Differences among a satisfied, a meaningful, and a psychologically rich working life

Abstract

This investigation elucidates what makes a good working life. A sample of 678 employees from diverse jobs rated their job satisfaction, work meaningfulness, and work psychological richness, as well as several key work characteristics (both stressors and resources) and important work and life outcomes. We explored the unique contributions of satisfaction, meaningfulness, and psychological richness by controlling each measure for the other two. Job satisfaction correlates were consistent with previous work, namely stressors and negative outcomes correlated negatively, whereas resources and positive outcomes correlated positively. More surprisingly, psychological richness was positively correlated with both stressors and resources, as well as with high rates of feeling exhausted after work and with thoughts of changing jobs. Meaningfulness, meanwhile, had relatively weak correlates after controlling for psychological richness and satisfaction. The strongest were with being proficient at the job, being highly engaged with it, and coping well with changes affecting the work role.