OWT 223 Self Work Ethic & Soft Capitalism

Background & Development of Self Work Ethic
1. Reformation
  1. Protestant Work Ethic (Traditional)
    1. Self Work Ethic (Development)
      1. The Self - Values come from your Interpretation
      2. Identification of Yourself - Now live for themselves
      3. Why Work?
        Personal Development, Happiness
        Ultimate Purpose?
  2. Reformation due to Corruption & Breaking of the Employment contract
2. HRM is more than just a process. It appraises & Develops People
  1. MODERNITY: Historical Period. After Enlightement to Now.
3. PRIOR:
  1. Idea of 'Self' wasn't there.
    1. One worked for God
    2. Controlled by Catholic Church
    3. Majority of people told what was Bible Translated
Human Relations Paper, Amiridis, Costea, Crump (2008)
1. New concepts of subjectivity and the 'Self' are used to frame more intense regimes of self discipline or what Tipton (1984) called 'Self Work'
  1. These moves have been captured by Heelas (2002) & Thrift (1997) in the Term of 'Soft Capitalism'
2. The Self & Subjectivity have become central motifs in the Lexicon of Management
3. Self - Actualisation (Maslow)
  1. The move to realise ones potential (Kurt Goldstein)
    1. In his opinion the only real motive was "The tendancy to actualise itself as fully as possible is the basic drive.. The drive of Self - Actualisation
  2. Maslow - Hierarchy of Needs Self Actualisation = Final level of Psychological Development
  3. "The desire for self - fulfillment, & the tendency for him to become actualised in what he is potentially
  4. The desire to become more of what one is, to become everything one is capable of becoming
  5. Self - Actualisation is a DESIRE = realising ones capabilities
  6. Psychopathy of Normality: "Most of us function on a lower level on that of Self Actualisation"
Soft Capitalism (Heelas 2002)
1. The Hardship of labour which lies at the centre of Soft Capitalism is grounded in a new type of Ethical sphere. Tipton (1984) called this 'The Ethics of Self Work'
  1. Soft Capitalism aquires its immediate everyday concreteness through what we term the THERAPEUTIC HABITUS
    1. the logic of Organisational Success has become gradually bound up with the ever more intense employment of "SOFT" characteristics of the labouring subject
      1. SOFT denotes the expansion and intensification of demands on the 'Self' to become ever more involved in work with its whole subjectivity.
Recruitment & Selection I
1. HRM & Work as Self Realisation
  1. Culture & Commitment as Institutional Self Understanding
  2. Work as Performance - Performance as expression for Value of Work
  3. Work as Self Expression - Knowledge Work, creativity, innovation
  4. Work as Total Experience - Well being, health, uniqueness, forms of personal protection
2. Soft Capitalism
  1. Historical Period characterised by: The conversion of life into an entirely novel domain, a domain with an emphatic & unshakable centre: THE SELF
    1. = The centre of Contemporary Culture
  2. Work has come to be presented as the Platform for Self Realisation
  3. Consequences of This: Justification of work could no longer be found in any other sense of value than 'the self'
    1. Led to Management ideas for self-obsessed and demanding individuals at work.
      1. Due to this we have entered into a period where there is an intense link between 'Work & Life'
3. If the labour market tells us the undefinable character of labour is the very commodity it deals in. - The question of "Who Am I?" opens up.
  1. How will you make your Finite person become an open up endless store of human resourcefullness
Examples
1. BAE SYSTEMS ADVERT
  1. "Perfect performance in Nature is a great source of inspiration for our people"
  2. In this advert; perfect performance functions as an adaptive concept; it makes unattainable into an internal resource = Telling us who is required
    1. That is the way an 'ideal type' is constructed, through a story which is always an economy: The encounter between a finite offer with an infinate demand.
      1. = Advertising is one of the Key Cultural forces of the Century of the Self
2. AMERCO
  1. policies by AMERCO made employees feel as though they were of some concern and workers became appreciated. Work ethicality at AMERCO is what we call the organisation and the self work ethic. Proves that employees take pride in living with company missions and visions, and bettering oneself by following corporate pathways. Problems at work disappear as the new meaning found in work goes a long way.
3. ACCENTURE
  1. it is written in a way to persuade one to want to work for them and therefore offer up their skills as a resource. This is a prime example of how human resource management is used to attract skilled employees for ‘more’ than just a job, instead this job becomes part of the private sphere of life.
