Meaning in Work

In his now classic book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl eloquently argued that “Man’s search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a ‘secondary rationalization’ of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning” (1985: 121). Because of my own research on meaning in work, I frequently ask people the questions, “what do you believe is the meaning of life?” and “what is a meaningful life for you?” and I receive a wide variety of responses. For some, what constitutes a meaningful life is relatively clear and easy to identify and achieve (e.g., family); for some it is an elusive goal, while others do not even want to think about the question. Subsequently, if I ask the question “what is the meaning or impact of your work?” I get responses ranging from “simply a way to make money” to “the most important part of my life.” It is great when work is very meaningful to us however this also puts a great deal of pressure on our work life. Additionally, when work is our primary source of meaning in life, we are extremely vulnerable to what happens in the workplace each day. Whereas some people may want their work to be very meaningful, others may simply want work that they enjoy and that fits well with their non-work life. The “right” choice of work is dependent on the individual determining what he or she needs from work. Ultimately, the pieces that make up a life, especially one’s work life, must fit coherently together in order for one to feel that life is meaningful. And inevitably there will be ebbs and flows in a life and other aspects of life will emerge which will affect work.

Health and Fitness Top Ten

Here's my top ten for being healthy and fit:

1. Walk as much as possible - even short walks can be great

2. Take the stairs

3. Do some activity first thing in the morning - it gets the metabolism going

4. Get up from your desk each hour

5. Strength train - build those muscles

6. Minimize sugars and starches

7. Drink lots of water

8. Take up a new activity periodically

9. Exercise with friends/family - it's fun and you're more likely to stick with it

10. Join a gym

Keep in mind that activity is cumulative, everything you do adds up. The more you move, the better.

Why live the “Examined Life?”

Socrates famously noted, “The unexamined life is not worth living” which can also be called the sleepwalked or unconscious life. But why is it better to live the examined life instead of the unexamined life? Continually evaluating our lives and questioning how we’re living seems potentially fraught with problems. Aren’t we always going to find fault with our lives? What if we don’t like what we see but we can’t do anything about it? Isn’t it better just to focus on living our daily lives and being happy?

For some people the unexamined life may work out fine but I believe that we should live the examined life and always be questioning our lives. If we don’t examine our lives, we may inadvertently live the life that we don’t really want to live. We may spend our life pursuing things that in the end really don’t matter to us, in jobs that we don’t enjoy or relationships that aren’t what we want. We may drift through life without thinking too much about how we are living and not paying attention to the passage of time as we get older. But time does pass for all of us and eventually we will wake up one day realizing that we’re no longer a young person and that our choices are now more limited. We may put off aspirations waiting until the day we retire, such as travel but when we finally do retire, we no longer have the good health we need to travel. Examining our lives and living consciously help us avoid this possibility so that we freely choose our lives.

The ability to question our lives is also a part of what makes us human. We are conscious beings, conscious of our thoughts and the world around us. To not question our lives is to deny that humanity, to deny what makes us really human. But there is a price to be paid for living the examined life. It is not easy as all of us go through the ebbs and flows of life. Some of our dreams will be fulfilled while others will not be. We will have our good times and our bad. This is the human condition. But as long as we live the examined life, at least it will be our life, the one we consciously choose and not one that we sleepwalk through.

Should ethics courses be mandatory at business schools?

There is a heated debate these days on whether or not ethics courses should be mandatory at business schools. Many scholars argue that given all of the ethical problems in business today, ethics should, of course, be compulsory for all business students. They say that the problem of unethical behaviour is so acute that all business courses should be taught through an "ethical" lens. Others argue that ethics courses should not be mandatory because a university should not be teaching morality and telling students what is right versus wrong. Those who teach ethics courses comment that whereas some students seem to benefit from them, other students seem to get little out of them. This debate involves a number of issues. Why aren't people ethical? Whose responsibility is it to teach ethical behaviour? What is the purpose of a business school? I believe that we should be discussing ethical issues with our students but that there is an underlying problem which must first be addressed. This is a lack of critical thinking education. How do we teach ethical decision-making to people who don't think critically? It's difficult for us to understand and make ethical decisions if we can't analyze an issue from different perspectives, have empathy for others, and take into account the effects of our actions on other people. I suggest that we need to first focus on teaching students to be good critical thinkers. Only then can we have the ethics discussion. Increasing the critical thinking ability of our students will probably impact ethical behaviour positively far more than anything else we could do. Perhaps it's not an "ethical" lens that we need to emphasize in business schools, but rather a "thinking" lens.