TY - JOUR
T1 - The meaning of work and cultural psychology
T2 - Ideas for new directions
AU - Bendassolli, Pedro
AU - Tateo, Luca
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Work is one arena in which human beings constitute their identities and participate in collective-cultural enterprises. But research on factors affecting the meaning of work and its outcomes focuses mostly on individual-level variables related to workers’ experience. However, scholars have recently proposed a shift towards a more collective dimension of meaningfulness, in particular, the cultural level. This article discusses and expands on this recent trend, demonstrating how growing attention to cultural factors of work’s meaning raises some problematic, crucial issues about the very definition of culture and its role in meaning-making. A particular issue is the assumption that culture is transmitted to people, that it is primarily a collective endeavour based on shared values and that culture can endow work with meaning. Based on a cultural psychology perspective, we revisit both the relationship between person and culture and the idea of work as a cultural phenomenon. We argue that work is inherently a meaningful activity, mediating between personal and collective culture. We end by proposing some potential new directions to explore.
AB - Work is one arena in which human beings constitute their identities and participate in collective-cultural enterprises. But research on factors affecting the meaning of work and its outcomes focuses mostly on individual-level variables related to workers’ experience. However, scholars have recently proposed a shift towards a more collective dimension of meaningfulness, in particular, the cultural level. This article discusses and expands on this recent trend, demonstrating how growing attention to cultural factors of work’s meaning raises some problematic, crucial issues about the very definition of culture and its role in meaning-making. A particular issue is the assumption that culture is transmitted to people, that it is primarily a collective endeavour based on shared values and that culture can endow work with meaning. Based on a cultural psychology perspective, we revisit both the relationship between person and culture and the idea of work as a cultural phenomenon. We argue that work is inherently a meaningful activity, mediating between personal and collective culture. We end by proposing some potential new directions to explore.
KW - Meaning-making
KW - cultural psychology
KW - meaningfulness
KW - personal culture
KW - work
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047329889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354067X17729363
DO - 10.1177/1354067X17729363
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1354-067X
VL - 24
SP - 135
EP - 159
JO - Culture & Psychology
JF - Culture & Psychology
IS - 2
ER -