THE LINKS BETWEEN MEANINGFULNESS OF WORK, WORK-ENGAGEMENT AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

The objective of this study is to identify and synthesize what is known about links between (job-) meaningfulness, work-engagement and psychological well-being of employees. Therefore the respective understandings of a meaningful work and of healthy work has to be elaborated, to develop the underlying interpretations of subjectivity, in order to propose a perspective for empirical investigations of health-oriented working conditions. It is argued that a proactive thematization of meaningful work (e. g the individual attributions of meaningful work as well as the practices of making work meaningful) is closely related to work-engagement and well-being. A holistic view of these constructs enables a comprehensive understanding of meaningful work and creates further starting points for future research work in Organizational Development (OD) or Human-Resources (HR) Management. The study was carried out as a review of general and relevant science literature as well as scientific publications researched in common journal-databases. The results show, that meaningfulness can be seen as a core, which interconnects different constructs. Therefore, meaningfulness is closely linked to work-engagement. The more meaningfulness employees perceive in their daily work, the more motivated they are performing on a higher level. Meaningfulness is also linked to the Sense of Coherence (SoC), a coping capacity of employees to deal with everyday life stressors. SoC refers to an individual's generalized perception of environmental stimuli. Thus, if an employee has a high level of sense of coherence he/she experiences work more meaningful and tends to have good coping strategies handling stressors. Meaningfulness has also a connection to wellbeing. By losing the meaningfulness at work, typical symptoms of burnout can be observed. It is argued, that creating meaningfulness at work is essential for positive work outcomes and healthy employees.