Organizational Development, Video

Nº 185

Meaning at Work

In the United States alone, we spend on average 35-40 hours working every week. That’s some 80,000 hours during a given career—more time we will end up spending with our families?!!

Beyond providing as a source of income, what does work give us?

Naturally, we all have different sources of fulfillment in life and certainly different environments provide different experiences for us; but what does it mean for us to find fulfillment at work?

Meaning at work is a real concept. Studies across a number of institutions (from Berkeley to MIT) show employees will provide increased motivation, loyalty, creativity and productivity to organizations that help them find meaning at work.

Recognize by ‘meaning at work’ we are referring to a person’s experience of something meaningful (of value) that work provides. This is not the same as ‘meaningful work‘, which we often use to refer to the experience a set of tasks provide inside a given ‘job’.

Our work experiences can be meaningful; but we first need to get clear on the definition of ‘meaning’ and then, understand the distractors.

Today, on a wonderful definition by long term researcher of ‘meaning’, Emily Esfahani Smith, who graciously shares the four pillars of meaning.

Enjoy!