Purpose, Meaning, and Career Pathways

2020 ◽  
pp. 191-213
Author(s):  
Bryan J. Dik ◽  
Alexandra J. Alayan ◽  
Kaitlyn A. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Work Motivation ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Career Pathways ◽  
Vocational Psychology ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Protean Career ◽  
Meaning In Work ◽  
Meaning And Purpose

In addition to providing financial means, work offers an opportunity for individuals to experience meaning and purpose. Meaningful work, defined in this chapter as work that is worthwhile and personally significant, is linked to job satisfaction, work motivation, and psychological well-being. Several vocational psychology theories of career development, along with research on work as a calling and the protean career orientation, have addressed factors that likely influence meaning and purpose in work, either directly or indirectly. This chapter examines the opportunities for career pathways programs and professionals for promoting purpose and meaning in work over the course of a career. Specific strategies related to career choice, choice implementation, career engagement and maintenance/management, as well as retirement, bridge employment, and encore careers are addressed. Future directions for research and practice are also discussed.

Callings

2019 ◽  
pp. 273-287
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Duffy ◽  
Jessica W. England ◽  
Bryan J. Dik
Keyword(s):  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Life Meaning ◽  
Workplace Interventions ◽  
Meaning In Work ◽  
The Social ◽  
Meaningful Engagement ◽  
Personal Level

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.

Making sense of work: finding meaning in work narratives

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kimberly S. Scott
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Lives ◽  
Meaning In Work ◽  
Design Characteristics ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Work Narratives

AbstractThis study examined how individuals make sense of their work narratives – autobiographical stories about their work lives – and the implications for individual well-being. A mixed methods approach was used to investigate relationships between meaning making, pathways to meaningfulness, job characteristics, job involvement, and psychological well-being. Survey responses and narrative themes from life story interviews were collected from 119 adults. A narrative coding scheme was developed to identify pathways to meaningful work. Results show that people made sense of their work lives most often by constructing themes about personal agency. The findings support prior research suggesting that socioeconomic factors, access to resources, and working conditions increase the likelihood of finding and benefiting from meaningful work. For individuals wishing to find meaning in their work, job design characteristics (e.g., decision authority, skill discretion), and developing a sense of agency can be levers for fostering meaning and well-being.

The Profound Influence of Unpaid Work on Women’s Lives: An Overview and Future Directions

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ae-Kyung Jung ◽  
Karen M. O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Unpaid Work ◽  
Vocational Psychology ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Considerable Effort ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Unpaid Labor ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The myriad hours and considerable effort expended by women in unpaid labor at home can have profound effects on their mental, physical, relational, vocational, and economic health. To date, many vocational psychologists have neglected to focus on unpaid work in their research or highlight unpaid work in their theories. Unpaid work in women’s lives is most deserving of increased scholarly attention. Thus, the purposes of this article are to provide an overview of theory and research related to unpaid work, highlight three types of unpaid work, describe the effects of unpaid work on women’s lives, and provide recommendations for future research and practice in vocational psychology to advance understanding regarding unpaid work in women’s lives.

scholarly journals Meaningful Work Protects Teachers’ Self-Rated Health under Stressors

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaana Minkkinen ◽  
Elina Auvinen ◽  
Saija Mauno
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Work Context ◽  
Self Rated Health ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
Meaning In Work ◽  
Practical Implications

A sense of meaningfulness is one of the most sought?after work characteristics which has been associated with employees’ well-being. This study explored whether meaningful work enhances self-rated health in challenging work context, under the stressors of distractions, unnecessary tasks, and unreasonable tasks. Data was collected from Finnish teachers (N = 1,658) and structural equation modelling was employed with the latent interaction terms. Results showed that meaningful work was associated with better self-rated health and the stressors were associated with poorer self-rated health. Protective potential of meaningful work against stressors was also discovered, as meaningful work mitigated the harm of stressors on self-rated health. These findings indicate that meaningful work acts as an important resource for employees’ self-rated health and helps them to better cope with stressful work conditions, enhancing well-being. The protective quality of meaningful work means that even challenging work context may have less harm for employees’ well-being, if they have a strong sense of meaning in work. The practical implications of the findings for teachers and organizations are discussed.

Procrastination

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin B. Klingsieck
Keyword(s):  
Large Body ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Future ◽  
Functional Forms

Procrastination is a well-known phenomenon that often entails negative outcomes with regard to performance and subjective well-being. In an attempt to understand the (alarming) character of procrastination, a large body of research on the causes, correlates, and consequences of procrastination has been accumulating over the last 40 years. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic characterization of the trends in procrastination research and to suggest future directions for research and practice. The systematic characterization comprises a comparison of procrastination to functional forms of delay (referred to as strategic delay) and a presentation of the theoretical approaches to explaining procrastination. The future directions suggested pertain to the development of a differentiated understanding of procrastination and of integral interventions.

Conceptualizing Well-Being in Vocational Psychology: A Model of Fulfilling Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blake A. Allan ◽  
Rhea L. Owens ◽  
Haley M. Sterling ◽  
Jessica W. England ◽  
Ryan D. Duffy
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Vocational Psychology ◽  
Comprehensive Model ◽  
The Core ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Affective Dimensions

Following from the strengths-based inclusive theory of work (S-BIT of Work), fulfilling work is a central goal of career and work counseling. However, vocational psychologists have yet to develop a comprehensive model of fulfilling work. We addressed this concern by reviewing the literature on well-being, developing the fulfilling work construct, and delineating an operationalized model of fulfilling work. This operationalization contains four components: (a) job satisfaction, (b) meaningful work, (c) work engagement, and (d) workplace positive emotions. These components capture the hedonic, eudaimonic, cognitive, and affective dimensions of fulfilling work. Researchers can adapt these components to different cultures by adjusting their operationalizations and understanding how people interpret and experience fulfilling work in different contexts. Fulfilling work represents the core experience of well-being in the work context and provides a starting point for research on the S-BIT of Work.

When the Job Does Not Fit: The Moderating Role of Job Crafting and Meaningful Work in the Relation Between Employees’ Perceived Overqualification and Job Boredom

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel Sánchez-Cardona ◽  
María Vera ◽  
Miguel Martínez-Lugo ◽  
Ramón Rodríguez-Montalbán ◽  
Jesús Marrero-Centeno
Keyword(s):  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Job Crafting ◽  
Job Fit ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Perceived Overqualification ◽  
Moderating Role

Job boredom is a common experience at work; however, it has been neglected in research and practice compared to other well-being states. Based on the person-job fit theory, this article aims to examine the association between employees’ perceived overqualification and job boredom, analyzing potential moderators. In Study 1, we analyzed job crafting as a moderator using a sample of 832 employees from different organizations in Puerto Rico. Results supported the relation between employees’ perceived overqualification and job boredom but did not support the moderating effect of job crafting since only two dimensions (i.e., increasing structural resources and increasing challenging demands) significantly moderate this association in an opposite direction. In Study 2, we analyzed the moderating role of meaningful work with a sample of 394 employees. Results supported the moderating effect of meaningful work on the relation between employees’ perceived overqualification and job boredom. While job crafting dimensions of increasing structural resources and increasing challenging demands strengthen or have little effect on reducing the association between employees’ perceived overqualification and job boredom, meaningful work buffers this effect. These findings suggest that organizations must provide opportunities for employees to find meaning in their jobs. Additional research is needed to understand the role of job crafting to reduce job boredom.

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