Dignity at work

"Human dignity, the ability to establish a sense of self-worth and self-respect and to enjoy the respect of others, is necessary for a fully realized life. Working with dignity is a fundamental part of achieving a life well-lived, yet the workplace often poses challenging obstacles because of mismanagement or managerial abuse. Defending dignity and realizing self-respect through work are key to workers' well-being. Insuring the dignity of employees is equally important for organizations as they attempt to make effective use of their human capital. In this book Randy Hodson, a sociologist of work and organizational behavior, applies ethnographic and statistical approaches to this topic, offering both a richly detailed, inside look at real examples of dignity in action, and a broader analysis of the pivotal role of dignity at work. How do people attain and maintain dignity in the face of assaults on dignity at work? How can management within organizations help to preserve dignity and thus enhance workers' social relations, organizational integrity, and productivity? This book sheds valuable light on the mechanisms by which workers become satisfied and committed employees. Hodson's exploration of these questions includes ethnographic detail from diverse settings, ranging from automobile manufacturing, to medicine, to home-based sales and temporary clerical work. He focuses on four problems that deflate morale and create conflict: outright mismanagement and abuse, overwork, limits on autonomy, and contradictions of employee involvement. He also analyzes strategies that workers use to maintain and defend their dignity: resistance, citizenship, the creation of independent meaning systems, and the development of social relations at work. Hodson offers a valuable picture of the causes, consequences, and patterns of workers' efforts to maintain dignity. He finds that even in workplaces where abuse is common and mismanagement makes pride in accomplishment difficult, workers still find ways to create meaning in work and to achieve self-respect. He uses his findings and analysis to reevaluate contemporary workplace theories, including those based on the traditions of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Foucault, and feminist theories of the workplace. Hodson's conceptual model of human agency and dignity contributes broadly to our understanding of the nature of work in advanced societies."--Publisher's description. Read more... Contents 8 List of Figures and Tables 11 Preface 14 Part I Dignity and Its Challenges 18 1 Four Faces of Working with Dignity 20 The Quest for Dignity 22 Safeguarding Dignity 33 Denials of Dignity 36 Conclusions 37 2 Toward a Theory of Dignity 39 Alienation, Anomie, and Bureaucratic Rationality 39 Modern Industrial Society 46 Obstacles and Opportunities 51 Working with Dignity 58 Conclusions 66 3 Measuring the Subtle Realms of Work 67 Organizational Ethnographies 68 A New Method and New Insights 70 Strategies for Safeguarding Dignity 76 Denials of Dignity 90 Conclusions 97 Part II The Practice of Dignity 98 4 Deflecting Abuse and Mismanagement 100 A History of Mismanagement and Abuse 100 Direct Personal Supervision 104 Workplace Norms against Mismanagement and Abuse 108 Responses to Abuse 116 Responses to Mismanagement 122 Social Group Differences 127 Conclusions 130 5 Avoiding Overwork 132 Assembly Work 136 Monotony, Exit, and Resistance 141 Lost Opportunities for Citizenship 148 Social Group Differences 151 Conclusions 155 6 Defending Autonomy 157 Professional and Craft Autonomy 158 The Experience of Professional and Craft Work 163 Citizenship in Professional and Craft Work 169 Resistance in Professional and Craft Work 174 Organizational Size and Outside Ownership 178 Social Group Differences 182 Conclusions 185 7 Negotiating Employee Involvement 188 The Varieties of Participation 189 Work Life under Employee Involvement 198 Employee Involvement and Resistance 204 Employee Involvement and Citizenship 206 Social Group Differences 210 Conclusions 212 8 Coworkers – For Better or Worse 217 The Social Context of Work Life 217 Coworkers and the Meaning of Work 220 Solidarity and Infighting 222 Coworker Relations under Bad Management 230 Coworkers in Assembly Jobs 237 Job Autonomy and Workplace Relations 239 Participation and Coworker Support 242 Conflict and Tension in Service Work 245 Coworker Relations across Social Groups 247 Conclusions 248 Part III The Future of Dignity 252 9 Worker Dignity and Well-Being 254 A Synthesis 254 Infighting, Resistance, and Citizenship 258 Dignity and Well-Being 263 Conclusions 273 10 Dignity, Agency, and the Future of Work 276 What Have We Learned? 276 Theoretical Implications 281 The Classics Revisited 285 Implications for Organizations 286 Ethnographies as Data 287 Conclusions 290 References 291 Appendix A A Brief History of the Workplace Ethnography (W.E.) Project 316 Appendix B Workplace Ethnography Data Set 320 Appendix C Supplemental Tables 324 Index 328 A 328 B 328 C 329 D 330 E 330 F 331 G 331 H 331 I 332 J 332 K 332 L 332 M 333 N 334 O 334 P 334 Q 335 R 335 S 335 T 336 U 337 V 337 W 337 Y 337 Z 337 Information from electronic data provided by the publisher. May be incomplete or contain other coding : Human dignity, the ability to establish a sense of self-worth and self-respect and to enjoy the respect of others, is necessary for a fully realized life. Working with dignity is a fundamental part of achieving a life well-lived, yet the workplace often poses challenging obstacles because of mismanagement or managerial abuse. Defending dignity and realizing self-respect through work are key to workers' well-being; insuring the dignity of employees is equally important for organizations as they attempt to make effective use of their human capital. In this book Randy Hodson, a sociologist of work and organizational behavior, applies ethnographic and statistical approaches to this topic, offering both a richly detailed, inside look at real examples of dignity in action, and a broader analysis of the pivotal role of dignity at work