Life is a continual battle of maneuvering the rhythmic cycles we experience. Researchers from fields like psychology and sociology agree that the work we do plays an important role in our ability to successfully dance through the ups and downs. In other words, our work is much more than merely a place we visit every day and from which we retrieve a paycheck. It is an experience that fundamentally shapes our lives while establishing our rhythms through meaningfulness (Bailey and Madden, 2017).
Meaningfulness is crucial because it provides a reason for existing. It gives us significance. And that makes the workplace a very important environment.
In the past, we learned from Maslow that the highest human need is self-actualization. In the present, we are now moving towards the realization that the highest human need is more aligned with self-transformation or self-transcendence; that is, becoming the best we can be not merely for ourselves, but for what and how we can contribute to others.
Becoming our best requires the ability to maintain a particular rhythm as we dance our way through life. In this sense, our work motivates us to dance because it connects us to purpose.
In one research project where researchers looked at three different lines of employment, they found that each group of workers perceived their meaningfulness in a unique way. The three groups of workers were academics, stonemasons, and refuse workers. The academics found meaning from their impartation to younger students. The stonemasons found meaning in their meticulous creations. The refuse workers found meaningfulness in the service they provided to communities (Bailey & Madden, 2017).
Equally interestingly was that each group agreed that their greatest significance was released by the degree of autonomy they had with respect to how they accomplished their work, while the greatest insult on their significance and meaningfulness was the lack of autonomy which was created by unnecessary bureaucracy and excessive control (Bailey & Madden, 2017).
Employers and leaders must envision their workplaces as learning centers where their greatest assets are in fact their people. As healthy autonomy is embraced, it will motivate people to increase engagement and commitment to company vision.
Bailey, C., & Madden, A. (2017). Time reclaimed: temporality and the experience of meaningful work. Work, Employment & Society, 31(a), 3-18.thm of Work
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