Description
This open access book presents an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of well-being at work. Written by experts from various disciplines, it integrates organizational behavior, sociology, economics, economic history, and entrepreneurship to probe two central themes: the causes and consequences of work meaningfulness and work motivations, and their implications for workers and organizations. It comprehensively explores why people find meaning in their work, what motivates them to work, and how this perception shapes individual, organizational, and economic outcomes. The respective chapters investigate how these central topics manifest in various contexts, from psychological and organizational frameworks to the impact of economic theories and technological change, offering new perspectives on the interplay between work, individual fulfillment, and societal development.
The edited volume promises to be a distinctive contribution to the field, sharing provocative insights and summaries of the state-of-the-art in the growing body of literature on meaningful work and work orientations, raising pivotal questions and providing informed answers that will shape future studies and practices.
Chapter 1. Meaningful Work: Insights from Work and Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior (Evgenia Lysova).- Chapter 2. The Meaning and Meaningfulness of Work the View from Sociology (Duncan Gallie).- Chapter 3. Workers Proactive Pursuit of Meaning: The Role of Needs-Based Crafting (Jessica de Bloom).- Chapter 4. What Makes Entrepreneurship Worth Doing? A Review and Research Agenda on Entrepreneurial Meaningfulness (Boris Nikolaev).- Chapter 5. Meaningful Work in Historical Perspective (Benjamin Schneider).- Chapter 6. The Economics of Meaningful Work: A Scoping Review (Martijn Hendriks).- Chapter 7. Work Orientations and Economics (Milena Nikolova).
Milena Nikolova is a Professor of Economics of Well-being at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She is also a Non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a Fellow at the Global Labor Organization. Milena holds a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Maryland, College Park (2014). Nikolova is an Editor of the Journal of Population Economics.
