RCAAP Repository

ABSTRACT Purpose: To validate if mindfulness practices contribute to increase the perception of clarity of the own professional sense of purpose. Originality/value: The research shows synergy of mindfulness practices with metacognitive reflections based on Otto Scharmer’s Theory U attention modes, increasing the perception of authenticity in the statements defining the own professional sense of purpose. Design/methodology/approach: This is an exploratory, prospective intervention study, with pre and post-intervention data collection. Data collection was carried out with organizational professionals who voluntarily participated in the proposed course in the cities of São Paulo and Ribeirão Preto, in Brazil. Findings: The proposed educational program improved the perception in relation to the “meaning in life at work”, “greater purpose in the work”, “meaning in life” in general, the “satisfactory purpose in life” and the “level of mindfulness”. We also concluded that mindfulness practices are synergistic with metacognitive reflections based on Theory U attention modes, providing a greater perception of clarity, focus and authenticity regarding the sense of purpose statements.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this paper is to identify relationships between “managerial competencies” (MCs) and the resulting extension in Brazilian “research groups” (RGs), as well as differences resulting from sociodemographic/functional characteristics. Originality/value: Just like general organizations, RGs need to invest in aspects that enhance their results, taking more strategic approaches to efficiently gather and manage resources and establish networks and partnerships, features that are influenced by the leader’s competencies, which are not always satisfactorily displayed. In addition, the study is innovative in applying a scale of results in RGs (for the first time), identifying their relationships with MCs. Design/methodology/approach: We employed the Correlation Analysis (Kendall-Tau) and Difference tests between medians (Mann-Whitney and Kruskall-Wallis) from the questionnaires electronically completed by 387 RG leaders who accepted the invitation that was sent to 6,723 researchers. Findings: The study was based on scales with validity evidence, and its findings indicate that to achieve better results, it is not enough for the RGs leaders to control the management of people and research results; they also need to dedicate themselves to gathering resources and people because these MCs are more related to results in RGs. We also identified differences resulting from educational level, gender, scholarship grants, knowledge area, and/or research experience and group relation time.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To describe the sources of the meaning of work. This research was carried out with civil servants who implement employment policies in the Federal District of Brazil, trying to reintegrate people back into the labor market. Originality/value: This work describes how the different sources affect the construction of the meaning of work. We include and test the service user as a relevant source for the meaning of work. Design/methodology/approach: Qualitative design. It uses semi--structured interviews and content analysis with the previous model based on the Rosso, Dekas, and Wrzesniewski (2010) directions. Findings: Three of the four proposed sources of the meaning of work were found: Self, Others, and Context. The Spiritual Life source does not arise in the content analysis. The most frequent source was Context, followed by Others and Self. Work Design was the most frequent theme in the Others category. It suggests that the relation between the job and self is core to the meaning of work. Not all proposed themes by the authors emerge in each category. Finally, in the Others source, the service user frequently emerges, indicating its pertinence to the meaning of work. Explanatory hypotheses are discussed for the sources and themes that emerge.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To examine how professionals in managerial positions in Brazil define the meaning of work and thereby initiate a reflection on organizational implications and consequences. Originality/value: This study addresses two research opportunities. It develops the thematic meaning of work beyond professional categories, emphasizing organizational and management positions and approaches in a complementary way, the research on managers that focuses primarily on personal development and execution of the organizational role. Design/methodology/approach: The research approach uses mixed methods-both qualitative and quantitative methods (interview, questionnaire, and focus group). Across all phases, 316 managers and executives participated in the research. Variables of the Meaning of Work (MOW) model supported the data collection. Descriptive and inferential statistics and multivariate data analysis were used for data treatment. Findings: Although recognized as a pleasant, paid activity of high centrality in life, fulfilling intrinsic values (recognition, autonomy, learning opportunities), work has different interpretations based on where it is executed, whom it benefits, extrinsic values expectations, and ability to handle stress factors. Different from other international studies, this work has found possible relationships between the meaning of work and organizational culture. The meaning of the work of managers has organizational implications by impacting daily work, managerial styles, and the implementation of people management practices.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aims to investigate how app drivers are giving meaning to their work, taking as a theoretical assumption the model proposed by Rosso, Dekas, & Wrzesniewski (2010). Originality/value: Internationally, the volume of empirical research involving digital labor markets is considered to be low. Nationally, research in the context of Sharing Economy rarely focuses on the labor perspective. Despite being a growing phenomenon, no studies were found on the production of meanings and meaningfulness of work by app drivers. