The significance of meaningful work for quality of work life has been confirmed by research showing its importance both as regards to employee motivation, well-being, and commitment as well as organizational outcomes such as turnover intentions, citizenship behavior, and customer satisfaction. In explaining what makes work meaningful, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provides a potent theoretical framework, linking meaningful work to the satisfaction of human psychological needs. Accordingly, we draw on SDT and research on prosocial behavior to examine what we identify as the four most potential psychological pathways to meaningful work: beneficence and the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We tested these four antecedents in a three-waves longitudinal design among a large sample of Chilean workers (T1 N = 631, T2 N = 240, T3 N = 148). We found that both autonomy and beneficence prospectively predict subsequent meaningful work above and beyond the other two needs and baseline levels of meaningful work. These results advance theory on key psychological pathways to meaningful work and have important practical implications for how organizations and managers can foster meaningfulness in the workplace through cultivating autonomy and beneficence.

有意义的工作对工作生活质量的重要性已被研究证实，研究表明它在员工积极性、幸福感和承诺以及组织结果（如离职意向、公民行为和客户满意度）方面的重要性。在解释什么使工作有意义时，自我决定理论 (SDT) 提供了一个有效的理论框架，将有意义的工作与人类心理需求的满足联系起来。因此，我们利用 SDT 和亲社会行为的研究来检验我们认为最有可能实现有意义工作的四种心理途径：善行和对自主、能力和相关性的心理需求。我们在智利工人的大样本（T1 N  = 631，T2 N  = 240，T3 N  = 148）。我们发现自主性和慈善性都前瞻性地预测了后续有意义的工作，超出了其他两个需求和有意义工作的基线水平。这些结果推进了关于有意义工作的关键心理途径的理论，并对组织和管理者如何通过培养自主性和仁慈来培养工作场所的意义具有重要的实际意义。