Work, Organizations and Identity - CiteSeerX

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Organizations, Self-identities and the New Economy ■

Janette Webb University of Edinburgh

A B S T RAC T

The article examines the inter-relations between self-identity and organizational change in advanced capitalist societies characterized by deregulation of markets, privatization and globalizing economic relations. It compares two contrasting perspectives on selfhood: the reflexive self (Giddens, 1991) and the corroded self (Sennett, 1998). Giddens suggests that contemporary organizations, rather than eroding meaning, offer a greater degree of choice about self-identity, and enhance reflexivity and agency. Sennett suggests that new economic forms are corrosive of character and social relations. Using examples from predominantly British data, it is argued that both accounts offer relevant insights into the interplay between selfhood and organizations, but that each overstates their case. Giddens offers a persuasive account of the choice and voluntarism characterizing self-identity for at least a proportion of the population. His account of the ‘project of the self ’, however, contributes to an ideology of the flexible, commodified self, and an overly inflated sense of the potential for individualized self-growth. Sennett over-emphasizes the extent of change in organization and employment relations, at least in the British case, but points to the damaging effects of an ideology of individualism, to which Giddens’ model of the self as project potentially contributes.The article argues that shorttermism is not the most damaging element of contemporary organization practices. Instead increased instrumentalism on the part of employers results in the experience of increased responsibility without meaningful discretion and authority.The gap between employers’ promises to empower people at work and the experience of greater burdens and uncertain prospects has negative consequences for trust and morale. In conclusion, it is suggested that character is not necessarily undermined by such dynamics: encountering the limits of self-determination, reflexivity and individualism provides the material for critique of new economic forms, as evidenced by public concern with issues of care and mutual dependence.

Work, Organizations and Identity

Sociology Copyright © 2004 BSA Publications Ltd® Volume 38(4): 719–738 DOI: 10.1177/0038038504045861 SAGE Publications London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi

K E Y WORDS

employment / new economy / organizations / self-identity / work

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Introduction

D

uring the course of the last hundred years, the economic power of commercial organizations has become enormously concentrated: the US Institute for Policy Studies, for example, estimates that the Top 200 corporations control over a quarter of the world’s economic activity but employ less than a third of one percent of the world’s population (Anderson and Cavanagh, 2000). Combined with state policies to deregulate markets, liberalize trade and increase the use of private finance in public sector provision, the growth of trans-national corporations is widely regarded as posing renewed challenges to social cohesion and to meaningful social relations. In brief, the argument is that capitalist and market-driven exchange relations are increasingly taking on a global form, underpinned by the networking logic and informational capacities of information and communication technologies (Castells, 1996; Held et al., 1999). Rapid and increasingly intensive and extensive flows of knowledge, information and capital (in the form of credit and debt) destabilize the regionalized, nationally regulated economies of the modern industrial era (Held et al., 1999) and stimulate continuing uncertainty about the rules of competitiveness and capital accumulation (Lash and Urry, 1994). My aim is to examine one aspect of the wide-ranging debate about the ‘new economy’, which is that concerned with the implications of such politicaleconomic changes for organizations and self-identities. I focus on the organizational level because of its centrality to advanced capitalist societies: ‘Who says modernity says not just organisations but organisation – the regularised control of social relations across indefinite time-space distances’ (Giddens, 1991: 16). Here I am interested in exploring the connections between changing organizational forms and selfhood, with particular reference to the experience of work. In order to do this, I use the device of comparing and contrasting two perspectives. The first, derived from Giddens’ (1991) analysis of modernity and selfidentity, acknowledges the threat of personal meaninglessness associated with rapidly changing consumer capitalist societies, but suggests that organizations overall provide the social and economic resources which enable people to manage better the existential dilemmas and uncertainties generated. The second, represented by Sennett’s (1998) analysis of the corrosion of character, suggests instead that emerging organization forms are instrumental in producing renewed private troubles, and the further breakdown of a secure, or authentic, sense of self.

