The COVID 19 pandemic has led to a profound review of existing working models. One example is the rise of digital nomads, who, empowered by digital technologies, live lives no longer constrained by physical workspaces such as city offices. At the opposite end of the spectrum are those who have found social isolation stemming from office closure source of mental illness.

These trends raise questions about the role that employment and workplaces play in people’s lives. Specifically, it has been brought to the fore that, beyond being merely a source of income and professional satisfaction, workplaces and organizations are contexts in which individuals search for meaning.

According to one of the most widespread conceptual frameworks of Steger and colleagues, meaning in life refers to the perception of a life fulfilled with meaning. The need to find purpose in one’s own existence drives individuals’ identity processes. It is known that the sense that one’s existence is meaningful is a core feature of psychosocial functioning: those who live a life of meaning are happier and enjoy better physical and mental health and those who perceive a low presence of meaning together with a high search for meaning are the ones with the lowest level of well-being.

The individual system of meanings may be challenged by several work-related situations (eg., the constriction of the labor market, poor work-life balance) or unexpected, stressful, traumatic events (eg., the COVID-19 pandemic) that may trigger a crisis of meaning. In these cases, a meaning-making process is required to recover and achieve a sense of fulfillment.

However, we are still unclear as to how meaning-making, happiness and well-being play out in organizational contexts.

In this spirit, this Research Topic invites contributions related to the future of organizations as shaped by an understanding of employment as a context for meaning-making. Since many scholars contribute to the study of the phenomenon, this Research Topic aims to highlight interdisciplinary research approaches. Therefore, we invite contributions that tackle themes including, but not limited to, the below:
• The role of place and space on employment meaning and wellbeing
• Leadership skills for attracting and retaining meaning-searching employees
• The relationship between meaning in work and personal life dynamics
• Meaning-making as a value creation process for the individual
• Family transitions and meaning-making process in work
• Work and non-work identities (e.g. gender identity) related to presence and search for meaning in life

We encourage researchers to contribute original papers, review articles, opinion papers, and other types of contributions supported by Frontiers in Psychology. Diverse empirical approaches are welcome; experimental, observational, and intervention studies. In line with the multidisciplinary ethos of the journal and given the many areas of scholarship with potential for contributing to the study of the phenomenon, we actively seek interdisciplinary research approaches.

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