Meaningfulness is a luxury? How daily meaningful work activities and financial resources influence daily meaning and purpose in life

Abstract

Experiences in the workplace undoubtedly affect people’s lives, yet we know little about the role that financial resources play in the relationship between meaningful work and meaning in life. Furthermore, we do not know if daily fluctuations of work meaningfulness correspond to daily perceptions of meaning in life. In a study of married couples employing a daily experience sampling approach, we explore the role of prosocial and personal growth job characteristics in daily meaningful work and, by extension, in producing daily perceptions of meaning in life. We also examine the effect of financial resources on the relationship between meaningful work and meaning in life. Results illustrate that daily work meaningfulness facilitates greater daily life meaning but that having low financial resources attenuates the relationship between daily meaningful work and daily meaning in life. A post-hoc analysis examining the moderating influence of gender on the daily relationship between meaningful work and meaning in life was significant, suggesting that men derive more meaning in life from their work.