Kruger Juan-Mari, De Klerk Jeremias Jesaja
Stellenbosch Business School, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jul 18;14:1187913. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1187913. eCollection 2023.
Although work is a significant source of meaning for most people, the role of senior executive generates different meaning and well-being complexities than those experienced or faced by general employees. This study explored how meaning and anti-meaning components affect senior executives' experiences of meaning in life and well-being. The findings enabled devising a pathway to enhance senior executives' net experiences of meaning in life and well-being.
A cross-sectional, semi-structured interview study design was used to gather rich qualitative data. Eight participants from southern and eastern Africa, who had held the position of chief executive officer or managing director for at least five years, were interviewed.
The findings demonstrated that senior executives' work roles provide a significant source of meaning. However, the roles are accompanied by unavoidable anti-meanings, which are likely to generate additional anti-meanings if not tempered sufficiently, thus reducing the net meaning experienced.
From the findings, a practical pathway was devised to assist top executives to deal with the bipolar relationship between meaning and anti-meaning. Consulting and counseling practitioners can utilize the pathway to guide, support, and counsel senior executives towards improved meaning, temper anti-meaning and improve well-being.
尽管工作是大多数人意义的重要来源，但高级管理人员的角色所产生的意义和幸福复杂性与普通员工所经历或面临的不同。本研究探讨了意义和反意义成分如何影响高级管理人员的生活意义体验和幸福感。这些发现有助于设计一条途径，以增强高级管理人员的生活意义净体验和幸福感。
采用横断面、半结构化访谈研究设计来收集丰富的定性数据。对来自南部和东部非洲的八位担任首席执行官或总经理至少五年的参与者进行了访谈。
研究结果表明，高级管理人员的工作角色是意义的重要来源。然而，这些角色伴随着不可避免的反意义，如果没有得到充分缓和，可能会产生额外的反意义，从而减少所体验到的净意义。
根据研究结果，设计了一条实用途径，以帮助高级管理人员应对意义与反意义之间的两极关系。咨询和辅导从业者可以利用这条途径来指导、支持和辅导高级管理人员，以提高意义、缓和反意义并改善幸福感。
