Journal
SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT
Volume 35, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2019.101064
Keywords
Agency; Alienation; Meaningful work; Meaningless work; Relational sociology
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In this article, we address a gap in the meaningful work literature by exploring the processes by which work is experienced as meaningless. We adopt the lens of relational sociology and, through interviews with 45 participants in four very different occupations, we found that meaninglessness arises through four relational processes: powerlessness, disconnection, devaluation and self-doubt. Individuals enacted six agential responses to this experience. Two of these, resisting and responsibility-taking, were reinstatement strategies and four, acceptance, distancing, minimising and resistance, were coping strategies. In addition, some informants used switching as a framing device. These responses were not equally available to all workers in all occupations, suggestive of a stratified experience of work meaninglessness. Our study contributes to understandings of how work is rendered meaningless and how individuals might respond.
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