Meaning at Work - a Path to Learning and Growth

Viktor Frankl’s work remains one of the most practical foundations for thinking about purpose in modern organisations. In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl argued that people are motivated not only by comfort, reward, or status, but by a “will to meaning” — the need to experience what we do as significant and worthwhile (Frankl, 2006). Put simply: when work feels connected to something that matters, people can tolerate difficulty with greater steadiness and agency.

In corporate life, this matters because much of what teams' face cannot be optimised away: uncertainty, conflicting priorities, deadlines, change, and the emotional weight of responsibility. Frankl’s insight is that meaning does not remove strain — it changes our relationship to it. When individuals can see a clear line of sight between their effort and a valued outcome (for customers, colleagues, communities, or the integrity of a craft), they are more likely to persist through pressure without losing direction.

Frankl is also clear that ‘meaning’ is not a vague idea. It is something discovered and enacted through lived choices. In his Logotherapy, , a form of existential therapy developed by Frankl himself, he describes three broad pathways to meaning: (1) what we contribute or create through our work, (2) what we experience through relationship, care, and encounter, and (3) the attitude we choose when facing unavoidable difficulty (Frankl, 2006). All three show up at work. We find meaning in delivering something worthwhile, in how we treat people under stress, and in the standards we hold when conditions are less than ideal.

But Frankl’s point is that the deeper driver of sustained effort is not superficial pleasure — it is significance. Purpose acts as an anchor: it keeps people oriented when motivation dips, morale wobbles, or the work becomes messy.

That endurance is not an end in itself. In organisations, as in day-to-day life, endurance is what allows learning and growth to happen. The most formative work rarely comes from the comfortable weeks; it comes from navigating constraints, adapting plans, repairing missteps, and staying engaged long enough to integrate what the experience is teaching. When meaning is clear, people are more willing to do the hard, developmental work of reflection, feedback, and improvement.

For leaders, the practical implication is important: if you want resilient performance, work with your teams to make meaning visible and actionable. Some coaching questions for you and your team might include:

• Who benefits from this work when we do it well?
• What responsibility are we carrying that matters?
• What standards do we want to uphold under pressure?
• What are we learning as we go — and how will we apply it next time?

Purpose, in Frankl’s sense, is not about chasing constant goals. It is about helping people stay connected to what matters, so they can endure the pressure, do the work well, and grow in the process.