Dana Pereg: Managers as architects of meaning

Managers as architects of meaning

Lecturer: Dana Pereg, PhD (Head of M.A. Program in Organizational Behavior & Development, IDC, Herzliya, Israel)

In the last decade there is a growing interest, both in research and in practice in the quest for meaning at work. It has even been pointed out that we are living in a “meaning revolution” (Kofman, 2018). What is meaning at work? And what is its importance? How can each employee enhance his/her own sense of meaning? What is the role of the manager, the leader, in creating a meaning-rich environment?

In this lecture we will follow those questions. The lecture has three parts: In the first section, the definition and phenomenon of meaning at work will be addressed; in the second part research regarding the factors that affect one’s sense of meaning at work will be presented focusing on the Map of Meaning model (Lips-Wiersma & Morris, 2011) as a framework for understanding and applying meaning at work. In the last part, the manager’s role as a “meaning architect” (Carton, 2018) and its implications to organizations will be discussed.