The future of meaningfulness in work, organizations, and systems

The possibility of finding meaning in one’s work in our rapidly changing societies is the subject of Ruth Yeoman’s chapter. Yeoman’s driving concerns are the widespread anxiety and feelings of alienation occasioned by advances in work technologies, from big data and robotics through to accelerating automation and artificial intelligence (AI). These advances promise ever greater efficiency but bring with them a loss of our being at home in our work, of our having control over or a voice in what we do daily. To recover a sense of meaningful work, Yeoman urges a reassessment of ethically desirable work in an age of intensified human–machine interrelations, arguing that these interrelations are welcome only when they enable us to experience meaningfulness and to properly care for ourselves and other persons, as well as our built and natural environments. Such requires, she contends, innovations at the levels of the workplace and wider society that empower workers and enhance inclusive social cooperation.