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative and exploratory research was carried out with 37 app drivers between May and September 2017, in Porto Alegre (RS, Brazil). Randomly selected, respondents were called to a work route by the transport application. The interviews’ content was categorized and analyzed according to the framework of Rosso et al. (2010). Findings: Elements that refer to all the model quadrants were found: “self-connection”, “individuation”, “contribution”, and “unification”. The predominant meaning, however, is desire, seeking and valuing by the agency, in the mechanisms of self-efficacy and self-management, especially in the financial, autonomy and flexibility perspectives. This research contributes to the intersection of the study of the labor world transformations and the construction of meanings and meaningfulness, using a framework little used in Brazilian research. It also collaborates to broaden the understanding of digital labor markets, especially their impact on workers.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To understand the meaning and meaningfulness of work under different points of view and support the researchers of the subject to reflect on which lens(es) are formulating their research. Originality/value: The main contribution of the article is in the synthesis and registration of ten categories of analysis of the multiple and possible meaning and meaningfulness of the work, either in isolation or in their connections. This article is in itself a theoretical proposition cooperates for the extension of the literature and is original when indicating ten complementary perspectives for the object of study: physiological, cultural, religious, spiritual, ideological, economic, political, legal, psychological and social. Design/methodology/approach: This article has a qualitative approach and has as a method a literature review of the narrative type and is based on more than 80 national and international references. Findings: When analyzed in an integrated way, these perspectives expand the possibilities of contextualization and future researches in the field of the mentioned subject. Finally, it is defended that there is still a long way in the problematization of this phenomenon so central in the life of the individuals and for the society, mainly in what concerns the current context of multiple crises and intense social transformations.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Assessing whether the meanings attributed to the work by teachers from a course of professional technological education (PTE), Human Resource Management (HRM) were predictors of the intention to remain in or to leave employment. Originality/value: There is a gap in the literature about the research of the relationship between working meanings and the turnover intention. Also, the recent expansion of PTE in Brazil was not accompanied by the development of research related to different aspects of the work of the teachers who work in PTE, considering that they act in a context of the historical and cultural devaluation of HRM teachers Design/methodology/approach: We developed a multi-methodological study in two stages: 1. Application of semi-structured interviews; 2. Application of structured questionnaires. Findings: The results of the first stage provided an empirical basis for constructing hypotheses concerning the prevalence of leaving intention and the prediction of this phenomenon by the components of work meaning. The results of the second stage confirmed that the leaving intention was prevalent among most HRM teachers. Also, a valuation of the dignity-humanization, the occupation and a sense of the reality of dehumanization and exhaustion are predictors of the likelihood of the leaving intention. We concluded that, despite the increased job opportunities for teachers in PTE, it does not represent a quality alternative, as well as HRM teachers, considered it a temporary option of work.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study examines the identification processes that marked the life of a subject and their possible relations with the meaning of work as a drag queen. Originality/value: This study stands out in its use of a theoretical psychoanalytic framework to analyze the life history of a professional drag queen, aiming to shed light on the senses of work from singular aspects of the worker. Research on this subject in the field of administration is usually conducted within a functionalist paradigm. Design/methodology/approach: We examined the life story of a drag queen from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. The choice to use “life story” as a data collection and analysis strategy allowed us to illuminate how the subject lives and articulates his story and the choice of work that allows an expression of his desire. Findings: Some points combine the subject’s identity traits with his work as a drag artist; the look and clothes are elements that sustain a fantasy that has found a place in society. One of the elements that gives meaning to the work is the link of some singular identity traits with the social dimension of work and the affections that sustain a form of social recognition.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the meanings of the work of circus artists in three dimensions, individual, organizational, and social, following the adaptation to the model of Morin (2001) proposed by Oliveira, Piccinini, Fontoura, and Schweig (2004) and Morin, Tonelli, and Pliopas (2007). Originality/value: The article stands out because it deals with a category of artists that is losing space within society, being increasingly marginalized. Given this, it becomes relevant to understand the meaning of an activity that is in decline. Design/methodology/approach: This is a descriptive and exploratory study of a qualitative nature, in which primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten circus artists. For data collection, the content analysis technique was used in Atlas.ti software. Findings: The results point out that there is meaning in work for the circus artists across all dimensions: 1. In the individual dimension, the pleasure was the predominant factor, since in more than one moment, all the interviewees expressed their satisfaction in belonging to the circus; 2. In the organizational dimension, utility prevailed, since everyone considered contributing and meeting the needs of the circus; 3. In the social dimension, interpersonal relations, demonstrating that even with evidence of prejudice, external relationships can be formed in the circus. The results contribute to the literature that involves studies with circus artists, considering their meanings of work.

