Meaning in, at, and of
some refinements
I found an interesting article by Martela & Pessi (2018)1 on meaningful work recently and, although I don’t agree with its conclusions, I thought there was one useful insight. The authors discounted the factor I call connection, saying that the experience of being connected to others at your place of work is finding meaning at work, rather than in work. They make
A distinction between meaningfulness in working and meaningfulness at work, with the former referring to the degree that the tasks and work conducted is meaningful, and the latter to one’s “membership in the organization” and whom one surrounds oneself with as part of this membership. (Martela & Pessi, 2018)
They do make some allowances for a sense of belonging, but they generally rule out connection as a major source of meaning, at least in terms of meaningful work. My definition of meaning extends more broadly to life’s quest for meaning, and not narrowly to work. Rather, when I talk about work, I mean Work, as in one’s life’s work, hence the capital W. Meaning in that sense comes from the job you happen to do for pay in the marketplace for labor, but the other ways you choose to use your time. One’s Work extends to raising a family, contributing to a community, refining oneself, and so forth. But I think my three dimensions of meaning (competence, contribution, connection) do explain the experience of meaningful work (small w) as well.
Martela & Pessi posit that meaningful work is constituted by three components:
Significance - “Being about how much intrinsic value people assign to or are able find from their work.”
Broader purpose - “the work must contribute to some greater good, something beyond individual’s own benefits”
Self-realization - “It is about self-connectedness, authenticity, and how much we are able to realize and express ourselves through our work.”
In my model, broader purpose is contribution, while I collapse significance (as they define it) and self-realization into competence. Contribution, or broader purpose, is the answer to the question, did my life matter? Even if I will die and be forgotten, did what I chose to do make a difference? The focus on intrinsic value, which I read as satisfaction from engaging in the acts that make up one’s work, really is about flow, and the feeling of being in a groove. This, for me, is quite tightly tied to how the authors define self-realization. To feel flow, one must find work that expresses the innermost self. So this leaves the question of connection.
Connection is more than just a feeling of belonging with one’s colleagues. It is also a feeling of connection to the people you serve. In the workplace, connection is formed by feedback from the people you work with, and is a channel for that feedback for the value of the work you are performing. I interviewed a number of physicians for a leadership study I was working on some years ago. Many of them, especially the primary care providers, said that the feedback they received from their patients was a major source of meaning for them as physicians in their work. Many of them expressed a sense of loss when they transitioned to leadership roles because the sense of connection was less profound. As administrators, they still formed connections with their colleagues, but the level of trust - often experiencing a patient putting their lives in the hands of the physician - was just not the same. Some of what I am describing as connection could say are the intrinsic rewards of doing the work, and thus would fit Martela & Pessi’s significance. That would be fair. I would say that in my model, part of the specific competence of a physician is creating connection and trust. A physician is in flow if s/he is creating that connection when s/he spends time with the patient.
We don’t want connection at work just because someone likes us because we are funny or attractive or higher rank or whatever. We want connection at work because connection flows from competence. Between us and our clients (patients, students, whatever), connection occurs because they trust us to deliver something they want (good or service). Between us and our colleagues, connection emerges because we are competent team mates.
The value I gained from reading Martela & Presi’s article was getting these three distinctions of meaning in, at, and of. Thus, I would refine my thinking a bit to say:
Meaning In = Competence
Meaning At = Connection
Meaning Of = Contribution
Martela, F., & Pessi, A. B. (2018). Significant work is about self-realization and broader purpose: Defining the key dimensions of meaningful work. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 363. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00363/pdf