Network Organizations and Power Relations If economies of scale and hierarchical integration in organizations proved efficient in an era of regionally regulated competition, a new economic order of globalizing, deregulated markets, e-commerce and privatization is associated with increasing experimentation in organization structures. The search for

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forms of organization able to create and respond to more competitive markets, shape strategic change, solve problems flexibly and innovate rapidly has preoccupied both states and private corporations for the last 20 to 30 years. Bureaucratic organizations, designed for economies of scale, have been much criticized for their apparent rigidity, inefficiencies and lack of innovative or problem-solving capacities (Hammer and Champy, 1993). Successive generations of management consultants have advocated the value of entrepreneurialism, teamwork, orientation to customers and intensive use of information technologies to monitor performance (Knights and Willmott, 2000) and a new ideal-typical form of organization, modelled around the concepts of flexibility and networks, is increasingly prescribed (Castells, 1996; Harvey, 1989; Held et al., 1999). Flexibility is, at least in theory, multi-dimensional, covering employment contracts, skills, management and information systems, business strategies, and organization structures. Networks are regarded as the means of enhancing flexibility because they are seen as fluid, permeable, infinitely expandable and dynamic. Inside organizations the assertion is that vertical divisions of labour, and ‘command and control’ management, are giving way to horizontal coordination through continually changing project teams, and an emphasis on risk-taking and problem-solving (Du Gay, 1996; Sennett, 1998). Is there any evidence of such shifts to less hierarchical forms? Recession and consequent restructuring in the 1980s and early 1990s have had significant impacts on private and public sectors, with many prominent companies setting out to delayer and simplify the ‘chain of command’: well-known examples are British Telecom, which reduced its management layers from twelve to six, General Motors which moved from six to four layers and Pirelli which reduced eight levels to three (Warhurst and Thompson, 1998); and civil service and local government hierarchies have also been made flatter (Carter and Fairbrother, 1995; Halford et al., 1997). Fewer layers have not resulted in fewer managers however, with the proportion in the workforce classed as managers continuing to rise since the mid-20th century. It is middle managers who have frequently been depicted as the source of inertia and rigidity (Scarborough and Burrell, 1996), but the growing numbers of managers suggest that the middle is not shrinking. The requirements of middle management roles are, however, changing from an emphasis on functional specialization to one on cross-functional project teams, performance measurement and continuous improvement (Thompson and Warhurst, 1998). A more prominent division within middle management appears to be emerging between newcomers chosen for their expected skill in restructuring and redirecting the business, but with little specific knowledge of the organization, and the majority carrying out more routine tasks. The former are expected to move on quickly, to take risks, and to show little loyalty to a particular organization (Halford et al., 1997). The majority probably have less clear-cut career routes than in the past, with the expectation of more horizontal than vertical moves becoming the norm (Halford et al., 1997; Mulholland,

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1998), and employees are less certain that any career progress will be with their current employer (Gallie et al., 1998). The search for flexibility through teamwork and delayering has not led to power and authority becoming less concentrated. Although operational responsibilities of most managers have been increased through the use of devolved budgeting, financial targets and performance appraisal, (Edwards et al., 1996; Gallie et al., 1998; Warhurst and Thompson, 1998; Webb, 1999), this has not been accompanied by devolved strategic control: data from repeated Workplace Employment Relations Surveys (Millward et al., 2000) show that ‘during the 1990s … decisions on senior appointments, on union recognition and derecognition, and on the use of budgetary surpluses were all decreasingly a matter for workplace managers and increasingly decided at higher level’ (p. 227). The enormous capacity of ICTs to routinize data collection and reporting enables strategic control to be centralized, with corporate management located perhaps in New York while operations are decentralized across the globe (Harrison, 1994; Sennett, 1998; Thompson and Warhurst, 1998). Organizations are therefore changing, in pursuit of flexibility and innovation through the combination of flatter structures and project teams with more centralized control over business direction.

