How to find meaning in work roles with strong prototypes

Many professions have templates, or prototypes, for who is expected to fill a role (e.g., pilots are male, sales people are extraverted). When workers do not meet all elements of a role prototype, they may have trouble entering an occupation or being seen as legitimate within the profession. These challenges may be exacerbated when workers see their job as a calling, or a role tied to immense passion and meaning, since a calling would come with an intense desire to occupy said role.

My coauthors and I examined how workers live out their callings when holding different levels of role prototypicality (i.e., prototypical, semi-prototypical, non-prototypical). Through interviews and surveys of professional Santas, as well as observational and archival data, we identify three distinct paths to enacting a calling based on workers’ level of role prototypicality:

• Prototypical workers follow a unity path. These professionals have both physical and non-physical characteristics that map strongly onto the role prototype, and they express feelings of confidence within the role. Accordingly, these workers enact their calling by readily embracing their role prototypicality and switching into their role’s persona.
  

• Semi-prototypical workers follow a dissonance-resolution path. These workers have one or more physical or non-physical characteristics they feel make them a weaker fit for the role prototype, even though they are accepted by the occupational community. Driven by feelings of imposterism, they enact their calling by generating backstories to justify personally perceived deviation from the role prototype and modify their characteristics to fit the prototype.
  

• Non-prototypical workers follow a trailblazing path. These workers have one or more physical or non-physical characteristics that objectively deviate from the role prototype. Through feelings of rejection, non-prototypical workers abstract the role prototype to find alignment through shared values. At the same time, they mute role prototype-deviating characteristics to be seen by others as legitimate within the role.
  

We also find that workers vary in whether they continuously (i.e., year-round) or episodically (i.e., seasonal or short period of time) enact their calling across different levels of role prototypicality. Prototypical and semi-prototypical Santas expressed patterns of continuous and episodic calling enactment based on different levels of role identification and whether they held salient roles outside of being a professional Santa. For example, Santas who highly identified with the Santa role worked Christmas in July events, maintained their beard in the summer, and attended Santa conferences in the off-season. Santas who weakly identified with the Santa role switched to other roles after the Christmas season (e.g., being a grandfather or woodworker). Non-prototypical workers uniformly expressed continuous calling enactment through high role identification.

Practical Applications

Our research provides practical guidance for contract workers and leaders of occupational communities:

1. Assess for personal fit with role prototype. Anticipated fit with a role prototype (prototypical, semi-prototypical, non-prototypical) can inform what steps are needed to help enact calling.

2. Understand how calling fits into other important roles. Callings do not have to be overly consuming. Workers can balance other important roles and their occupational calling through episodic calling enactment.

3. Leaders have some power to alter characteristics tied to role prototypes. Although role prototypes can be difficult to change, leaders of occupational communities hold power to change characteristics embedded within role prototypes. For instance, professional Santas shared stories of leaders in the Santa community who pushed for “healthier” versions of Santa and welcomed non-bearded Santas. These changes helped reduce health tensions within the role and made it easier for less prototypical workers to find work.
   

In sum, our paper unveils pathways for workers across varying degrees of prototypicality to live out their calling.