Meaning, meaningfulness and psychological function of work: Discussing this conceptual triad and its methodological challenges

Abstract

This article proposes a reconsideration of the current discussion concerning the relationship between meaning and meaningfulness in work. Studies in the scientific literature focus either on meaning in work as a collective production or on meaningfulness in work as an individual production. Neither perspective considers other forms of mediation between meaning and meaningfulness. This article proposes moving past this limitation by repositioning the interactions between meaning and meaningfulness in work, situating studies about meaning in the philosophical, sociological, and psychological traditions and specifically recasting the contributions of phenomenology and comprehensive sociology. It also discusses the concept of the psychological function of work as currently analyzed within the theories of activity. The psychological function of work is proposed as an alternative framework for thinking about the interactions between meaning and meaningfulness in work, with the psychological function of work, the meaning in work, and the meaningfulness in work compounding a triad. The paper ends with an analysis of some methodological challenges that researchers will need to address in order to investigate this triad.