ABSTRACT Purpose: Our main purpose was to explore how collective job crafting relates to the meaning of work and the meaning-making processes. Originality/value: We explored the job crafting model to study the meaning of work at the collective level. But, while most job crafting studies focus on the relation between workers and tasks, we focused on the collective meaning-making that emerges from workers actively adapting tasks, significance, and relationships in their jobs. As for the practitioners, we alert for a possible trapdoor through which job crafting can fall back into plain hierarchical job design if it is not actively and autonomously engaged by workers. Design/methodology/approach: We used basic qualitative research to combine interpretative analysis (aligned with our topic and theoretical model) and the possibility to look into an interaction scenario (aligned with our objectives). Data was collected though informants’ responses to a semi-structured interview and analyzed using content analysis. Findings: We found out that workers shared an understanding of the problems of work meanings and engage in a quest to make sense of their work lives both 1. At the organizational level - arranging work in unorthodox ways -; and 2. At the interpersonal level - adhering to specific roles to attach meaning to work. Our findings shed light on new aspects of the job crafting model, particularly, on the meaning of work centrality to the model in collective job crafting experiences.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the meanings attributed to work by people with acquired disabilities. Originality/value: The study unveils a new understanding of the meaning of work for people with acquired disabilities. Design/methodology/approach: There were conducted in-depth interviews with ten people with acquired disabilities and inserted in the labor market. Findings: The results of this analysis suggest that, for the interviewed group, the work shares its importance with other spheres of life, like the affective one and the family circle. Among the meanings discussed in the scholarly literature, such as pleasure in working and the work as a form of social interaction, there were also new specific meanings attributed by the group, related to the identity of the person with disability, like barriers overcoming, the combat against the stigma of incapacity and the positive impact generation. On the other hand, remuneration and career progression appear as a consequence of work, rather than a factor that brought meaning to their work activities. The findings of this study contributed to a better understanding of the different meanings attributed to work by people with an acquired disability. Among that, the results pointed to the existence of other meanings than the usually addressed in the scholarly literature of the theme, what reinforces the contribution of this article to the study of the meaning of work.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between meaning of work and organizational socialization labor context for migrant workers evaluation. Originality/value: Due to the increasing number of world migrations, there is a need for research on migrants and their relation to the variables that involve organizational practices. The perception of work for migrant workers refers to the characteristics of the tasks and the way work is organized and the integration and adaptation of the individual to the environment, contributing to the attribution of meaning to work. Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey was conducted by applying a questionnaire to Senegalese, Bengalese and Haitian workers who recently arrived in Brazil. Findings: The results show the variables that lead migrants to give meaning to their work, as well as their perception about the socialization process and the context conditions. It was also demonstrated that organizational socialization partially mediates the relation between meaning of work and the perception of precarious work context for these workers. The results contribute to demonstrate the importance of organizational socialization in labor contexts that absorb migrant workers, as well as the relationship between the elaboration of the meaning of work and the perception of precarious work.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The paper is driven by the following question: how do interest group narratives contribute to the dialogue between the perspective of strategy as a practice and the stakeholder theory? The objective is to analyze the changes, permanent and tensions in the narratives of the stakeholders, seen the strategic practices, in the context of mining. Originality/value: Strategy as a social practice concerns the relationships between organizations, individuals and society in search of coexistence. This study establishes a dialogue between strategy as a social practice and the political perspective of the stakeholders, considering that they interact in networks, seeking the creation of value from mutuality. Design/methodology/approach: Field research was conducted in a qualitative and longitudinal approach. Data collection used to document research techniques in notes and videos of public hearings, newspaper research and interviews. Findings: The results show narrative interactions of six interest groups: entrepreneurial organizations, public authority, education, environment, residents of the area of implantation and the productive sector. The result suggests a relevant role of relational tensions as elements that restrict and enable changes and permanent and indicate the dynamic nature of intra and intergroup interactions of stakeholders. The proposed theoretical dialogue extends the field of strategic studies, in a postmodern dimension, by establishing a dialogue with the political side of stakeholder action as an alternative to the traditional functionalist perspective in the field.