What is meaningful work? WFRC blog and podcast

'Meaningful work' is a topic which has grasped my interest over the past few years, and is intimately connected with my research. While I focus more directly on moral reasoning, potential moral dilemma and ethical construction at an employee level, it has become very clear through my research that challenges of a moral or ethical nature impact substantially the meaning people are able to attach to their work - or, flipping this around, the meaning people seek to find in their work influences the position they take from a moral or ethical perspective.

During my time at the University of Southampton, while conducting my PhD research, I have had the great opportunity to join the university's Work Futures Research Centre (WFRC) as a Postgraduate Research Fellow. It has been an opportunity to connect with inspirational colleagues across the university interested in varied aspects of the world of work. It also gave me an opportunity to work alongside two brilliant academics on two pieces in which we explored the concept of meaningful work in more depth. The most recent is a podcast recorded with Professor Michael Tomlinson from the Southampton Education School, who has conducted research on meaningful work from the perspective of recent graduates, and shares insights from his research, and wider thoughts on the topic. In this fascinating discussion, I also share how meaningful work relates to my research, and experience in industry. You can access the podcast by following this link.

A few months before recording this podcast, I had a first brilliant opportunity to explore meaningful work through a different lens, with Dr Charlotte Unruh. Charlotte is a Lecturer in the University of Southampton's department of Philosophy, with a specific research interest in meaningful work. Our collaboration has led to a blog post on the WFRC website, where Charlotte provides a philosophical perspective on the conceptualisation of meaningful work, which I illustrate and supplement with insights from my research. You can access this blog by following this link.