Pursuing Meaning in Work: The Double-Bind of Calling Among Artists

Past research has shown many benefits of pursuing work as a calling, yet, we know little about the negative implications or costs of calling. In response to recent calls, we used a grounded theory approach to examine the tensions underlying the pursuit of calling. Findings show that the artists framed subjective and objective career outcomes as paradoxical, which combined with artists’ intense relationship with their work and their inability to...