Cultivating Meaning Through Work

Executive Summary

Introduction

Meaning in life, defined as a person’s sense that their existence is important, coherent, and purposeful, plays a central role in human flourishing. A strong sense of meaning supports mental and physical health. Moreover, meaning enhances motivation and self-regulation. Given the importance of meaning to human flourishing, it is useful to understand how common it is and which types of life experiences foster it. People draw meaning from many everyday experiences and aspects of modern life, yet a job stands out as especially influential since people invest so much in preparing for careers and devote much of their time to working. In this report, we review scientific research on the psychological determinants of meaning in life, argue that a job/career is a powerful contributor to it, and offer recommendations for how organizations and individuals can cultivate workplaces that foster meaning.

How Work Contributes to a Meaningful Life

Happiness

Happiness at work and positive emotions in the workplace benefit employee performance and satisfaction but should also predict meaning. Indeed, several studies have shown that positive mood is positively associated with meaning. Moreover, simple happiness inductions, such as listening to happy music, have been found to strengthen meaning, an effect that appears to increase with age. Finally, being in tune with positive emotions appears to help derive meaning from challenging experiences.

Social Connection

When asked what makes life meaningful, people often cite social connections. Social sources of meaning are especially salient in the workplace, where relationships are commonplace and consequential. Work can become a source of meaning when it contributes to belonging (i.e.,  the feeling that one is accepted by and connected with others), social support (i.e., the feeling that coworkers can provide emotional support and practical assistance), and competence (i.e., the feeling that others value and respect you).

Coherence

Coherence, defined as the sense that one’s experiences are understandable, structured, and predictable, is a core aspect of meaning in life. Work can play a central role in maintaining coherence by providing routine, financial security, and opportunities to express and affirm personal values. Work provides a daily routine, which can enhance meaning and restore a sense of control, helping people cope with adversity. Work can provide financial security, which contributes to a person’s ability to lead a fulfilling life unburdened by financial concerns. Finally, work supports coherence by providing a powerful arena for people to express and affirm their values and beliefs.

Self-Actualization

A meaningful life is one in which a person feels they have come close to actualizing the best version of themselves. Work can be a powerful avenue for individuals to develop a stronger sense of meaning in life because it affords them opportunities to construct meaningful personal narratives, build self-esteem, and achieve personal goals. Work can also foster autonomy and authenticity, two psychological needs critical for flourishing.

Self-Transcendence

Work often provides opportunities to transcend self-interest by pursuing goals that extend beyond personal interests or by feeling connected to something greater than the self. Through self-transcendence, people connect their experiences to broader values, causes, and communities, helping them feel that their efforts and contributions are important, purposeful, and that their life story can be understood within a broader framework. Work can offer self-transcendent meaning through opportunities to help others and experience generativity, or when employees recognize their job as a calling or a way to connect with a broader, more transcendent reality.

Fostering Meaning in the Workplace

Positive emotions, supportive social relationships, routine and predictability, self-actualization, and self-transcendence each help people experience their lives as important, coherent, and purposeful. These pathways are not limited to certain professions or career paths. Rather, these pathways are psychological processes that can be cultivated in any workplace if organizations and individuals take steps to promote them.

Recommendations for Organizations

Even though meaning is ultimately a personal experience, there are things organizations can do to create workplace conditions that facilitate the psychological and social resources that help individuals experience meaning.

• Support Emotional Wellbeing of Employees

Given the strong connection between positive emotions and meaning, organizations should support employees’ emotional wellbeing through flexible work arrangements and wellness programs. Flexible work arrangements can reduce stress, increase job satisfaction, and enhance autonomy, particularly when they are more accessible and adaptable to individual needs. Wellness programs based on positive psychology interventions can foster positive emotions, increase resilience, and strengthen goal-directed thinking.

• Foster a Supportive Work Culture

Organizations could help employees cultivate meaning by fostering a work environment that promotes social relationships through both formal and informal bonding. To maintain autonomy, participation in social activities and collaborative initiatives should remain voluntary and unrelated to employees’ standing or advancement within the organization. By creating opportunities for bonding while respecting individual choice, organizations can foster meaningful social connections and encourage autonomy, thereby supporting meaning at work and beyond.

• Train Supportive Leaders

Organizations can foster meaning by developing supportive, empowering, and transformational leaders. Such leaders enhance belonging, wellbeing, competence, growth, and a sense that work contributes to a larger purpose.

Recommendations for Individuals

Organizations can shape workplace conditions to support meaning in life, but employees are not passive recipients of those conditions and can influence the extent to which their work contributes to meaning in life through the choices they make, the relationships they develop, and how they approach and interpret their work experiences.

• Prioritize Person-Environment Fit  

Employees whose values and goals align with those of their organizations tend to be more satisfied with their jobs and career choices. Research finds that person-organization fit is associated with greater job satisfaction. This person-environment can also contribute to meaning by fostering coherence, autonomy, and authenticity, and, in turn, energizing the pursuit of personal and professionally important goals. Individuals should look for organizations, roles, and workplace environments that align with their values and goals.

•  Supportive Professional Relationships

Employees could foster positive workplace relationships by seeking out mentorship relationships and supportive friendships/collaborations. Mentorship relationships can promote meaning by fostering a sense of competence, positive self-esteem, and by supporting goals. Supportive work friendships/collaborations make work feel satisfying and contribute to a meaningful life.

• Develop a Resilient Meaning-Making Mindset

Another way individuals can derive meaning from work is by developing a resilient mindset for meaning-making. A resilient meaning-making mindset is an agentic, self-determined way of thinking about meaning that involves clarity about one’s true self, as well as the values, beliefs, goals, routines, and roles that promote meaning as a strong belief in one’s ability to maintain and restore meaning in life. Through self-reflection and job crafting, employees can clarify their values and purpose, reshape their view of their work, and pursue meaningful goals in ways that promote autonomy, competence, and resilience.

Conclusion

Beyond providing the economic resources necessary for survival, work can be a major contributor to a meaningful life. Work can contribute to meaning through positive emotions, supportive social relationships, coherence, by fostering self-actualization, and providing an opportunity for self-transcendence. Rather than viewing these routes as distinct, these pathways often operate together to make work one of the most powerful avenues for experiencing significance, purpose, and coherence. Given its potential to promote meaning and contribute to flourishing, individuals and organizations should view work as an existential enterprise where work is a vital source of meaning. Organizations and individuals who recognize the importance of meaning and treat work as part of a pathway to a more meaningful life will be better positioned to flourish and adjust to future workplace challenges.

Download the full report.