Meaningful work, work and life satisfaction: Spanish adaptation of Work and Meaning Inventory Scale

Resumo

Meaningful work is the subjective experience that work has meaning and, from an eudaimonic point of view, is understood as a via for personal development. The aim of this study is to adapt the WAMI scale of meaningful work to Spanish, as well as to explore its relationship with job and life satisfaction. Two independent studies were developed. A first study analysed the consistency of the original factorial model using a sample of Spanish varied workers (N = 350) through a confirmatory factor analysis. Results show an adequate replication of the original model and the validity of the Spanish version. A second study addressed the predictive capacity of the scale in relation to two satisfaction measures in a sample of Spanish social health workers (N=312), through a mediation analysis. The relationship between meaningful work and job satisfaction is mediated by life satisfaction. The idea of meaningful work as a eudaimonic construct discards it as a variable resulting from or consequence of work, as it is an inherent part of occupational activity itself.