Spanish adaptation and analysis of psychometric properties of the work and meaning inventory

This study presents the adaptation of the Work and Meaning Inventory (WAMI) for the Spanish working population and examines its psychometric properties.Since the WAMI has been translated into different languages with varying outcomes not always consistent in terms of their factorial structure, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to assess the structural validity of this Spanish version comparing it with the models proposed so far. A sample of 806 employees (50.4% women) from different regions of Spain, most of them university graduates (85%) and working in executive or technical jobs (76%) participated in the research. The findings support a bi-factor model structure, composed of two specific dimensions—Meaning of Work in the Self-Perspective and Meaning of Work in the World-Perspective —and a general dimension—Work Meaning. The Spanish version of WAMI demonstrated high internal consistency (α = 0.912) and satisfactory convergent validity with Work Engagement(r = .915) measured with the UWES-9 and Life Satisfaction (r = .899) measured with the SWLS. These results provide empirical support for the use of WAMI with the Spanish population and contribute to conceptual reflection on work meaning and the current debate on meaningful work as a key indicator of well-being. Nevertheless further research with samples of different characteristics is needed to confirm the structure of the instrument.