A Passion for Work: Part 4 of 5
Part Four: How Meaningful Is Your Work?
In the Ken Blanchard definition of work passion that we highlighted in Part One, “meaningful work” is the first of the eight factors responsible for driving passion. Today we bring you a Group & Organization Management article that presents a scale for measuring meaningful work, also explaining its relation to the concepts of “calling”; “intrinsic motivation”; “work engagement” and “work values”:
In this article we build on two in-depth qualitative studies to systematically develop and validate a comprehensive measure of meaningful work. This scale provides a multidimensional, process-oriented measure of meaningful work that captures the complexity of the construct. It measures the dimensions of “developing the inner self”; “unity with others”; “serving others” and “expressing
full potential” and the dynamic tensions between these through items on “being versus doing” and “self versus others.” The scale also measures inspiration and its relationship to the existential need to be real and grounded. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using multicultural samples from a broad range of occupations provide construct validity for the measure. Future research opportunities on the basis of our measure are outlined.
Click here to read “Measuring the Meaning of Meaningful Work: Development and Validation of the Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale (CMWS),” published by Marjolein Lips-Wiersma and Sarah Wright, both of the University of Canterbury, in the GOM October 2012 issue.