Do Contemporary Organizations Sustain a Reflexive Self or do They Contribute to the Corrosion of Character? In many ways Giddens’ (1991) and Sennett’s (1998) alternative accounts of contemporary selfhood are not incompatible, and can be seen as contrasting faces of contemporary life. Both accept the power of rationalized, marketoriented exchange in shaping selfhood, but regard contemporary economic processes as having different personal and social consequences. Both recognize that current socio-economic relations place the emphasis on an individualized sense of responsibility for personal achievements, which in turn encourages a risktaking and calculative orientation to life. Perhaps because of their different time frames, Giddens regards the dynamism of market-based society as on balance creating expanding opportunities for more people to exercise a degree of meaningful autonomy over their lives, while Sennett concludes that the same dynamic is broadly corrosive of social bonds and personal meaning, producing an inability to act for the long term and making all social relations less sustainable. The key to Giddens’ (1991) more optimistic argument is that the logic of advancing modernization has not eroded a meaningful sense of self but remade it. Modern societies, constituted by industrialization, capitalism, the growth of nation states and complex organizations, erode the bonds of tradition and open up a realm of choice and voluntarism over personal identity. Contemporary economic change in advanced capitalist societies is treated as potentially positive because of the capacity inherent in market institutions and expertise-based systems to empower people and transform the conditions of

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action. Unlike Sennett, Giddens sees the public realm as expanding, giving more people opportunities to participate, to adapt available knowledge and skills to their own purposes and to make informed choices about society. Organizations become the means of dealing with uncertainty, realizing control over the social and physical environment and hence expanding the realm of choice and relative autonomy for at least a signifcant part of the world’s population. Even in relatively routinized work, people participate in diverse, often extensive, social networks, and acquire an array of social and technical skills. Organized labour has gained greater democratic control over employment relations and enhanced the rights of employees. Formal employment relations place limits on the exercise of authority and allow people considerable control over the terms of their relationships. The continuous change created by modernity, the calculation of risk and opportunity, and the increasing awareness that all knowledge is subject to revision and doubt, however, require self-identity to be reflexively and actively ‘achieved’. People have no alternative but to construct a biography through individualized choice in a market for jobs, goods and services. Selfhood becomes a project pursued reflexively through such choices, because the choices we make come to represent, to ourselves and others, what kind of person we are. Reflexivity in these terms is progressive because it indicates engagement in society, and not withdrawal into self-obsession, or an embattled weak self. The inevitable existential dilemmas which people encounter when they are ‘constrained to be free’ are productive, Giddens argues, of a politics of identity, with its diverse social movements, which represents a new resistance to modernist values of productivity and exploitation of resources, and public debate about social responsibilities. The foundation of Sennett’s more pessimistic view of the new economic order is based particularly on the attributed short-termism of markets and organizations, which Sennett sees as stimulating the psychological conditions for fragmentation and personal disintegration. Under the old rules of capitalism, people had a sense of being necessary to others, by virtue of the continuity of employment and the value employers placed on long-term loyalty, trust and mutual commitment. The concentration of corporate power, and the drive for short-term profitability through restructuring, results instead in organizations prioritizing risk-taking, initiative and self-reliance. Short-termism militates against trust and mutual dependence, which become signs of weakness rather than strength, thus undermining the basis for a socially responsible form of reflexivity. Without a sense of shared fate, he suggests, society is weaker because we are not required to be reliable and accountable to others. Short-termism in markets reduces all social relations to those of instrumental self-interest, devaluing other relations of mutual dependency and care. Reflexivity becomes narrowly self-serving, undermining the constancy of character and commitment to others envisaged by Sennett as central to society. A politics of identity, which Giddens sees as progressive, is treated by Sennett as primarily defensive and a response to a lack of control, rather than empowerment. Indeed Sennett