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore the meaning of work, analyzing and comparing how it is experienced by workers who are subject to different employment relationships. Originality/value: The research is important because it advances in the discussion about the flexibilization of labor relations and its impact on how professionals experience and attribute meaning to their work. In addition, we found a gap in empirical research relating to the meaning of work and different types of employment relationships. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted qualitative and exploratory research with professors from the same higher education institution that work under different employment relationships. Forty-five professors participated in the study, whose reports were submitted to discourse analysis. Findings: Initially, the results reinforced the six categories proposed by Morin (2001): work that 1. generates results; 2. is intrinsically satisfactory; 3. morally acceptable; 4. source of satisfactory relationships; 5. guarantees security and autonomy, and 6. keeps the person occupied. In addition, three new categories associated with the professors' work have been identified: "work as a calling", "work as identity construction", and "work as a masochistic practice". Our results point to the complexity of maintaining professionals working side by side but under different employment relationships. Resentment, anguish, and frustration were some of the feelings that we consider to be associated with this reality, and represent a challenge to be faced by organizations.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This research aimed to identify and analyze the antecedents of work engagement through job demands and resources of the higher education professors in Brazil. Originality/value: First findings of engagement, job resources and demands regarding Brazilian professors sample. This dissertation contributes to the reflection of their situation and the conditions of their jobs. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a quantitative approach by means of applying an online questionnaire composed of identification questions and two scales. The sample comprised 506 professors belonging to all federative units of the country. Data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed through descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and t-test. Findings: The main findings show that professors, in general, have medium levels of engagement, but it is very close to the limit that can affect their health. The qualitative demands are the most expressive in the working life of these professionals and the work resources (task execution) were those that obtained the highest average among all resources, followed by the social ones. In general, professors from private institutions perceive job demands and resources more favorably than those who work in public institutions.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aimed to analyze the degree to which the meaning of work, specifically the work centrality dimension, and the types of achievement goal orientations at work, predict professional fulfillment. Originality/value: The main contribution is to provide background for the identification of antecedents of a concept yet narrowly studied, which is professional fulfillment, signaling how counselors and organizations may facilitate the greater achievement of what is most valued in a career. We evidence the need to consider work an important sphere of life and to invest efforts in self-development to attain professional fulfillment. Design/methodology/approach: This is quantitative, survey-type research involving 140 people who have been working for at least 6 months. An online questionnaire was answered containing absolute and relative work centrality, achievement goal orientation at work and professional fulfillment scales, as well as socio-demographic questions. Data were analyzed using bivariate correlations and multiple regression analysis. Findings: Significant relationships of prediction were found between work centrality and professional fulfillment, as well as between one of the types of goal orientation and professional fulfillment. The results support two of the three predicted hypotheses, in addition to converging with previous research on the positive impacts of work centrality and the mastery approach orientation.

