Creating Meaning and Purpose at Work

Abstract

This chapter reviews current theory, assessment, and research on meaningful work with the hopes that a better understanding might enable meaningful work to be cultivated and harnessed to maximize performance, build strong brands, nurture innovation, and benefit both employees and their host communities while they are at it. Building on a long tradition, recent years have been particularly exciting ones for meaningful work, with accelerating publication of research reports detailing the many desirable characteristics and outcomes linked to meaningful work. The chapter focuses on the relevant scholarship to review those qualities that characterize such meaning-friendly conditions. First, meaningful work theory is reviewed to identify the major themes and dimensions of meaningful work. Second, meaningful work assessment is reviewed. Third, correlates, predictors, and benefits of meaningful work are reviewed. Fourth, practical recommendations for fostering meaningful work are suggested to guide individual workers, leaders, and organizations.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 100 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.