As the country recovers from the recession, there are still plenty of people out of work. While those of us with jobs are grateful we have them, let’s face it, going to work primarily for a paycheck is not the same as being engaged in your career and truly enjoying what you do for a living.

Are you spending your days at the office doing your best, and yet feel there’s something missing?

In their new book The Why of Work (McGraw-Hill), renowned management expert Dave Ulrich, PhD, and his wife, psychologist Wendy Ulrich, PhD, offer help by explaining how that void can be filled by recognizing the specific meaning of your work. The result can be more productivity for you and your company, more enjoyment from your career, and that translates into a happier life in general.

More than money

Although the book is subtitled "How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win," the Ulrichs' book isn’t strictly for managers and executives. Instead, it offers step-by-step guidelines for anyone working at any level who wants to know how to shape an attitude toward work that will help them, and their company, prosper.

However it’s important, the authors emphasize, that managers understand before they ask "Why aren’t my employees working harder?", they need to ask "Why are my employees working?"

So what’s the bottom line of why people work, anyway? The quick answer may be "for money." However the Ulrichs point out that numerous studies show it’s not just for money. They've talked to thousands of people, including rank-and-file workers, CEOs and other top executives to identify the "why" behind the most successful experiences connected with work and business.

Instead of only working because they need a paycheck, people actually work for a sense of connection, value, purpose, contribution, and hope for the future. When you can dig down to find the meaning of your work, the authors write, then you’ll be far more resilient in difficult times and more passionate about your career in good times.

The abundant organization

According to Dave and Wendy Ulrich, an abundant organization is a work setting in which people coordinate their aspirations and their actions to create meaning for themselves, value for customers and investors, and hope for humanity at large.

That’s because employees who find meaning at work are more competent, committed, and contribute more. This leads to increased customer commitment and satisfaction which results in a brighter financial future for the company.

The authors also point out that abundant organizations focus on order, integrity, and purpose that foster meaning in the work setting. On a personal level, keeping a positive perspective can help bring meaning and success to the worker and the company, too. For example, instead of becoming angry at a manager’s critique, changing your perception to recognize that your boss is trying to help you improve so you’ll succeed can change your take on the whole situation.

Here’s another example from The Why of Work illustrating how challenges can be turned into positive, meaningful experiences on the corporate level. During an industry downtown, employees can get nervous and look out for "number one," even hoping someone else will get fired instead of them.

However when one high-tech company told employees that for every $50,000 in savings a job would be saved, workers enthusiastically pitched in to work hard at cost cutting. They had a clear perspective on how being engaged, cooperative, and working constructively on the company’s goal had a meaning that made sense.

Meaningful questions

In The Why of Work, the authors include checklists, questionnaries, and other tools to help turn aspirations about meaningful work into action in the workplace.

For example, they list these seven questions that can help people identify what gives them a sense of meaning and abundance in both work and life:

• Who am I ? (Identity)
• Where am I going? (Purpose and Motivation)
• Whom do I travel with? (Relationships and Teamwork that Work)
• How do I build a positive work environment? (Effective Work Culture)
• What challenges interest me? (Personalized Contribution)
• How do I respond to disposability and change? (Growth, Learning, and Resilience)
• What delights me? (Civility and Happiness)

Finding and working with meaning should be a real option for every worker who values it, Dave and Wendy Ulrich conclude.

"Whether our future employees are graduating from the Harvard Business School or the local detention school, meaning matters," they write. "It matters not only for the profit of investors and the needs of customers, but also for the hearts and souls of the millions of people who get up and go to work every day."