Life demands dignity, and meaningful work is essential for dignity. Dignity is the ability to establish a sense of self-worth and self-respect and to appreciate the respect of others. Dignity is realized in the political sphere by striving toward democracy and justice. In the economic sphere, it is realized in the demand for a living wage and equal opportunity. In the workplace, dignity is realized through countless small acts of resistance against abuse and an equally strong drive to take pride in one's daily work. Even where abuse is commonplace and chaos and mismanagement make pride in accomplishment difficult, workers still find ways to create meaning in work and to work with dignity. Alternative avenues to achieving dignity sometimes involve focusing attention on peripheral tasks. Alternatively, dignity can be achieved through camaraderie and solidarity with coworkers.

Working with dignity requires purposive, considered, and creative efforts on the part of workers as they confront workplaces that deny their dignity and infringe on their well-being. Concepts appropriate to studying such creative efforts are less developed in the social sciences than are concepts for studying large-scale, impersonal structures.