Experiencing Meaningful Work Through Worthwhile Contributions: A Critical Discourse Analysis

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aut.relation.journalHuman Relations
dc.contributor.authorBailey, Catherine
dc.contributor.authorMadden, Adrian
dc.contributor.authorLips-Wiersma, Marjolein
dc.date.accessioned2024-05-23T23:08:38Z
dc.date.available2024-05-23T23:08:38Z
dc.date.issued2024-05-19
dc.description.abstractWhy do individuals find their work meaningful and what is the role of worthwhile contributions in this experience? We undertake an analysis of accounts related by individuals working as nurses, creative artists and lawyers in which they explain why they find their work meaningful. Drawing on the traditions of critical discourse and narrative analysis, and informed by French pragmatic sociology, we move beyond a focus on what is said to consider how accounts are structured in explanations of meaningfulness. We find meaningfulness to be discursively constituted in the judgement that work makes a worthwhile contribution to others or wider society. We add theoretically to the literature on meaningful work, first, by revealing worthwhile contributions to be a complex, three-fold evaluation comprising the value attached by the individual to their contribution, validation from others that aligns with the individual’s own evaluation concerning the worth of the contribution and the individual’s self-efficacy belief that they are able to make the contribution. Second, we build bridges between hitherto disconnected branches of the meaningful work literature grounded in positive psychology on the one hand and moral worth on the other by showing how judgements of worth are fundamental to the experience of meaningfulness.
dc.identifier.citationHuman Relations, ISSN: 0018-7267 (Print); 0018-7267 (Online), SAGE Publications. doi: 10.1177/00187267241255581
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/00187267241255581
dc.identifier.issn0018-7267
dc.identifier.issn0018-7267
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10292/17585
dc.languageen
dc.publisherSAGE Publications
dc.relation.urihttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00187267241255581
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2024. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages.
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject1503 Business and Management
dc.subject1608 Sociology
dc.subject1701 Psychology
dc.subjectBusiness & Management
dc.subject3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
dc.titleExperiencing Meaningful Work Through Worthwhile Contributions: A Critical Discourse Analysis
dc.typeJournal Article
pubs.elements-id546595
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