Motivations and Meaningful Work: A Core Foundation of Virtuous Fulfillment in Life, or Flourishing

Research has established a strong connection between conditions at work and fulfilment in life, sometimes labeled flourishing . But the role of different types of motivations in this connection has received little attention. This study is one of the first to empirically explore how orientation towards useful, pleasant, moral, and spiritual goods combine with extrinsic, intrinsic, transcendent, and religious motivations to create four types of work (job, career, calling, and spiritual calling) that are thought to be associated with the experience of flourishing in life. After assessing the suitability of a new measure of these work types, we conduct structural equation modeling using 437 employee questionnaires and 99 self-employed people questionnaires collected throughout the world to assess the contribution of these four types of work on flourishing. Although job and career types of work were unrelated to flourishing, the more deeply meaningful types (calling and spiritual calling) were positively associated with flourishing. We discuss how these findings contribute to humanistic management by clarifying the motivational foundations of meaningful work and human flourishing.