Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Correspondence to S. Lee:
e-mail: soohee@umich.edu
Soohee Lee MSN RN
PhD Candidate
University of Michigan School of Nursing,
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Abstract
Aim. To report an analysis of the concept of meaning in work.
Background. Associated with initiatives to improve the quality of working life
and the emerging movement of positive organizations, meaning in work has
been studied as a positive individual-level state. Meaning in work has potential
benefits that will improve the nursing workforce if this concept is embraced in
nursing. However, the concept is not clearly defined because it has been
approached from diverse theoretical perspectives and used interchangeably with
analogous terms.
Design. A concept analysis.
Data sources. Three key terms (using work, meaning or meaningful, meaning
of work, logotherapy) were searched in the CINAHL, PsycINFO, Business
Source Complete and ABI/INFORM Global online databases from January 1940
March 2015. Among 346 articles retrieved, 28 studies were included for this
concept analysis.
Methods. The procedure of concept analysis developed by Walker and Avant
(2011) was used.
Results. Four critical attributes are identified: (1) experienced positive emotion at
work; (2) meaning from work itself; (3) meaningful purpose and goals of work; and
(4) work as a part of life that contributes towards meaningful existence. The
identified antecedent of meaning in work was a cognitive shift and the identified
consequences were positive personal experience and positive impact on peers and
organizations.
Conclusion. This article provides a clear definition of meaning in work. The
resulting coherent definition will facilitate the use of meaning in work in nursing
research.
Keywords: concept analysis, meaning in work, motivation, nurses/midwives/
nursing,
organizational
model,
psychological
model,
workplace
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Meaning in work
Background
Introduction
Knowing the reason why employees work not only endows
their work with importance but also allows them to enjoy a
better work experience (Pattakos 2004, 2009, Dutton et al.
2006). This significant reason to work is called meaning in
work, which employees consider an important aspect of
their jobs (Harpaz 2002, Chakofsky 2010). The concept of
meaning in work has received much attention in management and organizational science, associated with initiatives
2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Meaning in work has been approached from diverse perspectives. For example, meaning in work is understood as
a sense of purpose (Arnold et al. 2007); an expression of
personal value (Brief & Nord 1990); the type of work
(Hackman & Oldham 1976); a sense of spirituality (Ashmos
& Duchon 2000); a continuation to the psychosocial realm
(Kristensen et al. 2002); and a sense of psychological
empowerment (Spreitzer 2006). Aligning with diverse
approaches, the concept has several definitions across
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S. Lee
Data sources
The procedure for concept analysis as described by Walker
and Avant (2011) was adapted to clarify the conceptualization and operationalization of meaning in work. The
following five steps of Walker and Avants method were
used: (1) meaning in work is selected; (2) the aim of this
analysis is to build a theoretical base of meaning in work;
(3) all uses of the concept are identified; (4) the critical
attributes are determined and defined; and (5) antecedents
and consequences are identified. The rationale for selecting
meaning in work and the aim of this analysis have been
provided above.
Meaning in work
Results
Across the 28 articles, a total of 197 uses of meaning in
work were found and were categorized into four critical
38 records
identified through
CINAHL
21 records
identified through
PsycINFO
Critical attributes
The four critical attributes of meaning in work determined
through the concept analysis were: (1) experienced positive
emotion at work; (2) meaning from work itself; (3) meaningful purpose and goals of work; and (4) work as a part
of life towards meaningful existence. Table 1 provides
exemplar and sub-attributes of the four critical attributes of
meaning in work.
Experienced positive emotion at work
This aspect reflects subjective positive experience including
meaningfulness, a sense of worth and self-fulfilment, when
employees have meaning in work. First of all, employees
experience meaningfulness by placing significance on their
work (Hackman & Oldham 1976, Clark 1995, Morin
2004, Rosso et al. 2010). For example, they can be influenced by viewing their work as a calling (Rosso et al.
2010), so their work experience becomes more meaningful.
Second, employees with meaning in work gain a sense of
174 records
identified through
Business Source
Complete
65 records
identified through
ABI/INFORM Global
290 records
after duplicates removed
236 records excluded,
with failure to meet
inclusion criteria
54 full-text articles
evaluated
4 full-text articles added from
56 studies (after duplicates
removed) updated Apr. 2015:
CINAHL2
PsycINFO 5
ABI/INFORM Global 59
Business Source Complete 12
31 articles excluded,
with irrelevance of
a main research purpose
Figure 1 A flow chart detailing the articles related to meaning in work used in this review.
2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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S. Lee
Sub-attributes
Critical attributes
Meaningfulness in work
Experienced positive
emotion at work
Self-fulfilment in work
Work values
Work orientation
Work purpose
Work goals
Significance of work
related to life
Meaning in work
S. Lee
Discussion
This article fills a gap in the understanding of the concept of
meaning in work by reducing its theoretical and conceptual
ambiguities. Meaning in work has been used with several
different approaches and has inconsistent definitions. These
ambiguities diminish the clarity of the concept and impede
understanding of the concept in its entirety. This concept
analysis of meaning in work identified four critical attributes that included major uses of meaning in work in the literature and added core essentials of meaning in work. A
consistent usage of terms and their empirical adequacy are
important criteria for the development of a middle range of
theory (Fitzpatrick & Whall 2005). These results will contribute to the constructs internal consistency and empirical
adequacy for the development of a middle-range theory of
meaning in work.
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Limitations
There are three limitations of the analysis of meaning in
work. One limitation is that the usage of the concept was
examined only in theoretical papers, not empirical papers.
This limited the amount of literature that was reviewed and
thus this study may have missed some uses of the concept in
empirical papers which, if included, may have changed findings. However, theoretical articles were used exclusively to
2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Conclusion
This concept analysis of meaning in work integrated different views of meaning in work on the basis of its theoretical
construction. The results not only provide a clear definition
of meaning in work the discovery of existential meaning
from work experience, work itself and work purpose/goals
but also suggest a basis to build a middle range of theory and
develop an instrument to measure meaning in work. Moreover, the examined attributes, antecedents and consequences
of meaning in work suggest that meaning would provide an
existential reason for nurses to work and provide significance to
the context of nurses lives, intrinsically motivate nurses and
strengthen nurses by providing strong internal resources. Further
research will examine possible relationships between meaning in
work and nurse/patient outcomes in nursing, so that meaning in
work may contribute to solving current problems in the nursing
workforce including job dissatisfaction and burnout.
Acknowledgements
I thank Milisa Manojlovich, Ph.D. and Jane Dutton, Ph.D.,
for their dedication to the review and results of the concept
analysis.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Meaning in work
Conflict of interest
No conflict of interest has been declared by the author.
Author contributions
All authors have agreed on the final version and meet at
least one of the following criteria [recommended by the
ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/)]:
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