Meaning Work: Making Meaning in Low Structure Situations

1. Meaning Work: Making Meaning in Low Structure Situations Sue Ashford Ruth Blatt

2. Our Questions to You • Where does what we’re saying seem interesting or new? • What conversation does this contribute to? • Where could we be more clear? • Relevant literatures we need to take into account?

3. The Meaning of Work – A Confusion • Work as a life domain – what does it mean to a person? Ruiz-Quintanilla & England, Wrzesniewski • Work as an activity – what is its content how is it evaluated? Wrzesniewski, Dutton & Debebe • When does work have meaning? Pratt & Ashforth • Derived from the fit of what I’m doing and who I am • Derived from fit of where I’m belonging and who I am • Us: How do people create and use meaning in work in service of outcomes?

4. Meaning and Work • Organizations help sustain contribution from their members by granting meaning • Division of labor & role definition set the premises for decision-making – what do I do? (March & Simon; Katz & Kahn) • Symbolic actions by leaders define a sense of purpose – why am I doing it? (Barnard) • Culture, history, rituals, symbols define what is appropriate – how should I do it? (O’Reilly & Chatman) • Organizational membership increases positive identity at work – who am I? (Pratt & Ashforth; Dutton et al., Tyler) • Collective sensemaking about the work in reduces ambiguity and uncertainty – what do events mean? (Weick, Maitlis)

5. But what if meaning is not granted? • No role to follow • No leaders to grant meaning • No organization to feel a part of • No norms to adhere to • No colleagues with whom to make sense The ambiguity and lack of structure often raises the most basic of existential questions – do I matter? - and a host of more specific meaning questions as the work is engaged.

6. Our Study • 41 individuals performing work outside of organizations • 90-minute interviews about their day-today lives • We hope to draw implications for other low-structure situations, such as entrepreneurship, virtual work, design work and research work.

7. Sample • N = 41 • What do they do: • Artist 8 • Writer 7 • Graphic Designer 6 • Consultant 9 • Hi Tech 6 • Other 5

8. Sample • What is their life situation? • Married/Partner 70% • Kids? 40% • Male/Female 51/49% • Years of experience • 14+ 29% • 3-8 39% • <3 32%

9. Sample • Financial Success • High – 35% Med – 41% Low – 24% • Dependence on Income • High – 49% Med – 29% Low – 22% • In this by choice? • 90% had high degree of choice

10. For a NS worker, you need to make meaning yourself • However, you have lots of data to use in meaning making because in NS work, your actions are self-implicating • Your choices tell you about you • Your reactions and emotions are important information about your functioning • These realities push you to self examination – to clarify what matters most • And can engage pressures to preserve a positive self-concept (which may need to be guarded against at times)

11. You need to figure out: • Who am I? • What do I do? • How can I do it in a way that is right for me? • Why am I doing it? • What do various events mean?

12. Meaning Narrative (an plausible story of the self at work) Make sense with Revise Make sense with Revise Realm of Ongoing Action Interrupt Interrupt Make sense with Institutional society occupations organizations Economics Make sense with Pay attention to Pay attention to Vocabularies of Action Make sense with Make sense with Self-knowing values choices self-concept Create & elaborate Create & elaborate time

13. Narratives • Meaning narratives are plausible stories about the self at work that answer the questions: who am I? and why am I doing what I am doing? • Clear narratives provide: • A sense of stability in the face of flux • Direction in the moment and for the long-term • A framework for making sense of actions already taken • Motivation • Resilience • Help in sustaining a positive self-concept • An aesthetic

14. Invocation and creation of meanings in the everyday • Meaning Functions. The created meanings help these workers to: • Energize action • Direct action • Cope with interrupts • Modify the narrative • In everyday life, people in ambiguous situations use a wide variety of resources to create meaning in service of sustaining action: • Their narratives • Their experiences • Their reactions to their experiences • Words pulled from various “vocabularies of action” to make sense of experience

15. Vocabularies of Action • Institutional vocabularies • Society (ideologies) • Occupations (predecessors, norms) • Organizations (rules, roles, and structures) • Economics (profit, self-interest) • Self-knowing vocabularies • Values • Choices • Self-concept

16. Everyday Meaning Making is Created by and Creates the Narrative

17. Meaning Narrative (an plausible story of the self at work) Make meaning with Revise Make meaning with Revise Realm of Ongoing Action Interrupt Interrupt Make sense with Institutional society occupations organizations Economics Make sense with Pay attention to Pay attention to Vocabularies of Action Make sense with Make sense with Self-knowing values choices self-concept Create & elaborate Create & elaborate time

18. Interrupts • Occasions for meaning-making that happen when something disrupts the narrative as a device for making sense of work and the self-at-work.

19. Types of interrupts Actions Actions Not taken Taken Not taken Taken Doesn’t feel valuable Doesn’t feel valuable Self View Feels valuable Feels valuable Others appear to value Others do not appear to value Other’s View

20. When is meaning-making negative? • No coherent narrative • Meaning-making becomes a diversion (e.g., nonprofit entrepreneur) • Lack of resourcefulness in drawing from vocabularies of action • Limited sensemaking constrains possible action (e.g., independent film producer)

21. Propositions • Sustaining effective action in a low-structure situation is aided by the development of a meaning narrative of the self that is plausible to the actor and answers: who am I? and Why am I doing what I’m doing? • Meaning narratives help actors cope with and respond to interrupts in the ongoing flow of action • Interrupts stem from discrepancies between actors’ own view of actions taken or not taken and evidence they have of others’ views of these actions.

22. Propositions, cont. • Meaning-making in low structure situations is aided by a competence at observing, analyzing, and honoring the self in action. • Meaning narratives are revised through time by drawing upon meaning vocabularies in response to interrupts • The broader the meaning vocabularies created and used, the better the ability to sustain action • Expanding attention to external vocabularies • Making usable a preoccupation with the self