7 01 / 23 PERSONALquarterly MICHAEL F. STEGER, PH.D. Director of Center for Meaning and Purpose, Professor, Counseling Psychology & Applied Social and Health Psychology, Colorado State University, www.michaelfsteger.com Michael F. Steger is Professor of Counseling Psychology and Applied Social Psychology at Colorado State University, USA. He is also Director for the Center for Meaning and Purpose. His primary line of research focusses on understanding how people find meaning in their lives and their work. He developed the most-widely used measures on meaning in the world, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Work And Meaning Inventory. He has published more than 140 perreviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books. worker contribution, and the extension of autonomy in work execution to members of the organization. Through collaboration on a project that Nico Rose initiated, we were able to show that workers reported higher levels of meaningful work when they also reported that their supervisors and managers manifested a version of CARMA expanded to include supporting the actualization of employees. This is a nice indication that workers do see the potentially beneficial impacts of more ethical and enlightened management. In an ideal world, leaders and organizations would take on the responsibility over factors such as the CARMA list. However, in the present world, it seems more likely that each of us is a bit on our own to find meaningful work. SPIRE was compiled to provide a somewhat tangible playbook for individuals to find meaningful work, based again on existing research and on psychological theories related to meaning. SPIRE points toward recognition and use of strengths at work, taking responsibility for one’s work, making sure one’s work aligns with one’s values and does not cannibalize other important or meaningful parts of one’s life, finding pathways for one’s work to help others or contribute to a broader worthy cause, and looking for ways in which an organizations’ mission or purpose can be a source of inspiration. Taken together, the hope is that CARMA and SPIRE demystify some of the aura around meaningful work while still holding in focus key concepts – such as ethics, responsibility, authenticity, autonomy, and beneficence – even if they are not always the easy path for workers or organizations. PERSONALquarterly: In 2012, you introduced the Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI2), the most common questionnaire to measure meaningful work. What are the different components of the concept? What are current topics in sharpening the measurement concept? Michael F. Steger: The Work and Meaning Inventory is primarily designed to yield a single meaningful work score that can indicate how meaningful someone judges their work to be. Underneath that are three components that get at the multiple levels work can occupy for us. The first level focuses on meaning derived from the work itself and might include ideas around one’s work tasks having a real point or connection to organizational outcomes. The second level focuses on howwork intersects with one’s broader meaning in life, ideally in positive and mutually reinforcing ways. The third level focuses on how well one sees work contributing to the greater good. Thus, we go from the work itself, to work and my broader life, to work and my contribution to the world around me. I am not sure where measurement is going next. Among the most active research areas is job crafting, so it would not surprise me if measures of meaningful work were needed that could more effectively reveal how people are attempting to find 2 Steger/Dik/Duffy, 2012 their way to meaningful work. The trick always is in trying to avoid including suspected causes or paths to meaningful work in the measurement of meaningful work itself. PERSONALquarterly: Other concepts are work identity and calling. How are these concepts connected to meaningful work? Michael F. Steger: Work identification has certainly come up in this field, but I am not sure if there has been much research differentiating the two. Calling, however, has developed alongside
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