Interactions and the meaning of work in a 'dirty work' industry

Work meaning refers to the employees' understanding of what they do at work as well as the significance of what they do. Using 32 semi-structured interviews with employees at South African gold mines, I investigated how social interactions shape the meaning of work. Based on sensemaking and sensegiving interactions, from within the organization and outside of the work setting, four different themes are yielded which are important for understanding how the meaning of work in a ‘dirty work’ industry is shaped: organizational taint, hierarchical differences, race and gender differences, and stigma