A brief Meaningful Work and Enjoyment Scale (MeWES) for extreme operational environments

Individuals working in extreme operational environments face sustained psychological and physiological stressors that can degrade wellbeing and performance. This study presents the development and validation of the Meaningful Work and Enjoyment Scale (MeWES), a brief measure designed to assess the extent to which individuals perceive their work as meaningful and enjoyable in isolated, confined, and high-demand settings. Grounded in the job demands-resources model and theories of resilience and engagement, the MeWES was evaluated across three populations: Antarctic expedition personnel, senior US Navy officers, and participants in NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog. The final six-item version of the MeWES demonstrated strong internal consistency, unidimensional structure, and convergent validity with the Work and Meaning Inventory. Predictive validity was established through significant relationships with morale, career satisfaction, affect, team cohesion, and performance. Incremental validity analyses indicated that the MeWES explains unique variance in key psychological and team outcomes beyond existing measures of work meaning. Findings support the role of meaningful work as a psychological resource that promotes resilience and enhances individual and team functioning in extreme contexts. The MeWES provides a practical measure for research and applied interventions aimed at sustaining human performance and wellbeing in operational environments characterized by prolonged stress and isolation.