  2. The main image outlines five pencils, with one being taller and sharpened than the other 4. This could emphasise that if you went to work for this company, you would become greater than the people who work elsewhere. Moreover the large text highlighted on top of the image states ‘be greater than you imagined’ in other words, become who you were meant to be and more, surpass all expectations of personal growth.
    1. If self-work ethics are paramount to economic success then it is clear why organisations are using these techniques to try and attract employees. This is why modern man is always in a process of ‘self-work’ as for what one works on and for is nothing other than that
4. An example which outlines this culture of the two spheres becoming one can be seen in the British Airways advertisement. The caption s ‘to belong, to be connected’. This one sentence epitomizes the HRM culture of wanting to bring you into the family, making you feel valued by the company as though they were your own family. Clearly emphasising the transition from two spheres of influence to one where work and family become one in a modern era.
Adverts
1. All job adverts combines 3 foundational elements: Endless POTENTIALLITY, the Search for Self - PERFECTION, and the presentation of work as PERFORMANCE
  1. Everyone has Potential, hence Performance is needed to bring it out, from which ensues continuous Perfecting of the Self
    1. To live in the name of ones Potential is to live & work in a continuous search for actualisation of that Potential
2. There is always a gap, as we never reach that Potential, it is a destructive doubt. It isn't negative. = Always a stimulating gap
  1. The Management Idiom delivers a Master stroke in Protecting an infinate Horizon of meaningfulness for work as such.
    1. - To be 'Exceptional' is now a Possibility for All.
Heelas (2002)
1. Main argument of Heelas’ reading: Soft Capitalism, in that it has developed as a response to the failure of three long standing work ethics by saying something about the form of culturalized economy. as they cannot handle the widespread cultural ‘turn to life’ L. Ray and A. Saver introduced the idea and said that economic success is held to lie with soft characteristics rather than technological or cost advantages. The soft characteristics themselves emphasise CULTURE, knowledge and creativity
2. Soft capitalism involves practices to do with enhancing commitment and motivation; SEEKING IDENTITY (what it is to become/be a good manager) .
  1. States that work ethics are cultural and economic.
    1. People need value in what they are doing, which Heelas says demonstrates a necessary connection between economic activity and cultural values.
    2. P.Berger and problem of work. Is what soft capitalism owes its development to. As in 1960’s work had lost its meaning and significance due to the two spheres of influence, public and private with values and assumptions eroding the significance.
3. Work is taken to provide the opportunity to grow and become more effective as a person.. Work in other words is meaningful because it provides opportunities for inner or psychological identity exploration and cultivation.
4. Soft capitalism is about work also becoming home. By bringing out everyones best. All about valuing the individual. ‘work-family’ balance, such Exploratory Capitalism is the most significant delelopment in the self work ethic. Proclaims the humanisation of the workplace and importance of self development for productivity and the value of being yourself at work to unlock human potential.
5. Heelas summarises that work only really matters when it caters for what it is to be alive. Without the training and without the opportunity to be and develop oneself work is deemed unsatisfactory. Work is neccessay but there is more to the meaning of life than mechanical productivity. Soft capitalism in its exploratory mode thrives with the cultural turn to life,
Self Work Ethic
1. modern man is always in a process of ‘self-work’ – for what she/he works on and for is nothing other than that which is destined for her/his own consumption and not to satisfy any other authority
  1. To put a simplistic example forward, it is a bit like the self-production of our perfect body from its always imperfect condition: when should dieting stop? When should exercise stop? When should cosmetics stop (including cosmetic surgery)? The answer is, simply, never – because perfection is always only an aspiration, but that aspiration which can never be refused, to which I can never say no – for it is always about ‘me’, it is always my life that is produced in this self-work.

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OWT 223 Self Work Ethic & Soft Capitalism

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