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suggests that the kind of coherent biographical narrative, which Giddens regards as the basis of contemporary self-identity, is precluded by the shortterm flexible time of the new capitalism. A sense of personal failure and loss of meaning is likely therefore to become more widespread, increasingly affecting the middle classes whose relative security and desirable terms and conditions of employment had typically protected them from such troubles. Even for those who are relatively successful in the market for careers, a sustainable narrative account of oneself, life and experiences becomes harder to organize. The result is an ironic sense of self, arising from awareness that our self-descriptions are unstable, fragmented and susceptible to frequent rewriting. We can literally not take ourselves seriously. Sennett proposes that this sets up a conflict between intimate relations, which require long-term trust and loyalty, and economic life with rules which encourage opportunism and drift. In concluding that individualization and less stability are likely to result in a defensive retreat from community and commitment, he treats advanced capitalism as overwhelming the capacity for agency. Giddens refuses such a stance, regarding organizations as more fluid, and as inevitably producing inconsistencies and contradictions: ‘Late modern institutions create a world of mixed opportunity and high consequence risk. But this world does not form an impermeable environment which resists intervention’ (1991: 176). Sennett might be said therefore to rely on a limited model of agency which fails to encompass the potential for action against repressive circumstances. Notably, in arguing that mutual dependence and care are increasingly devalued, Sennett (1998) neglects to take account of the way that the women’s movement, as a major new social movement in the 20th century, has both problematized women’s primary responsibility for caring for dependants, and located mutual dependence and caring centrally in debates about the shape, and well-being, of societies (Pateman, 1988; Tronto, 1993). Indeed the evidence on the situation of women in the USA and Europe indicates that a feminist politics of identity has been far more than defensive, stimulating some of the most marked changes in modern social relations. Giddens on the other hand can be criticized for promoting an overly voluntarist view of self-identity, which offers a normative account of selfhood as amoral, rationalized, individualized and controlling. Such an account, Craib (1994a, 1994b) suggests, is part of the problem rather than a solution to existential dilemmas, because it sustains a fantasy of individual omnipotence: ‘what Giddens is writing about is less a reality than an ideology which marks the triumph of flexible accumulation’ (Craib, 1994b: 15). Is this a fair criticism? Undoubtedly Giddens’ (1991) view of the self as a project for continuous improvement can be read either as an account of tendencies in modern social relations which we have to recognize and orient to, or as a prescription for how people should live. Giddens acknowledges the risk that self-identity becomes reduced to ‘lifestyle choices’, and jobs can be seen as an addition to the range of ‘lifestyle options’ promoted by corporations. Treated as a prescriptive statement, the reflexive self accords perhaps too conveniently with the ideal-typical

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work identity at the core of emerging prescriptions for motivating labour. Employees are encouraged to become ‘entrepreneurs of the self’, aiming for continuous self-improvement in work and leisure (Du Gay, 1996). Choosing a job becomes another means of self-growth, with work presented not as duty but as ‘serious play’ (see Kane, 2000). Such a work ethic is increasingly promoted not just for service class occupations but for routine, low-paid jobs, recasting workers as ‘cast members’ or crew, with work as a lifestyle accessory (Bryman, 1999; Du Gay, 1996; MacDonald and Sirianni, 1996). Employees are encouraged to believe that the job choices they make give messages about who they are and how successful they are in a market for personal distinction. This could be read positively: if employers genuinely seek to engage people in work and provide adequate rewards, then an ideology of self-improvement may be progressive. Conversely people are likely to see through and resist restructuring initiatives that promise empowerment, or self-fulfilment, but deliver only more intensive demands. On the other hand, the choice of whether to align yourself with one brand of low-paid job rather than another can be interpreted as evidence of the reduction of ‘choice’ to a superficial, and narrowly circumscribed level, contributing in Sennett’s terms to weak character formation and unstable self-esteem. In such a context, the risks of an ideology of the reflexive self as a prescription for life are evident: people may be seduced by the idea that identification with a job and a corporation will solve the problem of who they are. If they apparently ‘fail’ to make successful job choices, people are likely to feel a sense of shame, because of the inability to achieve chosen ideals. The absence of alternative moral reference points may mean that such shame is highly destructive to a sense of competence. In focusing on the potential for progressive self-actualization, Giddens’ account can therefore lead to unrealistic expectations of unlimited self-growth through market opportunities. Craib (1994a), however, suggests that, even without traditional sources of moral authority, the disappointments encountered by people continue to make us competent human beings, because disappointment forces people to recognize the limits of individual autonomy, and enables us to empathize with, and care for, others. Both Sennett and Giddens offer persuasive and provocative world views which are not easily amenable to empirical evaluation. Each draws on limited, and in some instances anecdotal, evidence, but constructs wide-ranging claims about selfhood and the new economy. Giddens appeals largely to what we know through personal experience, and relies on a sample of popular ‘life guides’, which indicate a market for books on personal growth, but are unrepresentative of actual experience. Sennett relies on a small number of interviews and discussions with people who have moved jobs or experienced redundancy and includes some statistical indicators of changes in the US labour market. Clearly, specific evidence of a reflexive sense of self as a biographical project, or of a fragmented, weak and ‘corroded’ self, is limited. Demonstrating a causal link between subjective states and economic life is even harder. Nor can this article claim to offer a comprehensive appraisal of each argument through evidence, because of limitations of space. Instead, it seeks to deal with the

