What Makes a Meaningful Day? Crafting Deals, Managing Variability, and Navigating Emotional Diversity in Meaningful Work

Abstract

In a world where work is a central pillar of identity and purpose, the quest for meaningful work—defined as the subjective experience of existential significance derived from alignment between individuals and their work—has gained unprecedented attention for its numerous benefits, from enhanced well-being to organizational performance. Yet, meaningfulness is dynamic, fluctuating daily and across careers, posing a paradox for employees and employers alike: How can meaningful work be consistently created and sustained? This thesis addresses this critical question through a series of theoretical and empirical investigations that illuminate the cognitive, relational, and emotional mechanisms underpinning the dynamics of meaningful work.

The first study introduces the "meaningfulness deal," a novel framework capturing the dynamic negotiation between employees and employers in the pursuit, enactment, and restoration of meaningfulness. Drawing on dynamic psychological contract theory and work orientations, this paper posits that meaningful work emerges from reciprocal exchanges shaped by employees’ individualized paths to meaningfulness and organizational contexts. Through this theoretical lens, meaningfulness is conceptualized not as a fixed state but as a fluid, episodic phenomenon evolving over time. The paper advances propositions to guide research on this dynamic construct and offers methodological strategies for examining its temporal nature.

The second paper builds on this foundation and investigates the daily ebb and flow of meaningful work by employing a rigorous two-phase empirical design that combines a 10-day experience sampling method with a two-wave longitudinal design. The study reveals how meaningfulness unfolds in a reciprocal cycle. When employees are empowered to pursue their individualized paths to meaningfulness, they reciprocate with helping behaviors, prompting further opportunities from employers. The study also highlights the impact of daily "meaningfulness variability," showing that fluctuations, independent of average meaningfulness levels, play a critical role in shaping long-term outcomes such as global meaningfulness and performance.

The third study shifts focus from cognitive pathways to emotional dynamics, introducing the concept of emotional diversity (emodiversity)—the richness and evenness of emotional experiences—as a key driver of meaningful work. Drawing on the Broaden-and-Build Theory and Affective Endowment-Contrast Theory and using longitudinal, representative data from the Midlife in the United States dataset, the study demonstrates how positive emodiversity enhances meaningfulness while negative emodiversity, surprisingly, diminishes it. Findings also reveal how global emodiversity enriches meaningfulness beyond mean emotional levels while amplifying the effects of positive and negative emotions, underscoring its double-edged nature.

Together, these studies advance theoretical and practical insights into how meaningfulness at work can be generated and, crucially, sustained over time. By bridging cognitive, emotional, and relational dimensions, this thesis deepens our understanding of what makes a meaningful day and illuminates pathways for sustaining it in an ever-evolving world of work.