Work (physics)

Job satisfaction

PsycINFO

Work engagement

Clinical psychology

Industrial and organizational psychology

Engineering

Burnout

Political science

Psychology

Relation (database)

MEDLINE

Work motivation

Computer science

Applied psychology

Organizational behavior

Database

Social psychology

Mechanical engineering

Journal of Counseling Psychology

Perceiving work as a calling has been positioned as a key pathway to enhancing work-related well-being. However, no formal theory exists attempting to explain predictors and outcomes of living a calling at work. To address this important gap, this article introduces a theoretical, empirically testable model of work as a calling - the Work as Calling Theory (WCT) - that is suitable for the contemporary world of work. Drawing from research and theory in counseling, vocational, multicultural, and industrial-organizational psychology, as well as dozens of quantitative and qualitative studies on calling, the WCT is presented in three parts: (a) predictors of living a calling, (b) variables that moderate and mediate the relation of perceiving a calling to living a calling, and (c) positive (job satisfaction, job performance) and potentially negative (burnout, workaholism, exploitation) outcomes that result from living a calling. Finally, practical implications are suggested for counselors and managers, who respectively may seek to help clients and employees live a calling. (PsycINFO Database Record

Work as a calling: A theoretical model.