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limitations of the evidence by using it to construct differential tests of Giddens’ and Sennett’s competing claims about the impact of economic and organizational change in advanced capitalism on processes of self-identity. As a starting point for an evaluation of their arguments, it relies on a set of predominantly UK data, derived from existing survey and qualitative sources, which gives some indication of gender and class differences, but not ethnic divisions. Each type of data has weaknesses: notably, the survey data was collected for different purposes from those of this article and the interpretation of quantitative data is inevitably uncertain, frequently raising more questions for research. Qualitative data offers more insights into processes of character formation and personal identity but is limited in terms of its scale and representativeness. Yet without systematic attempts to evaluate broad theories of social change, it is impossible to make claims about their validity, or to contribute to a social science which exemplifies the sociological imagination.

Evidence of Short-termism in Employment Contracts First, in order to evaluate Sennett’s thesis with reference to the UK it is important to establish the extent to which there are indicators of short-termism in the labour market. Although the absence of such evidence does not necessarily invalidate his general argument that new economic forms are undermining selfhood, it would suggest that the grounds for pessimism are less. In this case, three measures are treated as indicative of short-termism: first, the length of service of employees; second, the overall rate of temporary employment; and third, employers’ reported use of temporary contracts. Other relevant data is also noted. These measures show that the depiction of a labour market universally characterized by casualization, contract work and multiple job moves is much overstated. Trend data from the UK Labour Force Survey in fact show considerable continuity between 1986 and 2000: for example, there was no decline in the percentage of employees with ten or more years of service and no sharp rise in the percentage of those with less than one year’s service (Table 1). The number of people who lose their jobs in any one year has also remained stable at around 5 percent in years of economic growth and 7.5 percent during recessions (Meadows, 1999). Further evidence that casualization is not becoming the norm comes from the figures for temporary employment, which remains at around 7 percent (1.6 million) of the labour force, showing little change since 1984, although men are now just as likely as women to experience temporary employment (Table 2). This picture of relative stability does, however, obscure some significant underlying changes in patterns of economic activity. For example, a greater proportion of employers report the use of temporary contracts, with an increase from 19 percent in 1980 to 35 percent in 1998 (Millward et al., 2000).1 At first sight this appears to contradict the picture of stability but other evidence sug-

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Table 1 Length of service of employeesa (United Kingdom)

Less than three months Three months but less than six months Six months but less than one year One year but less than two years Two years but less than five years Five years but less than ten years Ten years but less than twenty years Twenty years or more All employeesb (= 100%)(millions)

1986

1991

1996

2000

5 4 9 11 20 21 20 9 21.0

5 4 10 13 24 16 19 9 22.0

5 5 9 12 19 21 19 11 22.0

5 5 10 13 21 15 20 11 24.0

a

At Spring each year; males aged 16–64, females aged 16–59. Includes those who did not state length of time in current employment. Source: Labour Force Survey, ONS. b

Table 2 Percentage of temporary employment by gender (UK)

1984 1992 1997 1999

Women

Men

7.2 6.8 8.5 7.6

3.8 4.0 6.5 6.3

Source: Labour Force Survey, ONS.

gests that employers are making use of such contracts as an extended form of job selection, moving most employees onto permanent contracts after a short period (Meadows, 1999). Therefore, although more people may experience temporary work, it is likely to be a short-lived experience for most and, overall, remains a small proportion of total employment. Average economic activity rates also disguise other changes. In particular an increasing proportion of men of working age are economically inactive: ONS Labour Force Survey data shows that since 1971, men’s activity rates have fallen from 91 percent to 84 percent. There is also gradual convergence between men and women, with 72 percent of women now economically active compared to 56 percent in 1971, albeit 44 percent of these work part time. For both younger men and women, participation is affected by government policies to expand further and higher education. It is not surprising then that among the 16–24 age group there is evidence of more frequent job moves, with people holding an average of four jobs in three years now, as opposed to two jobs in three years in the 1970s (Meadows, 1999). A proportion of these will be short-term jobs held by students to support their time in post-school education. Perhaps most remarkable,

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however, is the declining economic activity among men aged 55 and over: 75 percent of men aged 55–59 were economically active in 2000 compared to 95 percent in 1971; only 50 percent of those aged 60–64 were economically active, compared with 85 percent in 1971. This signals a marked shortening of average working life for men and gradual equalizing of years of economic activity between men and women. Short-termism then is by no means the norm, but neither is the more or less continuous employment associated with modern organizations and the linear career quite the same as it was at the beginning of the 1970s.

