Fast on the heels of Stud Terkel’s writings on the Meaning of Work,  I stumbled across some more references via the venerable FT magazine and BBC Radio 4′s Crossing Continents, just today! What do these august institutions have to do with the meaning of work and employee engagement and alignment, I hear you ask?

The Shrink and The Sage

Let’s start with the FT magazine article by Antonia Macaro and Julian Baggini (aka the Shrink and the Sage) who are a psychotherapist and philosopher respectively. Their article asks the question about what we can do when life loses its meaning.

The “answers”, for some lie in religion, spirituality or existentialism. The upshot is,  I guess, that rather than look for meaning outside of one’s own life, we should look at the meaning in our lives – i.e. what we can put into our lives that is meaningful. Phew – that’s a bit deep and definitely stretches my knowledge of philosophy etc.

Crossing Continents

Anyway, on to Radio 4.  “Not a lot of people know this” to paraphrase Michael Caine, if you exclude the thousands that listened to the “Crossing Continents” programme aired to describe what happens in Senegal. The population there is 90% Muslim. Amongst them there is a significant, and growing group (40%) that belong to “Mourides” , a movement that stresses the importance of a strong work ethic.

The fact that this movement is gaining stature and influence by virtue of its prevalence among the higher echelons of the country’s political positions, poses an interesting question for me. Where does engagement come from and what does this very strong and pervasive value mean for Senegal’s economy?  Can you imagine it being said that in our society everyone wants to work hard, irrespective of their occupation, in the name of some higher force or belief?  It certainly isn’t the usual sentiment of the Daily Mail and I would say that if asked many people would say they only work for “the money”. But is that really true?

In my reading of  Studs Terkel’s book, “Working – People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do” it struck me that there is something in this concept of “meaning in work” that is linked to how we, as human beings, see our performance at work vary over time.   Where there is something meaningful to achieve it makes it that much easier to get up in the morning and give one’s best. We can all point to people who hate their jobs, even when well paid.  We also probably know people that love their jobs, event when not well paid.  They could do something else, they maybe have done something else but when it comes down to it when the work loses meaning, something else in us is lost too.

Are Managers and Consultants To Blame?

When the lean consultants come in, and the six sigma managers are finished with their cost-cutting exercises, when the teams have been dismantled by outsourcing parts elsewhere, and the human service elements have been replaced by automation or self service, and managers warned to guard against “job creep” to keep the wage bill down; and tasks are centralised in the centres of excellence…. and so on…..   isn’t it possible that we have also dismantled some of what it means for the employees?  Isn’t part of what engages them these same things that provide interest, fulfilment and satisfaction for many employees? The interaction, the relationships, the ability to respond and create and take ownership and responsibility etc.?   Once you go through the above, the next wave of consultants coming in are the ones telling you about how you need to engage staff!  So you need more “job enrichment”, create more social interaction, more recognition etc.   The implication and underlying assumption is that managers can manage and control this.  I disagree.

Perhaps the Shrink or the Sage will debate this further at some point – it sounds like their kind of thing after all.  I was introduced to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and many other writers on motivation, many years ago and they have stuck with me.  I often see organisations trying to manage people as though money is the main consideration.  If like the Mourides there really is a “higher purpose” available from work, then shouldn’t we understand it as it must impact on employee engagement.  Think about it!