Finding and Living a Calling at Work:

Exploring Individual and Practitioner

Strategies

Dr. Ryan Duffy

University of Florida
 Who am I?

 Counseling psychologist
 Undergrad at Boston College
 PhD at University of Maryland
 Currently an associate professor at University of Florida
 I don’t know it all…
 What are we Going to do Today?

 Give a brief overview of calling from a scholarly sense, just enough so you
can talk intelligently to others about it but not too much to bore you!
 But mainly we will spend talking about strategies…how exactly can you
help those you work with find, pursue, and live a calling?
 Interaction
 FAVOR: Please questions and make comments
 So what is a calling anyway?

 Calling
 a summons by God to pursue a certain type of work (Dalton, 2001)
 a consuming, meaningful passion people experience toward a domain (Dobrow
& Tosti-Kharas, 2011)
 a divine inspiration to do morally and socially significant work (Weber, 1904)
 an orientation toward work motivated by a quest for fulfillment and a desire to
impact society (Bellah et al., 1986; Wrzesniewski et al. 1997)
 The place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet”
(Buechner, 1973, p. 95)
 A career to which one strongly identifies, contributes to a sense of meaning, and
is guided by a transcendent force (Hagmaier & Abele, 2012).
 A transcendent summons to do meaningful work (Bunderson & Thompson, 2009)
OK, Now I’m even more confused…

What does “calling” mean to you?

Building some Consensus

Calling

Meaning Prosocial

Summons?
?
 The Technical Definition

“A belief that one's career is a central part

of a broader sense of purpose and
meaning in life and is used to help others or
advance the greater good in some fashion”
(Duffy & Dik, 2013; p. 429), often arising from
an internal or external summons.
 Who has a calling?

 Depends on how you ask

 Categorically
 Three groups (job, career, calling): ~ 1/3, 1/3, 1/3
 Do you have a calling? (10,000+ adults): 50% yes
 Continuously
 “I have a calling to a particular kind of work”
 Not at all true of me
 Mildly true of me
 Moderately true of me
 Mostly true of me
 Totally true of me
 College Students (~5,000)

35

30

25
Not at all true
20 Mildy true
%
Moderately true
15
Mostly true
10 Totally true

0
Have calling
 Working Adults (~ 1,300)

35

30

25
Not at all true
20 Mildy true
%
15 Moderately true
Mostly true
10 Totally true
5

0
Have calling
Random Sample (1397 adults)

25

20

Not at all true

15
Mildy true
Moderately true
10
Mostly true
Totally true
5

0
Have calling
 And it’s a good thing to have

 People with a calling…

 Are more decided, confident, and comfortable with their career choices
 Are more committed to their majors
 Are happier at work
 Are more committed to their careers
 Are more committed to their organizations
 Put in more effort at work
 Feel their lives are more meaningful
 Are happier with their lives in general
 But there is a catch…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSZYsyrP3Co
 You can’t just have a calling

.40 .00
Calling Happiness

Living
calling
 So How Does Someone Live it?

Calling Motivation
Access to
Job Crafting
Opportunity
Support

Have a Meaning & Live a

Fit
Calling Commitment Calling
 Question

What kinds of things can we do to help

people find their calling?
Back to what a calling is

Calling

Meaning Prosocial

Summons?
?
 Being Open to a Summons

Please don’t pray and wait!!!

 Tying career and meaning together

1. Actively highlight and discuss how important work is to

happiness.
2. Actively highlight and discuss how the key way to make
work satisfying is to tie it to one’s sense of personal
meaning.
3. Then move to exploration…how can people find career
paths that are meaningful?
Finding Meaning is about Finding Fit

???

Interests Interests
Skills Skills
Values Values
Personality Personality
But also important to assess social fit…

Social fit dates at least to Plato and refers to

the fit between a person’s abilities and the
requirements of a particular social need
(Muirhead, 2004).
 What is considering social fit important?

1. It’s good for other people, obviously.

1. It’s really, really good for you too…because considering social fit
leads to doing prosocial work, which has enormous positive
consequences,

Calling

Meaning Prosocial
 Being prosocial makes work better, across the board

 Productivity, energy, commitment, satisfaction, all are boosted.

 Importantly, the closer you are to the beneficiary of your work, the more of
an impact it has on you.
 This impact goes through the roof if the work is meaningful to being with!
 So, looking at the model again

Calling Motivation
Access to
Job Crafting
Opportunity
Support

Have a Meaning & Live a

Fit
Calling Commitment Calling
 Living a Calling in the Real World

For those who feel they are living their

calling right now, how have you
maintained it over time?
 Some Challenges

1. Simply never finding it

2. Finding it in something that doesn’t pay
3. A lack of choice
4. Succumbing to the “dark side”
 “I just never found it”

 That is absolutely normal!!! – evidence from qualitative studies

 Unfolds over time, changes, and shifts

 “Playing music isn’t gonna cut it”

 You’re right, it probably isn’t – evidence from studies on musicians

 But here is the good news…living a calling outside of paid employment can
be just as good
 So long as…its not just a hobby, but part of your life meaning and it actively
used to help others.
 “I have a calling, but my life circumstances
are such that I can’t realistically pursue it”

 No problem, most of us feel that way to some degree

 But if you are willing to build it, it can come, even in difficult conditions –
evidence from job crafting
 “I wish I never had a calling”

 Why would someone say this?

 Have it but can’t live it, an evil carrot on a stick
 Workaholism
 Burnout
 Risk of exploitation
 How to avoid the dark side?
 Disentangle calling from paid work
 Let others in on your calling
 Recognize that calling is a piece of life meaning,
not the whole thing
Pulling it to Together (aka Take Home Points)

 It’s awesome to have a calling, especially when you can live it out.
 Learning and living a calling is about finding that career path which is
uniquely meaningful and prosocial.
 Work with people to explore what will bring them meaning by determining
what best fits for them and society as a whole.
 Work to build fit but building motivation, job crafting, and support
 And of course…know that a dark side does exist and can be tempting.

Email: rduf@ufl.edu