Linda Reidy

Attracting, motivating and retaining staff are major problems for employers across many sectors of employment. One reason for this is that people are re-evaluating the role work plays in their lives. Work is a significant source of meaning for employees; it provides us with purpose and a sense of identity. However, the sense of meaning that people derive at work is being undermined by potential destabilisation brought on by sociological and technological developments which have led to “the age of disruption”. As individuals are confronted with continual change in their jobs and occupations, they experience a threat to the meaning they obtain from their work. Previous research indicates that experiencing meaning at work is associated with several benefits for workers and organisations. These include improved wellbeing, increased innovation and performance, lower intentions to quit and lower absenteeism.

This study proposes to investigate factors that influence worker perceptions of and responses to changes in working meaning against the backdrop of change occurring within the work environment.