The effect of religious orientation and materialistic tendency on the meaningfulness of work

People attribute many different meanings to work, where individuals spend most of their time and which has become an important part of modern life. In the traditional understanding, work has been a method used to meet the most basic needs of people (such as eating, drinking, dressing, sheltering, resting) in order to continue their life. However, with the effect of industrialization, this understanding has lost its effect and lost its importance in the light of scientific and technological developments. With the improvement of living standards, individuals have started to give importance to their social needs after their physical needs. While questioning the meaning of the job, the main focus is on whether the job has meaning for the individual and what the job means to the individual. At this point, the meaning of the job is related to the values that the individual attributes to the job. The more valuable and important an individual sees his work, the more meaningful it is. The concept of religion has a significant impact on the formation of values. On the other hand, how the individual perceives the material elements has an important place in the formation of value. At this point, the main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of religious and materialist values on the perception of the meaning of work of today's working individuals. In this direction, the quantitative method was preferred in the research and a questionnaire was applied to 445 individuals working in Ankara Çankaya district. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the scales used in this study, and multiple regression analysis was performed to test the hypotheses. As a result of the research, it has been determined that external religious orientation has a significant and positive effect on meaning at work and work relations. As a result of the research, it was determined that extrinsic religious orientation had a significant and positive effect on meaning at work and work relations. While it was determined that the preservation, which is an indicator of the materialist tendency, has a significant and positive effect on the dimensions of meaning at work, business relations, search for meaning at work and humility at work, it was concluded that not being generous only had a negative and significant contribution on meaning leadership at work. Finally, while the jealousy trait has a positive and significant effect on the search for meaning at work, it has a negative effect on humility at work. Key Words: Religious Orientation, Materialistic Tendency, Meaning of Work