The idea of this transition is what Paul du Gay tries to explain and provide context for in his article Aspects of the Conceptual Architecture of the 'New Spirit': Weber and Hirschman. He describes that problem complexities are worked out in a number of levels of analysis, including individual reflections, the social level of associations, the organizations and institutions, and also at the cultural level of the company or environment. The network here is summarized with the idea that no single problem complex can claim any kind of logical priority, using Webers idea that the audiences (workforce at a company, or individual employee) should be polytheistic, meaning they take on the persona specific to the life order in which they are engaged. They are encouraged to combine their personal rationality with a high degree of ethical seriousness and consideration when exercising this new kind of phenomenon of work and life relations. People should be subject to moral constraints that they could have rationally or consequentially formulated themselves. This of course requires detachment from institutionally given obligations.
In the video below, an example is made of Lehman Brothers, a Banking corporation that went bankrupt in September of 2008. The interviews attest to the kind of connections within a business that transcend the issues with the company. It puts into perspective the idea that when office-specific rights, duties, and obligations, are over-ridden, whether in the pursuit of private policies by stealth, or in the governmental context, part and parcel of a demand from the central executive for more ‘responsive’ forms of management conduct, or from a desire to create an ‘all on one team’ mentality, the goals are more of less achieved by those who have the proper digression, or are willing to maintain the connections with the company or other employees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUshO77l-1k
Sources:
L. Boltanksi and E. Chiapello, “The Rise of
the Projective City”
Du
Gay, P. “Notes on Aspects of the Conceptual Architecture of the New Spirit:
Weber and Hirschman”
Matt, this is an important phenomenon to consider as most of us will graduate and get jobs in modern businesses - like a startup for instance. I can directly relate to the experience of trying to balance when I should and should not reply to a work related message (because emails are not the only medium used these days to contact colleagues, clients, mentors, partners, etc.), and this is something that I'm finding most people in startup communities are dealing with.
ReplyDeleteRecently I've realized that I should spend time outside of work to mingle with the tech community since it'll be easy to relate to them; I think it's a natural feeling to want to embed oneself in a social environment where people are doing similar things, presuming that conversation will flow easily, and jokes will be understood.
On the other hand, I found myself immediately alarmed after having that thought because regardless of the event being a social, or a networking opportunity, I'll ultimately find myself having a hard time not thinking about work - and that's just not healthy. When speaking with an informant from Plasticity for our research project, I was informed that maintaining workplace culture and happiness can be a very complicated and enduring task, even for a company that's all about workplace productivity through fostering practises that promote happiness. One mental tip I got from this research was to understand that happiness is not the absence of negative emotion. This is a good reality check for the sake of not losing it completely when stressing about balancing work and life, we need to consistently ground ourself and be realistic about what we could do, and what we should do.