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Using conservation of resources as a theoretical lens, the paper aims to investigate distinct objective meaningful work (OMW) and subjective meaningful work (SMW) domains as resources that contribute to wellbeing.

A cross-sectional questionnaire was conducted with 879 employees, measuring OMW resources (job security and autonomy), SMW using the well-validated multidimensional Comprehensive Meaningful Work Scale (CMWS) focusing on five dimensions (integrity with self, expressing full potential, unity with others, service to others and balancing tensions), and three wellbeing outcomes (positive affect, negative affect and job stress). The authors conducted structural equation modeling, mediation analysis with PROCESS macro including bootstrapping, and dominance analysis, to identify the core relationships between OMW and SMW dimensions and three wellbeing constructs.

OMW resources are largely beneficially related to SMW dimensions; both OMW and SMW resources are mostly beneficially related to wellbeing outcomes; and the overall associations of OMW with the three wellbeing constructs are partially mediated by SMW. The dominance analyses of SMW with wellbeing shows expressing full potential is the most important predictor of positive affect, and integrity with self is the most important (negatively related) predictor of negative affect and job stress.

Our research, in pulling apart the different dimensions of MW, shows that to enhance wellbeing, HR professionals should not just pay attention to practices that support self-transcendent MW but also those that support the self. When not balanced, MW can lead to a loss of wellbeing.

The findings highlight that (1) while the current MW literature places a lot of emphasis on SMW, OMW remains an important consideration, and (2) while the MW literature often focuses on self-transcendent meanings, such as making a difference, the self-oriented dimensions of SMW are more dominant toward wellbeing. This is valuable to employees, managers, and HR professionals considering how to improve MW and wellbeing.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the importance currently placed on meaningful work (MFW), and determine the frequency by which it is experienced in blue-, pink-, and white-collar occupations.

Using the comprehensive meaningful work scale (Lips-Wiersma and Wright, 2012) with 1,683 workers across two studies, ANOVAs were conducted to examine differences in dimensions of MFW.

While unity with others and developing the inner self were regarded as equally important for white-, blue-, and pink-collar workers, the authors data suggest that white-collar workers placed more importance on expressing full potential and serving others than blue-collar workers. The frequency of experiencing MFW differed across the three groups with white-collar workers experiencing higher levels of unity with others, expressing full potential, and serving others; however no mean differences were found for developing the inner self.

This study is the first to empirically investigate an oft-discussed but previously untested question: does the experience of MFW differ across white-, blue-, and pink-collar jobs?

This paper aims to characterise the “social” in social entrepreneurship (SE) by examining social value creation (SVC) from the perspective of vulnerable beneficiaries within a developing country context. It uses the lens of care ethics to garner insights into SVC based on what beneficiaries care about in their work engagement with social enterprises.

The exploratory paper implements a multiple case study approach to theory building, which considers the rich, real-life developing country context wherein much SVC occurs. Data collection primarily uses in-depth interviews with beneficiaries in accordance with socially sensitive research methodologies involving vulnerable participants.

The findings offer an ethical view of SVC that is premised on what is of value to beneficiaries in SE. The authors find that SVC is a multi-dimensional and reciprocal process that is shaped as beneficiaries work for social enterprises. The reciprocal nature of the process engenders beneficiary altruism, which may heighten vulnerability and lead to the dark side of SE.

Many of the problems SE tries to address are situated in developing countries. The findings may enable social entrepreneurs, policymakers and social enterprise organisations to develop more responsive and more impactful solutions to social problems in developing countries. They further suggest that beneficiaries must not be looked upon merely as passive recipients of value but as active participants in the SVC process.

This paper contributes to critical SE discourse by giving voice to beneficiaries in SE.

This paper examines the ethical tensions in social entrepreneurship (SE) research by focusing on the ethical consequences of obtaining ethics approval in a university in the developed world while executing fieldwork for data collection in a developing country. It aims to offer insight into ethical research practice to protect vulnerable research participants from being further silenced and marginalised by the dominant social order that developed world universities embody.

