Projects per year
Abstract
This research examines the role of digital technology in the constitution of meaningful work. Adopting a sociomaterial perspective, we argue that meaningful work emerges as an outcome of a complex negotiation between individuals and their digital devices. This process was explored through video diaries and interviews with social entrepreneurs, capturing moments of their everyday meaning-making and encouraging reflexivity. Accounting for their sociomaterial practice led participants to reaffirm their work as uniquely meaningful, produce more nuanced accounts of meaningfulness and/or make pragmatic adjustments to their meaning making. Whilst authenticity was a key meta-narrative in these accounts, it also produced tensional knots which, in their unravelling, required the adoption of more practicable meanings of work. The paper concludes by urging scholars to de-centre the human from their analysis to provide a more complete account of meaningful work.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 655-684 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Journal of Management Studies |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 19 Oct 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2019 |
Keywords
- Digital technology; Meaningful work; Narrative; Social Entrepreneurs; Sociomateriality; Tensions
Projects
- 1 Finished
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DBS: Creativity Greenhouse: Digital Brain Switch
Symon, G., Whittle, J., Roby, H., Ang, C. S., Chamakiotis, P., Whiting, R., Rashid, U. & Chong, M. K.
Eng & Phys Sci Res Council EPSRC
1/05/13 → 30/06/15
Project: Research