Meaningfulness at work context, business ethics and decent work: a review of literature

Purpose This study aims to review the literature to bring knowledge and understanding on an important linkage between business ethics and meaningfulness at work context and a further implication of such linkage for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal agenda of Decent Work (SDG Goal 8). Design/methodology/approach The study will follow a structured review of the literature. The identified variables from the study will be grouped as ethical enablers of meaningfulness at the work context. Findings The identified articles were reviewed to get insights along the lines of the research question of the study. Various ethical enablers of meaningfulness at work context were extracted from identified articles and grouped under “work,” “workplace,” “leadership,” “organization practices,” “education/spiritual traditions,” “individual attributes” and “technology/robotization” at organizations. The understandings from the literature are organized to find the commonality between “meaningfulness at work context” and “decent work” SDG Goal indicators. Practical implications It is realized that decent work indicators relate to conditions of meaningful work context. Supporting citations, philosophy and a few examples of supporting practices are also provided to explain the correlations between the given conditions of meaningfulness at work corresponding to decent work indicators. Such practices/approaches could be useful to organizations in meeting the dual goal of decent work and meaningful work context. Originality/value The current study focuses on “meaningfulness at work context” and “business ethics” and “decent work,” which has been a rarely explored phenomenon to date. Hence, the article contributes significantly to the integration of three important domains of “meaningfulness at work context,” “business ethics” and “decent work,” and the study carries a novel contribution to the literature.