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Proliferation of digital means of tracking worker activities has contributed to the rise of data‐driven approaches to managing people, with employees often required to record their activities for accountability purposes. Increased requirement for such datification work occurs at a juncture where meaningfulness is one of the most sought‐after work features. Datification work could both facilitate and hinder the pursuit of meaningfulness, yet literature provides little guidance into the nature of the connection and how it transpires. Our inductive study of academic professionals using an accountability system suggests that datification work characteristics link to meaningful work experiences in complex ways. We advance current theory on work meaningfulness by theorizing the role of a new work condition – datification – in meaningfulness experiences of professionals, outlining how system design and the institutional context become important elements influencing meaningful work experiences, and explaining how meaningfulness experiences are constructed through system appropriations.

Despite the ubiquitous presence of information teohnology (IT) in the workplace and the continued computerization ot all kinds of work practices, investigations into how IT artifacts play a role in professional identity construction remain rare. Existing studies tend to emphasize sense-making and discourses around IT. This study attempts to fill some of this gap by offering an empirical investigation of how IT artifacts play a role in professional identity enactment at a back office of a Big 4 accounting firm. Building on the sociotechnical school of thought and the concept of self as storied, the paper offers a complementary perspective to existing views on the role of IT in identity formation. Our findings reveal that IT artifacts become part of professional identity performances by acting as landmarks in individuáis' self-narratives around which the self and others are positioned and a preferred professional identity is enacted. The findings also indicate that different types of preferred selves may be expressed in specific patterns of technology use. As such, our study contributes to a better understanding of professionai identity construction, workplace behavior and ongoing use or non-use of IT at work.