Meaning-making through narrative: on not losing the plot

Abstract

‘… we become preoccupied with motivation when people cannot find meaning in their work.’

This article explores the process of meaning-making from within the ‘narrative’ mode and in particular considers the difficulty or even impossibility, in certain kinds of organisational and social situations, of constructing viable narratives. This experience is sometimes referred to as ‘losing the plot’, hence the subtitle of the article. When this happens, the ensuing feelings of despair and meaninglessness inevitably have deleterious effects on the motivation and morale of those individuals concerned, on the functioning of the organisation as a whole and upon the wider society.

This article originated in an earlier version presented at an international psychoanalytic conference with the theme ‘Motivation and Meaning at Work’, and was a motivated response to the quotation at the top of the page that had been included in the Call for Papers. This hypothesis, that motivation is a surrogate for meaning, comes from a paper by Burkard Sievers and constitutes a provocative challenge to both practitioners and theorists alike.

Keywords:

• meaning-making
• narrative
• hermeneutics
• interpretation
• culture
• ethics
• contingency