Communicative tensions of meaningful work: The case of sustainability practitioners

Abstract

This study, based on in-depth interviews with 45 practitioners in the emerging field of environmental sustainability, argues for a more nuanced approach to studying the meaningfulness of work. Drawing from the tension-centered approach, we posit that sustainability practitioners derived meaningfulness in tensional ways from circumstances and factors that were both enabling and constraining, stemming from various organizational, professional and political structures. This occurs through ongoing negotiation that spans everyday work processes, the perceived impact of such work, and participants’ career positioning. In addition to examining meaningfulness as a dynamic and contested negotiation, rather than a purely positive outcome, the political implications of such meaning-making are traced. We close by discussing some implications for future research on meaningfulness of work.

Struggling with Meaningfulness when Context Shifts: Volunteer Work in a German Refugee Shelter

“…When we refer to societal discourses, we mean ‘mega‐discourses’ (Alvesson and Kärreman, ) about meaningful work fuelled by public debates, e.g., in the media. In line with recent studies (Bailey and Madden, ; Carton, ; Mitra and Buzzanell, ), we argue that societal discourses can provide ‘discursive resources’ (Kuhn et al, ) that individuals draw on to construct their work as meaningful. From this point of view, constructions of meaningfulness are understood as high‐tension processes that involve negotiation and translation (Mitra and Buzzanell, ).…”

“…In line with recent studies (Bailey and Madden, ; Carton, ; Mitra and Buzzanell, ), we argue that societal discourses can provide ‘discursive resources’ (Kuhn et al, ) that individuals draw on to construct their work as meaningful. From this point of view, constructions of meaningfulness are understood as high‐tension processes that involve negotiation and translation (Mitra and Buzzanell, ). These studies highlight the difficulties individuals encounter when trying to connect everyday work practices with discourses about meaningful work, e.g., when bridging the disparity of ‘mopping the floors’ and the mission of ‘putting a man on the moon’ (Carton, ).…”

“…Similarly, Bailey and Madden () explore how refuse collectors construct their work as meaningful by connecting it to environmentalist ideas. Mitra and Buzzanell () study how sustainability practitioners relate to the discursive and material context of their work in tensional ways, negotiating their sense of meaningfulness vis‐à‐vis constraining and enabling factors.…”

NGO Organizing for Environmental Sustainability in Brazil: Meaningful Work, Commonality, and Contradiction

“…Communicative labor praises and blames, redefines problems, establishes the goodness of certain actions and decisions, and determines who is included within the purviews of organizing. Communicative labor and associated discourses are moral and political insofar as the calling to such work is perceived and enacted as greater than oneself and the processes through which work is accomplished are strategic, political, and material as well as discursive (i.e., "how nonprofits mobilize discourses, and how these discourses themselves carry their own sets of politics and forms of power, " Dempsey, 2012, p. 149; see also Mitra & Buzzanell, 2017).…”

“…Our goal is to depict and analyze the communicative labor of Brazilian environmental sustainability work as a tensional approach (Mitra & Buzzanell, 2017;Putnam, Fairhurst, & Banghart, 2016;Trethewey & Ashcraft, 2004). We present the case of a Brazilian nonprofit NGO called "Meio Ambiente Equilibrado" (MAE), meaning "Balanced Environment" (see http://www.ongmae.org.br/), for which the first author secured permission to identify.…”