IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v121y2014i1p77-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Meaningful Work: Connecting Business Ethics and Organization Studies

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Michaelson
  • Michael Pratt
  • Adam Grant
  • Craig Dunn

Abstract

In the human quest for meaning, work occupies a central position. Most adults spend the majority of their waking hours at work, which often serves as a primary source of purpose, belongingness, and identity. In light of these benefits to employees and their organizations, organizational scholars are increasingly interested in understanding the factors that contribute to meaningful work, such as the design of jobs, interpersonal relationships, and organizational missions and cultures. In a separate line of inquiry, scholars of business ethics have examined meaningful work as a moral issue concerning the management of others and ourselves, exploring whether there are definable characteristics of meaningful work to which we have moral rights, and whether there are moral duties to ourselves and others to fulfill those rights. In this article, we examine contemporary developments in both disciplines about the nature, causes, and consequences of meaningful work; we explore linkages between these disciplines; and we offer conclusions and research opportunities regarding the interface of ethical and organizational perspectives on performing and providing meaningful work. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Michaelson & Michael Pratt & Adam Grant & Craig Dunn, 2014. "Meaningful Work: Connecting Business Ethics and Organization Studies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 77-90, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:121:y:2014:i:1:p:77-90
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1675-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10551-013-1675-5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-013-1675-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Michaelson, 2008. "Work and The Most Terrible Life," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(3), pages 335-345, February.
    2. Tony Simons, 2002. "Behavioral Integrity: The Perceived Alignment Between Managers' Words and Deeds as a Research Focus," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 18-35, February.
    3. Beadle, Ron & Knight, Kelvin, 2012. "Virtue and Meaningful Work," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(2), pages 433-450, April.
    4. Sharon Bolton & Rebecca Kim & Kevin O’Gorman, 2011. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Dynamic Internal Organizational Process: A Case Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 61-74, June.
    5. Heugens, Pursey P. M. A. R. & Scherer, Andreas Georg, 2010. "When Organization Theory Met Business Ethics: Toward Further Symbioses," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 643-672, October.
    6. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    7. Jeffrey Moriarty, 2010. "Participation in the Workplace: Are Employees Special?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 373-384, March.
    8. Dobson, John & White, Judith, 1995. "Toward the Feminine Firm: An Extension to Thomas White," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 5(3), pages 463-478, July.
    9. Boas Shamir & Robert J. House & Michael B. Arthur, 1993. "The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 577-594, November.
    10. Chen-Bo Zhong & Gillian Ku & Robert Lount & J. Murnighan, 2010. "Compensatory Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 323-339, March.
    11. Wicks, Andrew C., 1996. "Reflections on the Practical Relevance of Feminist Thought to Business," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 523-531, October.
    12. Grant, Adam M. & Campbell, Elizabeth M. & Chen, Grace & Cottone, Keenan & Lapedis, David & Lee, Karen, 2007. "Impact and the art of motivation maintenance: The effects of contact with beneficiaries on persistence behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 53-67, May.
    13. Leiter, Michael P. & Harvie, Phyllis & Frizzell, Cindy, 1998. "The correspondence of patient satisfaction and nurse burnout," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 47(10), pages 1611-1617, November.
    14. Marjolein Lips-Wiersma & Lani Morris, 2009. "Discriminating Between ‘Meaningful Work’ and the ‘Management of Meaning’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 491-511, September.
    15. Wicks, Andrew C. & Gilbert, Daniel R. & Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "A Feminist Reinterpretation of The Stakeholder Concept," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 475-497, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silke Machold & Pervaiz Ahmed & Stuart Farquhar, 2008. "Corporate Governance and Ethics: A Feminist Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 665-678, September.
    2. Zhen Wang & Haoying Xu, 2019. "When and for Whom Ethical Leadership is More Effective in Eliciting Work Meaningfulness and Positive Attitudes: The Moderating Roles of Core Self-Evaluation and Perceived Organizational Support," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 919-940, June.
    3. Christopher Michaelson, 2021. "A Normative Meaning of Meaningful Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 413-428, May.
    4. Giuseppe Marcon & Lorenzo Dorigo, 2012. "Stakeholder theory and care management: An inquiry into social enterprises," Working Papers 21, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    5. Mai Chi Vu & Roger Gill, 2023. "Are Leaders Responsible for Meaningful Work? Perspectives from Buddhist-Enacted Leaders and Buddhist Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(2), pages 347-370, October.
    6. Bidhan L. Parmar & Adrian Keevil & Andrew C. Wicks, 2019. "People and Profits: The Impact of Corporate Objectives on Employees’ Need Satisfaction at Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 13-33, January.
    7. Venus, Merlijn & Stam, Daan & van Knippenberg, Daan, 2013. "Leader emotion as a catalyst of effective leader communication of visions, value-laden messages, and goals," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 53-68.
    8. Lorenzo Dorigo & Giuseppe Marcon, 2014. "A caring interpretation of stakeholder management for the social enterprise. Evidence from a regional survey of micro social cooperatives in the Italian welfare mix," Working Papers 01, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    9. Roya Derakhshan, 2022. "Building Projects on the Local Communities’ Planet: Studying Organizations’ Care-Giving Approaches," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 721-740, February.
    10. Rodríguez Fernández, José Miguel, 2006. "La responsabilidad social de la empresa: ¿un medio o un fin?," Revista de Dirección y Administración de Empresas, Universidad del País Vasco - Escuela Universitaria de Estudios Empresariales de San Sebastián.
    11. James W. Westerman & Lubna Nafees & Jennifer Westerman, 2021. "Cultivating Support for the Sustainable Development Goals, Green Strategy and Human Resource Management Practices in Future Business Leaders: The Role of Individual Differences and Academic Training," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-9, June.
    12. Marjolein Lips-Wiersma & Jarrod Haar & Sarah Wright, 2020. "The Effect of Fairness, Responsible Leadership and Worthy Work on Multiple Dimensions of Meaningful Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 35-52, January.
    13. Oldham, Greg R. & Fried, Yitzhak, 2016. "Job design research and theory: Past, present and future," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 20-35.
    14. Grant, Adam M. & Hofmann, David A., 2011. "Outsourcing inspiration: The performance effects of ideological messages from leaders and beneficiaries," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 173-187.
    15. Lori Verstegen Ryan, 2017. "Sex Differences Through a Neuroscience Lens: Implications for Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(4), pages 771-782, September.
    16. Domènec Melé, 2014. "“Human Quality Treatment”: Five Organizational Levels," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(4), pages 457-471, April.
    17. Michael Palanski & Kristin Cullen & William Gentry & Chelsea Nichols, 2015. "Virtuous Leadership: Exploring the Effects of Leader Courage and Behavioral Integrity on Leader Performance and Image," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 297-310, December.
    18. Tuure Haarjärvi & Sari Laari-Salmela, 2022. "Examining the Role of Dignity in the Experience of Meaningfulness: a Process-Relational View on Meaningful Work," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 417-440, December.
    19. Helen Nicholson & Ron Beadle & Richard Slack, 2020. "Corporate Philanthropy as a Context for Moral Agency, a MacIntyrean Enquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 589-603, December.
    20. Mai Chi Vu & Nicholas Burton, 2022. "The Influence of Spiritual Traditions on the Interplay of Subjective and Normative Interpretations of Meaningful Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 543-566, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:121:y:2014:i:1:p:77-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.