Perceptions of Insecurity and Declining Trust in Employment Relations The absence of strong evidence of short-termism in employment data suggests that Sennett’s thesis is overly pessimistic, at least with reference to the UK. It does not, however, necessarily undermine all aspects of his argument: even without high levels of casualization, it may be that the experience of restructuring, and retrenchment, in large organizations creates a general perception of short-termism and insecurity among the workforce, and erodes trust in employment relations. Such insecurity may indicate, as Sennett (1998) suggests, that employers are placing a lower value on loyalty, and are acting more instrumentally towards staff, in turn making it harder for people to sustain a sense of coherence about their lives. There is evidence that much of the workforce feels insecure, despite relatively low rates of unemployment. Comparing data from the 1986 Social Change and Economic Life Initiative with a 1997 sample of 340 men and women, Burchell et al. (2000) found that perceived insecurity had increased since the 1960s, and was at its highest in the 1990s. White-collar groups, and professionals in particular, experienced an increasing sense of insecurity during the 1990s, in accord with Sennett’s argument that uncertainty increasingly affects the lives of the more prosperous as well as the poor. The middle classes, however, remain at far less risk of unemployment than those in manual work: in 1995 four percent of Social Class 1 and 2 experienced unemployment compared with 29 percent of Social Class IV and V (skilled and unskilled manual workers) (OPCS, 1996). There was little change in the rates of professional and managerial unemployment since 1975, whereas unemployment among all groups of manual workers increased considerably. Perceived insecurity is of course about more than job loss or job change and is likely to be related to other forms of employment relations dynamics. There is evidence to support Sennett’s contention that much of the workforce feels more marginal, and less valued, at work. Changing workplace arrangements translate most commonly into working harder, feeling more disposable, and having less status and prospects (Burchell et al., 2000; Gallie et al., 1998; Warhurst and Thompson, 1998). Such control as is devolved is likely to con-

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cern the detail of work arrangements and tasks, with people assuming more responsibility for the quality of work and for continuous improvement within a prescribed sphere (Milkman, 1998). Of the 340 employees interviewed by Burchell et al. (2000), 75 percent reported increased responsibility, but only 19 percent reported an increase in promotion prospects and 27 percent reported a decrease. Over 60 percent reported increases in the speed of work and in the effort required to do their jobs, and effects on morale, motivation and family life were negative. Indicators of insecurity and increased pressure suggest that organizational changes which allocate more responsibility for solving problems and using initiative are not being accompanied by commensurate gains in control over organizational decisions or in a sense of being valued. While task discretion has increased on average, there has been a decline in participation of most employees in organizational decision making (Gallie et al., 1998). The loss of trust is evident: Burchell et al. (2001) found that only 26 percent of respondents regarded management and employees as on the same side and most did not believe that existing job security agreements would be honoured. British Social Attitude Survey data shows an increase in the percentage of those agreeing that management will always try to get the better of employees from 53 percent in 1985 to 62 percent in 1996 (Table 3). There is evidence from the same data that, alhough one third of those surveyed continue to feel that they have a lot of say over decisions at work, the numbers of those who doubt that they would have any say are increasing (Table 4). Similarly, an increasing proportion feels they should have more say (Table 5). Perhaps not surprisingly, commitment to organization goals and values remains low especially where the predominant prescribed values are those of market efficiency (Gallie et al., 1998). Evidence of low morale, a sense of strain, insecurity and marginality suggests that organizational restructuring is having at least some of the corrosive effects envisaged by Sennett (1998).2 Instead of casualization being the main cause however, it seems likely to stem from the intensification of work and responsibility for solving problems, without commensurate authority, or resources and without the expectation of future benefit from the employer in the form of promotion prospects and a sense of status. Sennett’s argument that a sense of shared fate and common cause is eroded by new economic forms also receives some support from evidence of decline in trade union participation. Despite heightened distrust in employment relations, and a desire for more involvement in organizational decisions, people are not Table 3 Percentage agreeing that ‘Management will always try to get the better of employees if it gets the chance’

