Brazilian White-Collar Employees’ Discourses of Meaningful Work and Calling

IF 1.9 4区管理学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Management Communication Quarterly Pub Date : 2022-08-15 DOI:10.1177/08933189221121309

Gustavo S. D. Barreto, Patrice M. Buzzanell, C. M. Cipolla

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

The search for meaningfulness in work is considered a human need, resulting in growing communication and interdisciplinary scholarship. However, most studies are quantitative and situated in Western, developed nations with different discourses and materialities based on whether studies focus on economically mainstream or marginal, but symbolically significant, occupations. Our study explores Brazilian white-collar employees' accounts of meaningful work. Three themes emerged from interview data: being competent, being an explorer, and being a builder of a better world. Participants cast meaningful work as tensional processes within and across themes, reflecting characteristics of Brazilian middle classes and globalized discourses. As participants aspired to meaningful work, they experienced dysfunctional and corrupt work cultures, toxic workplace relationships, and shifts in their worldviews that deflated their sense of meaningfulness, resulting in reported psychological distancing, emotional distress, and turnover intentions. We encourage organizational communication researchers to take up the 2009 MCQ call for further studies in Brazil.

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巴西白领员工的有意义工作话语与呼唤

在工作中寻找有意义的东西被认为是人类的需要，这导致了越来越多的交流和跨学科学术。然而，大多数研究都是定量的，并且位于西方发达国家，这些国家有不同的话语和材料，基于研究是关注经济主流还是边缘但具有象征意义的职业。我们的研究探讨了巴西白领员工对有意义工作的描述。从采访数据中可以看出三个主题：胜任、成为探险家和成为一个更美好世界的建设者。参与者将有意义的作品视为主题内部和主题之间的张力过程，反映了巴西中产阶级和全球化话语的特点。当参与者渴望有意义的工作时，他们经历了功能失调和腐败的工作文化、有毒的工作关系，以及世界观的转变，这些都削弱了他们的意义感，导致了心理距离、情绪困扰和离职意图。我们鼓励组织沟通研究人员接受2009年MCQ的号召，在巴西进行进一步研究。

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来源期刊

Management Communication Quarterly Multiple-

CiteScore

4.30

自引率

16.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Management Communication Quarterly presents conceptually rigorous, empirically-driven, and practice-relevant research from across the organizational and management communication fields and has strong appeal across all disciplines concerned with organizational studies and the management sciences. Authors are encouraged to submit original theoretical and empirical manuscripts from a wide variety of methodological perspectives covering such areas as management, communication, organizational studies, organizational behavior and HRM, organizational theory and strategy, critical management studies, leadership, information systems, knowledge and innovation, globalization and international management, corporate communication, and cultural and intercultural studies.