Societal conceptions about meaningful work and individual´s experiences of meaningfulness at work

在当前关于疏离感上升和员工对有意义工作需求的讨论背景下，该项目旨在了解德国员工在工作中的意义体验。这个问题涉及有意义工作的社会解释模式和个人在工作中的意义体验之间的相互作用。该项目的第一阶段包括审查两个就业群体：医生和社会工作者，社会认为这两个群体具有高度的职业自主权和意义。这些工人很少提到他们自己工作的社会效用。因此，在第二阶段，该项目旨在了解社会企业家领域内工作的效用。社会企业家将有意义的工作作为其叙事的重要组成部分。这些工人被认为是对工作的新理解的先锋。因此，我们有机会深入了解不断变化的工作方向，以及对什么是好工作以及社会责任及其在社会中发挥的作用的假设。通过使用不同研究方法的三角测量，不仅可以识别有意义的工作的解释模式，而且还可以识别工人的个人占用。首先，我们进行访谈和文件分析，以重建社会企业家的叙事的有意义的工作的解释模式和叙事。为了回答有意义工作的解释模式与体验有意义的相关性，我们采访了各自公司的员工。除了探索当前的工作取向和个人的工作经验外，该项目还为有意义工作的实证研究中的研究方法的联系做出了贡献。

Against the backdrop of current discussions on the rise of alienation and employees demands for meaningful work, the project aims at understanding the experience of meaningfulness at work amongst German employees. The question concerns the interplay of social interpretive patterns of meaningful work and the individuals experience of meaningfulness at work. The projects first phase consisted of examining two employment groups: physicians and social workers, to which both high occupational autonomy and meaningfulness are socially attributed. These workers rarely referenced the social utility of their own work. Therefore, in the second phase the project aims to understand references to the utility of work within the field of social entrepreneurs. Social entrepreneurship has meaningful work as an important part of its narrative. These workers are considered the avant-garde of new understandings of work. Thus, we have the chance to obtain deep insight concerning a changing work orientation and assumptions about what is good work as well as social responsibilities and the part they play in society. By using a triangulation of different research methods, it is possible to identify not only the interpretive patterns of meaningful work, but in addition, the individual appropriation by the workers. First, we are conducting interviews and document analysis to reconstruct interpretive patterns and narratives of meaningful work of the narratives of social entrepreneurs. In order to answer the question of how relevant the interpretive patterns of meaningful work are for experiencing meaningfulness, we are interviewing employees in the respective companies. In addition to the exploration of current work orientations and the individuals experience of work, the project achieves a contribution for the link of research methods within empirical research on meaningful work.