Theoretical and empirical contributions to meaningful work (MW) have flourished in the last two decades; investigating how the interplay of organizational factors with employee attitudes and experiences enables or denies MW. This paper reviews MW literature in the fields of management and organizational behaviour, political philosophy, the humanities and sociology with the aim of identifying and comparing conceptualizations of MW and how they relate to low-skilled work. The review illustrates that a wide range of MW concepts either interpret low-skilled work as bereft of essential sources for MW, or focus exclusively on workers’ innate drive to make meaningful experiences and thereby neglect the politics of working life. Making the point that low-skilled work can also be meaningful, the paper develops a framework for low-skilled work that has at its heart the interplay between the unique characteristics and dynamics of the labour process and workers’ agential responses. The framework rests on a combination of labour process analysis and industrial relations approaches, along with sociological concepts of agency. It develops three interdependent conceptual dimensions of core autonomy, respectful recognition and derived dignity that aim to capture MW in low-skilled work settings. The framework contributes to vibrant debates in the MW literature by showcasing how meaningfulness emerges through bottom-up collective and individual practices, relations and strategies that are reflective of the formal structures, demands and relations of low-skilled work.

中文翻译：

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绝对自主、尊重认可和衍生尊严：迈向有意义工作的类型学

在过去的二十年里，对有意义的工作 (MW) 的理论和实证贡献蓬勃发展；调查组织因素与员工态度和经验的相互作用如何启用或否定 MW。本文回顾了管理和组织行为、政治哲学、人文和社会学领域的 MW 文献，旨在识别和比较 MW 的概念以及它们与低技能工作的关系。审查表明，广泛的 MW 概念要么将低技能工作解释为 MW 的基本资源的缺失，要么只关注工人与生俱来的驱动力来获得有意义的体验，从而忽视工作生活的政治。指出低技能工作也可以有意义，该论文为低技能工作制定了一个框架，其核心是劳动过程的独特特征和动态与工人的代理反应之间的相互作用。该框架基于劳动过程分析和劳资关系方法的结合，以及代理的社会学概念。它发展了三个相互依存的概念维度，即核心自主权、尊重的认可和衍生的尊严，旨在捕捉低技能工作环境中的 MW。该框架通过展示意义如何通过反映低技能工作的正式结构、需求和关系的自下而上的集体和个人实践、关系和策略而出现，从而促进了 MW 文献中充满活力的辩论。