities but also through workplace interventions, such as critical consciousness training, that may empower them to enact their perceived calling and thus more easily find meaning in work.

Meanings and Dirty Work

This chapter examines the provocative nature of “dirty” or “tainted work” as a source of meaningful work. It considers different sources of meaningful work, including work characterized by intersubjective, self-actualized, or stigmatized dimensions. To explore this further, it draws on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus (predispositions), hexus (character), and doxa (beliefs) to propose a scheme of meaning-making in which tainted work serves as a source of meaningfulness. However, where many approaches often focus on the career choices people make, here the wider contextual factors are also considered of two “dirty” jobs in the UK—street sweeping and refuse collecting. The chapter examines the traditional meaning-systems in these roles that echo agential choices but also structural constraints within a neoliberal system that places lower symbolic value on this work and those who do it.

The Meaningful City

This chapter applies the value of meaningfulness to a philosophy of the city. It argues that philosophies of the city can supply smart and sustainable city initiatives with human values and attention to the common good which they currently lack. By bringing the value of meaningfulness into a description of city-making, the chapter shows how city people have responsibilities to make the city when the activities of social cooperation associated with discharging such responsibilities are constituted by freedom, autonomy, and dignity, and when the social interactions of meaning-making are just. The features of an ethico-normative architecture which is capable of promoting city-level meaningfulness are specified. These include three core elements: public meaningfulness; the society of meaning-makers; and agonistic republicanism. City-making organized to manifest these features will generate a rich diversity of meaning sources on which city people can draw to craft meaningfulness in life and in work.

Direct Participation and Meaningful Work

In this chapter, two aspects of the meaningful work context are considered: task discretion and organizational participation. It argues that these provide opportunities for values associated with meaningful work to be realized at both an intrinsic and instrumental level. Drawing on both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence, the chapter explores the extent to which meaningful work values are realized in both domains. Two types of direct participation are found to be complementary: task discretion is particularly important for increasing the scope for informal learning, while organizational participation is a stronger lever for securing higher levels of training provision. The chapter presents substantial evidence that participation in decision-making, both at the level of the work task and in wider organizational decisions, is an essential precondition of meaningful work.

Accounting for Meaningful Work

Although the concept of meaningful work has not been addressed in accounting research, accounting scholars and practitioners have long grappled with how to reflect the value of employees and human capital in organizational accounts. This chapter examines how the features of a typical accounting system are likely to impact the treatment of meaningful work in organizations, including consideration of only its potential financial value, the exclusion of unpaid forms of meaningful work, and the limits on recognizing meaningful work as an organizational asset because quantifying its value is typically considered too subjective. It also examines how internal accounting and control practices, such as performance measurement and reward systems, tend to either ignore the possibility of meaningful work or focus on controlling and harnessing its instrumental value to improve organizational performance, thus downplaying its role in expressing values, fulfilling personal needs, and generating and sustaining meaning in our lives.

Exploring work Orientations and Cultural Accounts of Work

Work orientations and cultural accounts of work are important dimensions of the meaningful work literature. This chapter addresses the question of what makes work worth doing, arguing that accounts of meaningfulness should be more closely based in societal culture and the dominant work orientations manifest in varying cultural settings. It differentiates between a “realization” perspective on meaningful work which emphasizes need fulfillment, and a “justification” perspective which involves the ability to account for one’s work as worthy. This is particularly relevant for understanding how culture influences meaningful work through fostering orientations that promote a sense of meaningfulness. Culture can “push” individuals by promoting specific cultural values and beliefs, or alternatively enable individuals to “pull” particular perspectives from a range of options. Individuals can also create a shift in cultural meanings at the collective level. Some important unanswered questions about meaningful work are identified, to guide future researchers in the field.

“Belonging” and its Relationship to the Experience of Meaningful Work

This chapter explores the connections between belonging, meaningful work, and the ability of people to fulfill their potential. Drawing on the nexus of two core human qualities, the social and the productive, it is proposed that meaningful work constitutes an arena of practice where this sense of belonging is evoked. Belonging can arise from being part of a group or team at work, where acknowledgment and recognition arise. Although psychological studies have not focused extensively on the construct of belonging, research has examined similar notions such as relatedness, social support, and psychological ownership. However, changes in the workplace such as the growing flexibilization of work and growing economism pose challenges to experiencing belonging and meaningfulness. The chapter outlines the potential “dark side” to belonging, such as the risk of over-identification, the propensity to unethical behaviors, and manipulative managerial strategies.

Self-transcendence and Meaningful Work

Self-transcendence is a concept often evoked in different approaches to meaningful work, but which lacks clarity. This chapter considers how the subjective experience of meaningful work, centering on significance and purpose, gives rise to the idea of meaningfulness as the realization of human potential, by connecting the inner and the outer life along spiritual and social dimensions. It points to a conceptualization of self-transcendence that places greater emphasis on the intersubjective nature of meaningfulness. This raises questions such as: if meaningfulness is self-transcendent, where and how is meaning created? If transcendence denotes “beyondness” of the here and now, what does this mean in terms of the nature of work tasks and roles? If self-transcendence is an ineffable, transitory state, what might this mean for research into meaningful work? A shift in the emphasis of future research is necessary if we are to understand the self-transcendent nature of experienced meaningfulness.