"The Function and Meaning of Work and the Job: Morse and Weiss (1955) Revisited"

by Vecchio, Robert P (1980)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study that revisits an earlier study pertaining to the function and meaning of work. The original study asserted that the function of work as a purely an economic function or just a way to earning a living is incorrect. According to the original study, work also serves as a vehicle to avoid boredom, achieve personal fulfillment and to provide a forum for social contact. While the new study finds that the majority of workers still work for the aforementioned reasons, the proportion of people who work solely for economic purposes is greater.

Key Passage

Anecdotal support exists for the behavioural manifestation of this predisposition. For example, one report concerns several London factory workers who won substantial sums of money from football pools. With wiseinvestment, the sums of their individual winnings would have provided sufficient income for these men to live comfortably for the remainder of their lives. Yet each of the men returned to work after a brief vacation. Perhaps even more amazing in these cases is the fact that these men held jobs that could be reasonably described as dull, routine, and repetitive” (p. 362) ()

Keywords

Meaningful Work, Meaning Of Work, Well-Being, Psychology, Happiness, Empirical Study, Sociology

Themes

Meaningful Work

Links to Reference

• https://doi.org/10.5465/255439
• http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/255439
• https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/255439

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