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For all that many technology designers today gloss their work in terms of “creating meaningful experiences,” most design is focused on efficiency, productivity, self-indulgence, and pleasure-seeking, and little discussion has been had on what “meaningful experiences” actually means. Still, there is an opportunity and a need to design for meaning. In the research literature, there are some precedents for this, rooted in the Slow Technology movement. That research suggests, for instance, that personally meaningful designs should make space for evolution over time; be upgradeable, maintainable, and replaceable; and afford focused rather than distracting use. This work has room to be deepened and expanded. To begin, we can look to paradigms in psychology and philosophy for techniques to cultivate personal meaning: Life Review and poietic judgment. Two design strategies that emerge from this are noticing and purposing. But perhaps more important than following any particular strategies is the embodiment of a particular designerly mood conducive to engaging users with personal meaning.

Information is often defined in terms of meaning. Traditional theories of meaning, each with some drawbacks, have been rooted in language; but a more satisfactory theory of meaning may be rooted in information. Meaning can be defined as coordinated action toward some end. In this sense, the meaning of something is the way it affords and constrains actions, and it is therefore inextricable from its context. Meaning can be discussed in several senses, including personal, social, environmental, historical, political, etc. Because information studies is concerned with the intersection of people and information, two key conceptualizations of meaning are personal meaning and social meaning. When activities have this meaningful dimension, they make a person's life feel more valuable and worth living, as a person and/or as a member of a group. In general, personal and social meaning include aspects such as purpose and connection with others.

The purpose of this paper is first, to test the validity of a new scale measuring the construct of meaning‐making, defined as the ability to integrate challenging or ambiguous situations into a framework of personal meaning using conscious, value‐based reflection. Second, to explore whether meaning‐making is distinct from other personal resources (self‐efficacy, optimism, mastery, meaning in life), and coping (positive reinterpretation, acceptance). Third, to explore whether meaning‐making facilitates work engagement, willingness to change, and performance during organizational change.

Cross‐sectional survey‐data were collected from 238 employees in a variety of both public and private organizations.

Confirmatory factor analyses showed that meaning‐making can be distinguished from other personal resources, coping and meaning in life. Regression analyses showed that meaning‐making is positively related to in‐role performance and willingness to change, but not to work engagement, thereby partly supporting the hypotheses.

The paper focuses on meaning‐making that has not yet been studied empirically in organizational change settings. It shows that the new construct of psychological meaning‐making is related to valuable employee outcomes including in‐role performance and willingness to change. Meaning‐making explains variance over and above other personal resources such as self‐efficacy, optimism, mastery, coping and meaning in life.

There exists limited research directly highlighting the relationship between value preference and its association with people's expectations from the workplace. Studying personal value preference is important because a substantial body of research indicates that a specific pattern of value orientations predicts world views, and, hence, it may predict behavior in the workplace. Based on the above‐mentioned assumptions, the present study aims to explore the impact of value preferences on the meaning of workplace, across MBA‐ and non‐MBA graduates and Indian and non‐Indian graduates. It is proposed that value preferences will have a significant impact on meaning of workplace and values preferences are likely to differ across national culture.

The paper draws on qualitative research, a pilot study and survey research design. Data were gathered from a sample of 312 graduates, consisting of 231 management students and 81 non‐management students. Of these 245 are Indians and 67 non‐Indians studying in India, the USA, and the UK.

Results of exploratory factor analysis helped the authors to derive ten significant factors from the meaning of workplace scale and four factors from the values scale. Results of stepwise multiple regression analysis have shown significant positive impact of value preference on the choice of preferred workplace. More specifically, higher progressive orientation has been found to positively influence the intrapreneurship factor of meaning of workplace factor. Values of personal growth, self‐fulfillment, and community development have explained a large amount of variances in work‐life balance and physical ambience.

The literature on workplace design and the meaning of workplace is limited and a comprehensive list of variables of psychological climate is not available. Thus, extensive future research needs to be carried out in this direction. Knowing the employer's perspective about the evaluations of the workplace attributes may provide a different perspective of the meaning of workplace. Finally, this study could be expanded by using qualitative interviews along with quantitative techniques to get more in‐depth data and probe further in the factors that the graduates take into consideration while rating the extent of desirability of different environmental attributes.

This paper is important in that knowledge about the values of potential employees can be used to make sure that the organization recruits employees whose perceptions match the psychological environment existing in the company. Furthermore, organizations can use such information to design work environments in such a way that they meet the expectations of newer generations of workers. The study reveals cross‐cultural differences between perceptions and values. These are particularly important in the case of multinational corporations, which consider the impact of cultural and societal values while designing work environments and processes in different countries, as well as while recruiting employees with different cultural backgrounds.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into how engineering employees perceive the functional, ethical and political dimensions of the corporate brand and its meaning(s) for other stakeholders.

The paper explores brand meaning and brand attachment in the case of employees in an engineering consultancy firm operating within the defense and artillery systems sector. In-depth interviews with managers and consultants at a cross-section of organizational levels along with thematic and reflexive interpretation of qualitative data have been carried out.

Identity-based definitions of the brand, the definitions of a “strong engineering brand”, associations of the corporate brand with engineers’ personal brands, brand essence and integration and the meanings of a military brand have all been raised, explored and discussed from the engineer’s perspective.

