Hidden Perspectives on Meaningful Work: What We Gain By Looking Beyond the Usual Suspects

Abstract

One of the ways that organizations are made meaningful is through the efforts of employees who feel that work is a source of deep significance and purpose. When people feel that their work is meaningful, they are more engaged, satisfied, and willing to go above and beyond to perform their job duties. Increasingly, organizational researchers are studying how, when, and why people believe their work is meaningful. Finding meaning necessarily involves subjective experience, and people in a variety of job roles, organizations, and occupations can view their work as meaningful. However, researchers have typically favored certain types of samples in their studies, predominantly self-reports from those working in occupations that offer ample opportunity for meaningfulness, such as creative professions and social welfare, and/or subjects that have the freedom to choose their work. This symposium seeks to broaden the scope by which we understand meaningful work by addressing novel, non-traditional, previously hidden, perspectives. The presentations include investigations of socially and culturally diverse populations, as well as third-party perspectives and influences on meaningfulness. Taken together, the research presented in this symposium aims to broaden the sources we employ when we study meaningful work and, in so doing, to better elucidate where and how meaning can be found. Becoming Who We Serve: Occupational Identity Construction in a Customer Service Context Presenter: Teresa Cardador; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Meaning-finding through Voluntary Career Change in China: A Classic Grounded Theory Study Presenter: Tingting Liu; Fudan U. Portraits of Grief: Loved Ones' Perceptions of the Place of Work in the Good Life Presenter: Christopher Michaelson; U. of St. Thomas Presenter: Jennifer Tosti-Kharas; Babson College Workplace Giving Behavior and Meaningful Work Presenter: Brent Rosso; Montana State U. The Ties that Bind Us: Understanding a Sense of Attachment and its Impact in Diverse Communities Presenter: Lindsey D. Cameron; U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor