Band 24, Heft 1-2

Due to the intensification of labor in recent decades complaints about work-related alienation are on the rise. But what exactly is alienation? Based on recent changes in the world of work, this paper aims to rephrase Marx’s theory of alienation in a way that reconnects it to current research in the sociology and psychology of work, and to practice. Four qualitative dimensions of experiences of alienation are distinguished, and four explanations for these experiences are offered.

„Meaningful” work is a social or professional definition of its use value. People refer to the institutional attribution of meaning when attempting to appropriate their work. Often they superimpose the function of their work by using frames of meaning. On the other hand work should be done in a meaningful way. So the organization and the conditions of work are important for the experienced meaningfulness of work. Finally, work is a dimension of the appropriation of life. Its diversity can be affected by an excessive attribution of meaning to work.

The past decades of research in work psychology have consistently shown positive relations between meaningful work (here: subjective perceptions of task significance) and employees’ job attitudes. We propose that organizational identification provides a key mechanism explaining the positive link between meaningfulness and job attitudes. In reanalyses of three different data sets, we provide evidence for our hypothesis and show that task significance indirectly relates to job satisfaction, burnout, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, psychosomatic complaints and turnover intentions.

Sensemaking in the context of work is a multi-layered phenomenon: a phenomenon which sociology and psychology typically conjunctively view through various systems of meaning; from the level of human action all the way to institutional structures. This article will examine how these different levels interact with one another whilst also discussing which connections exist between sensemaking, occupational identity, and job motivation. The main thesis of the article is developed by taking advantage of empirical data from the everyday working experiences of airport security personnel who are entrusted with carrying out safety inspections and have access to secure locations in airports. The thesis is namely that - in the context of high reliability organizations - the overarching significance and the subjectively felt societal utility of the working task at hand are significantly pivotal in the successful construction of identity and meaning. Furthermore, sensemaking then overrides conflicts that exist at the level of interaction. In developing this thesis, we combine considerations from sociological theories together with psychological theories of work and reflect upon the results of the study in connection to the various aspects of meaningful work.

Sense is a multidimensional concept. It is based on subjective sensation within the act of working, and on the meaning of objective social patterns of acting. It can also be an expression of secure livelihood as a widely recognized normative aspect of social policy. Sense and recognition are not always consistent with one another. This paper focuses on the three dimensions of sense and reveals the incoherence of examples, where sensible and meaningful actions do not gain recognition. Based on these theoretical assumptions, the paper analyzes the capability of an unconditional basic income to solve that incoherence.