Evaluating meaningful work: Psychometric properties of the Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) in Italian context

Individuals who are involved in meaningful work are positively engaged in their jobs, perceiving it as both significant and congruent with themselves. Considering that meaningful work is related to positive working and organizational outcomes, a valid and reliable scale of meaningful work may be useful in research contexts and consultation projects to evaluate the effectiveness of psychological interventions aimed at increasing the perceived meaning of work. This study tested the psychometric properties of the Work and Meaning Inventory in the Italian context, verifying its measurement invariance across gender and its validity. Participants included 807 Italian adults, balanced by gender. The dimensions analysed are meaningful work, work engagement, organizational citizenship behaviour, flourishing, life satisfaction and job satisfaction. The results indicate good psychometric properties of the WAMI scale in the Italian context, confirming the original factor structure and showing good reliability indexes, measurement invariance across genders, and concurrent validity. Suggestions for further research and practical implications are discussed: the instrument can be useful in career counselling to reflect on the importance of meaningful work; organizations may benefit by promoting the meaningful work, as more engaged and more committed workers in turn will be more productive.