A newly published essay from The Work Foundation asks the nature of “meaningful work”, why more people seem to be seeking it, and what employers can do to make work more meaningful.
The paper argues that while thinkers and writers have long wondered at the value of work to human beings beyond providing a living, the notion of “meaningful work” is a relatively new phenomenon.
Author Stephen Overell says: “The way people talk about ‘fulfilling their potential’ in a job could only happen in the modern world of work. Meaningful work rests on the rise of individualism and identity as pressing concerns for large numbers of people. It speaks of huge and perhaps excessive expectations of working life.”
Overell adds that: “People are very different – what is meaningful to one person may not be meaningful to another, and what someone finds meaningful at the age of 23 may not be how they feel at 43. What goes on inside workers’ hearts and minds about work has become profoundly important to what they produce and how they do it.”
Overall argues that finding meaning in work relies on balancing three sets of motives:
• Moral motives – the idea that the ‘ends’ of work are worthwhile
• Compensation motives – including money, but also including status, authority, responsibility and the appropriate use of skills and abilities
• Craft motives – the desire to do a good job for its own sake.
Meanwhile, the work that people do today has changed in such ways as to prompt more questions about meaning, fulfilment and rewarding work – relatively well-paying, highly skilled professional and managerial jobs now account for over a third of all jobs in many advanced democracies. Work is more about intellectual problem-solving and how people communicate and relate to each other than it used to be. This does not make work more meaningful, but it helps create the conditions in which issues of meaning and identity arise.
Is it realistic to expect meaning in work? And why should it be up to the employers to provide it – surely they are paying for work to be done, rather than providing meaning and entertainment for their employees.
Comments (2)
Posted by Steve Huxham | May 14, 2008 2:28 PM
It’s a great essay, and few would argue with the writings of Stephen Overell, no doubt. But hold on – isn’t there one key element missing from the list of three “motives”? Whatever happened to the social interaction of work? Isn’t that need for social interaction at a workplace a possible unifying factor (and “motive”) that makes work “meaningful” in the sense Mr Overell implies, irrespective of whether someone is working at the age of 23 or 43 (or 73 considering the state of my pension...)
I really do hope we can all add that 4th motive, bearing in mind the HR audience reading this piece! It is of course that well-worn phrase that most of us spend far more time at our workplaces in a lifetime than we do with families, relatives and friends that springs to mind at this point. Add to that the fact that we live in an age like no other, where technology has given us the (alleged) freedom to work more independently, whilst still potentially in “corporate” jobs, than ever before. Despite that, and assuming for one moment that employers are fully flexible, employees still choose in large numbers across the UK to spend time together in teams big and small. Social interaction and the basic human instinct of needing to “belong” maybe?
Tongue firmly in my cheek, I wonder if Mr Overell penned his useful paper at work or alone at his PC in his home office...
Posted on May 14, 2008 14:28
Posted by David Leyshon | May 14, 2008 2:31 PM
Of course employers should provide meaning. There’s lots of research to show that engaged employees means better results for the employer. Fostering a committed workforce who take pride in their organisation is key to creating a high performance culture. If employers don’t give their staff meaning they will suffer from a ‘sleepy’ culture with restricted ambition and opportunities - and like it or not that’s going to have an impact on the bottom line. We devised a specific employee engagement programme at CBSbutler and have seen dramatic increases in staff performance, in sales revenue and in employee satisfaction.
Posted on May 14, 2008 14:31