Meaningful Careers

I'm updating my lecture on job satisfaction in preparation for the new term, and I've notice a lot of new articles about one particular aspect: meaningful work. It's hardly new as an idea - the very first researchers who were looking at the antecedents of job satisfaction back in the early part of the 20th century were aware that it was important for work to bring meaning to lives, and Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics model from 1976 included the idea of 'task significance' which is a similar concept. Then in the early part of this century there was some interest in meaning from fans of the Protean career (Hall and Mirvis, 1996) which conceptualises the ideal (Protean) career as one which is self-directed and values-driven. Dik and Duff too conducted considerable research into the idea of a vocation, which is a similar notion. But I do still see a bit of a rise in interest in the idea of meaningful work. 

I have been doing some research of my own which examines the factors which psychology undergraduates (n=423) feel are important to their job choices, and the number 1 factor is having a job that is meaningful (to themselves or to others). So it's clearly something that young people are looking for. 

The research which looks at the benefits seems quite compelling. Hu and Hirsh (2017) conducted a meta-analysis  (using 146 studies, n=70,000+) and found that from an individual perspective, meaningful work is linked to higher job satisfaction (and that's a correlation of 0.66, which is really quite high), hope, life meaning and life satisfaction (0.48, which again, for this kind of outcome is quite impressive). It also seems to reduce the chances of stress and burnout. For an organisation too, offering opportunities for meaningful work will reap rewards. The same meta-analysis saw meaningful work linked to higher levels of performance, commitment, engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours, and reduced negative behaviours and intention to quit.

The same authors also published a series of studies which demonstrated that people are prepared to accept lower salaries if they believe the work is meaningful to them. 

So what exactly is meaningful work? Lysova and colleagues (2018) suggest that it needs to feel personally fulfilling and worthwhile. It's linked to the idea of a vocation, but isn't quite the same - meaningful work predicts the likelihood of living your calling, but it lacks the transcendental summons aspect of a vocation. 

Lysova et al. conducted a review of the literature on this topic and came up with a multi-level framework which explains what meaningful work looks like and how it comes about. You can see that it integrates aspects of the individual, the job, the organisation and the social culture. 

Individual level	A positive personality and good job performance
	Someone who is intrinsically motivated to work for the greater good and who feels work volition
	Working collaboratively, with autonomy and work that syncs with ones self-concept
Job level	White-collar jobs which are adequately resourced. Feeling valued and being treated fairly
	Autonomy and the chance to craft the job
Organisational level	Great leadership and organisational communication
	Innovative, supportive and ethical culture. Lack of hierarchical culture.
	Career development support; CSR focus
	Good workplace relationships and social-moral culture
Societal factors	Access to decent work
	Cultural norms which emphasise work as a pathway to fulfillment and value individual fulfillment and wellbeing

This list leads to some useful suggestions for what we can do to make work more meaningful.

One of the key messages is about job crating. This is the process of changing aspects of the nature of a job once you are in post (Wrzesniewski, & Dutton, 2001). Job crafting has been linked to a number of positive personal and organisational outcomes, including meaningfulness. Meaningfulness is such a personal construct that it is not possible for an organisation to design a meaningful job as such, because what is meaningful to one person might not be to another. Instead, organisations needs to allow individuals the scope to craft their own jobs, and people need to make sure that they are carving out the role that will work for them. Job crafting works as individuals shape their jobs to give themselves more autonomy, more support and to spend less time on emotionally demanding projects. 


References
Hu, J., & Hirsh, J. (2017). The Benefits of Meaningful Work: A Meta-Analysis. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2017, No. 1, p. 13866). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Hu, J., & Hirsh, J. B. (2017). Accepting Lower Salaries for Meaningful Work. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1649.
Lysova, E. I., Allan, B. A., Dik, B. J., Duffy, R. D., & Steger, M. F. (2018). Fostering meaningful work in organizations: A multi-level review and integration. Journal of Vocational Behavior.
Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of management review, 26(2), 179-201.