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Understand It or Destroy It: Why Every Leader Needs to Understand Meaningful Work

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Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace

Abstract

In the past decades generating meaning for their employees has been seen as central to the role of the leader. Through inspirational speeches, vision and culture management, employees have often been treated as empty vessels waiting to be filled with meaning. Yet many leaders have experienced that such ways of managing meaning are complex and hard to sustain and can backfire. This chapter offers a Map of Meaning which makes Meaningful Work visible so that it can be taken into account in all decision-making. When it can be taken into account, all members of the organisation, including leaders, can create more of it and stop destroying it.

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Correspondence to Marjolein Lips-Wiersma .

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Lips-Wiersma, M., Morris, L. (2013). Understand It or Destroy It: Why Every Leader Needs to Understand Meaningful Work. In: Neal, J. (eds) Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5233-1_14

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