The ethical tensions are described through narratives drawn from a Filipino Ph.D. candidate's experience. The candidate obtained ethics approval from the university in New Zealand and collected interview data from social enterprise beneficiaries in the Philippines. A critical reflexive lens carves a space for a deepened understanding of these ethical tensions.

This paper offers critical insights into ethical SE research involving participants from vulnerable communities. These insights suggest that closer consideration needs to be given to contextual sensitivity, particularly on the part of researchers and research ethics committees, in crafting ethical data collection protocols. Findings also show how it is important for the indigenous researcher to filter ethical protocols through their local knowledge.

The paper uses critical reflexivity to examine ethical tensions in SE research involving vulnerable beneficiaries. It offers insights into ethical research procedures and practices that engender mindfulness of the contextual and relational aspects of doing SE research in the developing world.

An increasing range of research methods emphasize the socially situated nature of knowledge and hence the need to specify the knower. As such we need to account for the ways in which assumptions, feelings, biases, and anticipated outcomes might influence research questions, interpretation and representation of the experiences of the research participants. While these ideas are extensively discussed in relation to other influences on identity, such as race, gender, and class, there is as yet little discussion on how spiritual and religious identity might influence research. This paper argues that in researching workplace spirituality, a topic that is saturated with subjectivity, it is not only legitimate but central to safeguard the quality of our work that we articulate the dogmas, definitions, fears and desires we bring to the research. It discusses several literature‐based examples of how our assumptions influence our research. Using the author's own research as an example the paper utilizes the “holistic development model” to show how spirituality and religion influence various research choices and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the meaning of work. The study is concerned with eliciting work meanings of spiritually oriented individuals with a view of establishing whether there is a common agenda identifiable and whether spirituality influences work behavior. It was found that in spite of their diversity, all research participants desired to express spiritual life purposes of “developing and becoming self”, “unity with others”, “expressing self” and “serving others” in the workplace. A second finding is that they seek to balance these over time. Furthermore it was found that spirituality clearly influences work behavior as research participants make career transitions if they cannot express their spirituality. Lessons are explored for contemporary organizations interested in retaining spiritually oriented employees.

This paper presents the results of a participative psycho‐biographical study that investigated the effect of spirituality on career behavior. This study shows that spirituality influences career purpose, sense‐making and coherence. Spirituality was found to inspire four purposes of “developing and becoming self”, “unity with others”, “expressing self”, and “serving others”. Spirituality was also found to influence an ongoing process of sense‐making through discovering, prioritizing and balancing the four purposes over a lifespan, in response to ongoing tensions between “being” and “doing” as well as “self‐ versus other‐orientation”. Spirituality furthermore influences perceived career‐coherence as individuals align their careers with perceived spiritual orderings outside of themselves. The paper concludes with suggestions for practice and future research.

Current spirit at work literature often assumes spirituality needs to be introduced to the workplace. This paper offers an additional perspective, arguing that spirituality is already present, as many individuals have spiritual beliefs but struggle to articulate or enact these beliefs at work. Exploratory narrative research revealed frequent references to a lack of safety in expressing spirituality at work. The question is why and how do individuals silence their spiritual expression. This paper explores this question and presents a model that captures the ongoing experiential nature of spirituality and proposes that decisions about spiritual expression in the workplace are complex meshes of stimulus, decision‐making and action cycles (SDAs) that are embedded in the individual’s sensemaking, interpersonal relationships and group dynamics. Findings are explained through different theoretical lenses such as diversity management, social identity theory, social penetration theory and affective sensemaking theory.

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When asked to “state occupation” on an official form, or merely asked “And what do you do?” at a social gathering, the responses “businessman” or “banker” don't elicit the same respect they once might have done. Banking and other big business have got a bad name. Can the principles of “authentic leadership” help to rescue those reputations?

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