Abstract
This study explores the impact of a transnational regulatory framework on the job design and perceived meaningfulness of transnationally active professionals. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it analyses how individuals adapt their work practices and rethink their job design amid a constraining regulation. The findings highlight the need for inter-individual meaning-making, new skills development and self-actualization as professionals navigate changes in the regulatory context. Meaningfulness is achieved through a dual interplay between bottom-up practices of self-actualization and recognition. However, the study also reveals that competing institutional logics can hinder the alignment of self-actualization and recognition, potentially leading to meaninglessness. It thereby adds to our understanding how the institutional and regulatory context influences meaningful work on an individual level and the role of human resource management in mediating between regulations and meaningful work.