Meaningful Work in Times of Uncertainty and Career Crises

The interest in meaningful work and its implications for the creation of positive work environments has considerably increased within the last decades. Against the backdrop of today’s ever-changing and unpredictable nature of work, gaining an in-depth understanding of meaningful work, and the ways to foster it, is crucial for both the workers and organizations. This symposium aims at expanding the research on meaningful work by shedding new light on how people craft and maintain their sense of meaningfulness in the midst of uncertain, transitional, and even adversarial experiences at work, and how social and organizational conditions may facilitate the survival or revival of meaningful work in such difficult times. Presented by some frontline researchers on meaningful work, this symposium advances the understanding of this field of research by contributing both conceptually and practically to it. In the context of involuntary career transitions, we highlight the role of basic human values and interrelations of sources of meaningful work in framing and constructing meaningful work and careers. Further, we extend career-decision making literature to understand the emotionally laden interplay between family aspirations and meaningful work/callings and note the role of teams in the processes of meaningfulness construction in contexts that violate perceived work meaning. We also show how organizations need to conform authentically to their statements on organizational purpose to be considered credible by workers, potentially fostering meaningful work. We reveal various paradoxes in regards to meaningful work and offer implications to how organizations can create work contexts in which meaningfulness flourishes. Seeing a Silver Lining: Refugees' Experiences of Meaningful Work Presenter: Katja Wehrle; Justus-Liebig U. Giessen Presenter: Ute-Christine Klehe; Justus-Liebig U. Giessen Presenter: Mari Kira; U. of Michigan Role of Values in Constructing Meaningful Work and Careers: Experiences of Hmong and Somali Refugees Presenter: Mari Kira; U. of Michigan Presenter: Andrea Belgrade; U. of Michigan Presenter: Fiona Lee; U. of Michigan Work Devotion? How People with Family Aspirations Navigate Career Decision-Making Presenter: Carrie Oelberger; U. of Minnesota Constructing Work Meaningfulness in a Challenging Organizational Context: The Role of the Team Presenter: Josine L. Janssen; Vrije U. Amsterdam Presenter: Evgenia Lysova; Vrije U. Amsterdam Conformity or Commitment? An Inductive Study of Members’ Judgements of New Purpose Claims Presenter: Douglas Lepisto; Western Michigan U.