Business & Economics
Meaning & Purpose 101 in Business & Economics
Ten key facts from research
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 1
We live in one of the
biggest economic revolutions for generations
as our socioeconomic behaviour is increasingly
motivated by meaning and purpose.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 2
Modern consumers
do not want to buy a product or service,
they want to buy a meaning and purpose in life.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 3
Benefits of workers' meaning and purpose:
1. lower stress
2. improved productivity
3. lower turnover
4. fewer sickness days
5. ...
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 4
Profit + purpose
=
profit 2 + purpose 2
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 5
Meaning and purpose
do not need to be fluffy.
They are evidence-based facts.
Companies benefit from
systematically applying these facts.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 6
Fake purpose is corporate suicide.
Deceive your staff and customers,
and they will become the gravediggers
who bury your company.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 7
Employees flourish when they focus dominantly on
social, larger or abstract types of meaning.
Employees suffer when they focus dominantly on
materialistic, hedonistic, or self-oriented types of meaning.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 8
True leaders
first free people from the crowd,
then empower them to reach their goals,
and finally guide them to trust their own inner voice.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 9
To improve your health & life satisfaction,
spend 40% of your waking hours
on what truly matters.
If your work isn't the source,
let it be the resource.
MAP 101 in Business & Economics : Fact 10
True Meaning in Life
cannot simply
be ordered and delivered
at your convenience.
Books
Interviews & lectures
Academic publications
See Joel Vos’ profile on scholar.google.com for the most up to date list of publications
Vos, J. (2025) Chapter 2. Existential–Therapeutic Competencies. and Vos, J. (2025). Chapter 9. Working With Meaning in Life in Existential–Humanistic Psychotherapy. In: Louis Hoffman & Veronica Lac. (Eds.). The Evidence-Based Foundations of Existential–Humanistic Therapy. APA.
Vos, J. (2023). Existential psychological therapies: An overview of empirical research. Pratiques Psychologiques.
Vos, J. (2023). Phenomenology in the Bedroom: How Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault Could Reinvigorate Your Sex Life. Chapter 1 in: Eros and Psyche. Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives.
Vos, J. (2021). The existential therapeutic competences framework: Development and preliminary validation. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 25(1), 9-51.
Vos, J. (2019). A review of research on existential‐phenomenological therapies. The Wiley world handbook of existential therapy, 592-614.
Vos, J. (2018). Death in existential psychotherapies: A critical review. In: Menzies & Menzies. Curing the dread of death: theory, research and practice, 145.
van Bruggen, V., Ten Klooster, P., Westerhof, G., Vos, J., de Kleine, E., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2017). The Existential Concerns Questionnaire (ECQ)–development and initial validation of a new existential anxiety scale in a nonclinical and clinical sample. Journal of clinical psychology, 73(12), 1692-1703.
Craig, M., Vos, J., Cooper, M., & Correia, E. A. (2016). Existential psychotherapies. In D. J. Cain, K. Keenan, & S. Rubin (Eds.), Humanistic psychotherapies: Handbook of research and practice (2nd ed., pp. 283–317). American Psychological Association.
van Bruggen, V., Vos, J., Westerhof, G., Bohlmeijer, E., & Glas, G. (2015). Systematic review of existential anxiety instruments. Journal of humanistic psychology, 55(2), 173-201.
Vos, J., Craig, M., & Cooper, M. (2015). Existential therapies: a meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 83(1), 115.
Vos, J. (2015). Meaning and existential givens in the lives of cancer patients: A philosophical perspective on psycho-oncology. Palliative & supportive care, 13(4), 885-900.