ABSTRACT Purpose: The purpose of the research is to understand how the organization can assign meaning to the emotional labor performed by salespeople in the experience store. For this, it was analyzed the sources of the meaning of the work in the process of managing the emotions realized by the salespeople. Originality/value: There are few studies in the international literature that proposed to articulate the meaning of work (Rosso, Dekas & Wrzesniewski, 2010) and management of emotions (Grandey, 2000) and there is no research about it on the national level. Based on this gap, the present research proposes that the meaning of work and management of emotions are intrinsically related in the management field, as a way of homogenizing behaviors and feelings related to work and organization. The originality of the research is to explain how organizations can establish mechanisms of meaning to work and contribute to processes of management of emotions with a more genuine character, and, consequently, how this subjective form of the work contributes to the construction of the brand experience in the sales environment. Design/methodology/approach: This is qualitative research that occurred in an experienced store located in the city of São Paulo. The methodological strategy was to enter the universe of work of the salespeople, through participant observation technique, with the purpose of understanding and explaining how the sources of the meaning of the work can contribute in the process of management of the emotions realized by the salespeople. The Hermeneutics was adopted for data analysis. Findings: The research presents that the sources of the meaning of work promoted by the organization, such as "authenticity", "self-efficacy", "belonging", "self-esteem", "sense of purpose" and "transcendence" mobilizes the salespeople's genuine emotions toward organizational goals.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper aims to understand the motivations involved in volunteer tourism activities and the meaning of the experience to the volunteers in a post-modern context. Originality/value: Volunteer tourism is a response to the socioeconomic transformations of the 21st century. It is related to the contemporary search for meaning in the spheres of life and work. In this sense, the study proposes a new reflexive approach to the work debate, integrating issues involving the mobilization of subjectivity and post-modern perspectives. Design/method/approach: This study is a qualitative investigation with results collected through semi-structured interviews. Content analysis was used to analyze the transcripts. Findings: The participants are individuals who travel abroad seeking a meaningful tourist experience. As consumers, they welcome life experiences that represent particular aspects of their own identity, while also looking for ways to lend added value to their careers and increase their employability. The volunteer tourism industry mobilizes the production and consumption of such subjectivities, which are related to the search for meaning in the post-modern era. Self-realization, intercultural encounters, and a different perspective on reality are some outcomes of this activity. The meaning of work is itself now a merchandising instrument.

ABSTRACT Purpose: This article is the result of an ethnographic study carried out in a settlement in the interior of Paraná, Brazil, which, from the perspective of the Social Learning Theory, aimed to understand how the learning of the productive baking activity of settled women occurs, serving as a path to a diversity of studies that seek to understand why certain practices emerge, institutionalize or are altered over time through an approach that sees them as a collective endeavor. Originality/value: In revealing the sense of the activity and participation of these women in the baking activity and their relation with learning in the enterprise, this study was justified for its contribution to the understanding of this learning, answering questions that can serve as reference to understand the reality of productive groups of this new economy. Design/methodology/approach: The proposals of Engeström (2009) and Nicolini (2009) formed a methodological package whose results showed the sense of activity as the search for an identity, the will to belong, factors generators of internal and external contradictions that extend the horizon of possibilities of the enterprise, leading to an expansionary cycle that causes the development of learning. Findings: The results revealed that in the system of activity, learning and participation are intrinsically related, associating the development of the group with participatory learning and the negotiation of meanings in the community in which it is inserted, linking past and future, individual and collective, new and existing knowledge, in a transformative movement of identities of the subjects and generator of a socially constructed knowledge.

ABSTRACT Purpose: To reflect on the faces of loneliness within the contemporary work context contemplating it: 1. as affect that results from coexistence and social interaction; 2. as a symptom of unease at work, the result of managerial ideology; and 3. as a source of development, reinvigoration and formation for an individual. Originality/value: This study is relevant because it makes it possible for us to take a new look at loneliness within the work context as a resource to liberate the worker. Design/methodology/approach: This study is a theoretical essay, based on a review of the literature of various fields of knowledge (sociology, psychology, philosophy and administration), and is an interdisciplinary reflection on various currents of thought which discuss the faces of loneliness. Findings: We have found that loneliness in contemporary work can be seen as harmful, given the everyday violence within the organizational environment, work that has lost its meaning, a lack of solidarity among workers, or it can be seen as a necessary virtue for the development and emancipation of the subject. Even though this is seen by most studies as a negative phenomenon, it is not restricted to physical distance, and much less trying to escape from life. It can also be seen as the search to awaken something in oneself and repositioning of the values and culture inculcated by organizations.