This paper is among the first of its kind to pursue brand research in an engineering-intensive firm with military and defense brand associations. Future research is encouraged to add further detail and verification to the themes and findings of this paper.

The military context is enmeshed with high levels of sensitivity and difficult research access particularly upon brand-related academic research. This has led in part to very limited marketing and branding knowledge into this setting despite its significance.

Given that the engineering consulting sectors are among the top drivers of employment and knowledge advancement, and given that brand associations have considerable impacts on employees’ identification, self-awareness and emotional well-being, understanding the dynamism and complexities of employee-brand associations is inevitable in these settings.

The defense context has unique characteristics and has hitherto remained an under-researched context with respect to branding. This is despite that the defense sector deserves to be in the spotlight because professionals’ voices are rarely heard and acknowledged within the branding literature.

This paper questions the validity of traditional scientific method for the study of human learning and proposes five postulates for the advancement of a conversational science. It considers how an evolving capacity for lifelong learning has been constrained by inappropriate research methods and educational practice leading to a learning deficit in the population. Over 25 years of action research offers solid evidence for the humanisation of science as a conversational research process which respects the individual as a unique meaning constructing, self‐organising learning (SOL) entity. A learning conversation pedagogy which enables learners to act as personal scientists and action researchers and a SOL Systems Seven for a community of action researchers is outlined. Finally, the paper considers how SOL entities can function as catalysts for new forms of ORDER with a potential for the emergence of a new species of learning and of being human.

Psychological frailty adds most to overall feelings of frailty, but is often neglected, although meaning in life is important for psychological well-being. The purpose of this paper is to explore the sources of meaning in life within psychologically frail older people.

Data (n= 16,872) generated from the Belgian Ageing Studies were collected, using the Comprehensive Frailty Assessment Instrument and the Sources of Meaning Profile (SOMP-R) instrument. Psychometric properties of the SOMP-R were explored using factor and reliability analysis and one-way-ANOVA analysis were used to asses mean differences.

Financial security, meeting basic needs and personal relations play an important role as sources of meaning in life. Moreover, the SOMP-R showed excellent psychometric properties.

Due to the cross-sectional design of this study, evolution in time and causal links could not be assessed.

The findings of this study emphasize that sources of meaning in life are relevant and can be assessed using the SOMP-R upon which individually tailored care plans can be developed. The results show that, meaning in life as such plays an important role for psychologically frail older people. As a consequence, this offers insights to support these older people. Caregivers and policymakers might therefore take these results into account. Guarantee and/or follow up a frail individual’s financial security, assessing and enabling one’s personal relationships and meeting their basic needs are very important when taking care of psychologically frail older individuals.

Besides the practical implications, the social inclusion of psychologically frail older people seems to be relevant.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the association between meaning in life and psychological frailty in later life is not yet investigated. Further the findings of this study emphasize that sources of meaning in life are relevant and can be assessed using the SOMP-R upon which individually tailored care plans can be developed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer meaning-making and brand co-creation and the role of brand value and the consumption context of luxury goods in the emerging South African market.

An extant segmentation approach that classifies luxury brand consumers into four different segments was used to guide the identification of a total of 16 luxury consumers with whom in-depth interviews were conducted.

The findings identify differences between four consumer segments’ levels of brand knowledge and indicate how these differing levels produce interesting meanings assigned to luxury brands which in turn co-create the brands. A framework is also proposed that maps each of the four luxury segments according to the value they derive from luxury brands and the context in which luxury consumption holds the most meaning for each segment.

Managerial recommendations concerning the implications of consumers assigning meaning and value to luxury brands and recommendations pertaining to the managing and positioning of luxury brands to each of the four luxury segments in this market are proposed.

The study provides interesting insights with regards to how consumers assign meaning and value to luxury brands in the emerging South African market. The proposed framework also uniquely demonstrates underlying behaviours within each of the four luxury segments and contributes to a better understanding of how and why these segments consume luxury brands.

This study aims to address research calls to investigate how (visual) consumption experiences carry and convey meanings to individuals. Applying McCracken’s meaning transfer model to a photographic exhibition, the authors expand this model into the realm of aesthetic experiences to explore how the meaning of such an (visual) experience emerges and flows to (novice and expert) consumers.

This research uses an interpretive case study of the photographic exhibition “Facing Mirrors” hosted as part of the Biennale of Contemporary Art, and draws on multiple sources of evidence, notably 50 in-depth visitor interviews, observation and archival records.

The evidence highlights the moveable nature of meaning within an aesthetic context and illustrates the critical role of semiotics and of the different ritualistic behaviors enacted by novice and expert visitors as a means of unfolding and creating the meaning of such an experience.

The findings provide implications in terms of (co-)creating authentic, immersive and meaningful (brand) experiences in the fields of visual consumption and customer experience management.

Practical implications to arts organizations are also provided in terms of curatorial practices that emphasize the material, emotional and dialogic nature of photographs as a visual art form.

The study provides new insights into (visual) consumption experiences by bringing the meaning transfer model together with a semiotic approach, thus illustrating different performances and sense-making activities through which (expert and novice) visitors (co-)create and appropriate the value of their aesthetic experiences.