Where We Find Meaning Matters: How Anchors of Work Meaningfulness Relate to Work and Life Well-Being

Work is increasingly being recognized as a central arena through which individuals derive meaning and purpose in life and as a key contributor to one’s subjective well-being in both domains. Yet, most research typically treats work meaningfulness as unidimensional, capturing the overall extent to which work feels meaningful, without considering what aspects of work specifically make it so. This conceptual simplification overlooks theoretical perspectives from fragmented research traditions emphasizing different sources of meaning, ranging from internal callings to external job characteristics and social relationships. Accordingly, the authors address two key questions in this research: (1) What are the different aspects of work to which individuals attribute meaningfulness - that is, what makes their work feel significant, worthwhile, or personally fulfilling? (2) How do these distinct attributions relate to subjective well-being, both at work and in life? Across three studies (N = 1,599), we inductively develop and validate a multidimensional framework - that the authors term anchors of work meaningfulness - comprising six distinct anchors: Livelihood, Community, Stimulation, Recognition, Impact, and Rejuvenation. The authors further examine how different anchors relate to subjective well-being and find that individuals who anchor work meaningfulness in Community, Stimulation, and Impact report higher well-being at work. Moreover, those anchoring work meaningfulness in Community and Impact report higher overall life well-being. These findings offer important theoretical and practical implications by introducing a unified framework of work meaningfulness, offering a validated measure for future research, and demonstrating how distinct sources of meaning uniquely enrich well-being across work and life domains.