% agreeing Base

1985

1990

1996

53 743

62 1167

62 1351

Source: British Social Attitudes Survey, adapted from Bryson and McKay, 1997

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Table 4 Employees’ perceptions of their influence over decisions at work

% thinking that they Would have ‘any say’ Would have ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a great deal’ of say Base

1985

1991

1996

62 37 857

54 35 1236

55 35 1542


Table 5 Percentage of employees saying they should have more say in decisions affecting their work

% thinking that they Should have more say Base

1985

1991

1996

36 857

45 1236

46 1542


seeking solutions through collective organization. There was continuing substantial decline in the density of union membership in all sectors of the economy between 1980 and 1998: from 56 percent to 26 percent in the private sector and 84 percent to 57 percent in the public sector (Millward et al., 2000). There is also evidence of generational change such that younger people are less likely to be union members, as are those with fewer years of service. Government policies which limit the power of unions have been instrumental in undermining the commitment to joint regulation of employment relations, but Millward et al. (2000) argue this is also facilitated by increasing adoption of the ‘values of acquisitive individualism’ (p. 235) and widespread acceptance that voluntary joint regulation is no longer desirable.

Corroded Characters or Reflexive Actors? Does it follow from evidence of greater insecurity, the erosion of trust and increased individualism in employment relations that a weaker, more embattled self is the result? It is obviously difficult to produce valid general evidence of subjective states. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to infer from various indicators of social attitudes something of the dynamics of self-identity. If Giddens is correct, even in a period of perceived economic insecurity and heightened anxiety about the future, we should expect to find evidence of people’s resistance to work intensification and a degree of scepticism towards claims of

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Table 6 Willingness of unemployed to take an ‘unacceptable’ job

Very willing Quite willing Not very willing Base

1983 %

1989 %

1994 %

24 31 41 63

10 25 58 56

9 29 61 122

Base: All unemployed who thought it would take 3 months or more before they found an acceptable job. Source: Adapted from British Social Attitudes Survey, Spencer, 1996

employers. People’s ability to think and act reflexively and to plan ways of improving their situation should be evident in career planning, risk-taking and a positive orientation to job mobility. There should also be evidence that work is viewed as a source of self-growth. Conversely, a more fragile sense of self should be reflected in a greater willingness of people to be endlessly malleable in relation to labour market uncertainty. First, it is worth noting that people do resist demands for infinite malleability and adaptability. For example, survey data show that the willingness of those who are unemployed to take an ‘unacceptable’ job has declined since 1983 (Table 6), and although the majority remain willing to retrain if necessary, there has been an increase in the proportion of those who are not very willing (Tables 7 and 8). Neither are people’s experiences of work as universally bleak as Sennett’s thesis might imply. On average people regard the level of skills and discretion demanded by their jobs to have increased since the 1980s (Gallie et al., 1998). Increased skill levels and task discretion were associated with improved interest in work, and a higher sense of involvement, as well as higher stress. Rising skill levels are also associated with perceived opportunities for self-development, implying that organizational change is encouraging a greater proportion of

Table 7 Willingness of employees to retrain


1983 %

1989 %

1995 %

54 25 11 350

44 34 17 340

49 33 16 569

Base: All employees who thought that if they lost their current job it would take 3 months or more before they found an acceptable job. Source: Adapted from British Social Attitudes Survey, Spencer, 1996

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Table 8 Willingness of unemployed to retrain


1983 %

1989 %

1995 %

50 30 14 63

31 31 32 56

44 34 22 121

Base: All unemployed who thought that if they lost their current job it would take 3 months or more before they found an acceptable job. Source: Adapted from British Social Attitudes Survey, Spencer, 1996

people to be more reflexive about work and potentially to adopt a more demanding attitude to it. Evidence from research with young adults (20–29 year olds) suggests that despite some sense of insecurity, and financial pressures, most feel in control of their lives, with two-thirds making plans for the future, particularly in relation to work and housing (Anderson et al., 2002). It was poverty and, in some cases, parenthood which damaged people’s ability to plan and not a sense of insecurity per se. Nor is life planning a preserve of the middle classes: Li et al. (2002) found that a quarter of their sample of working-class people aged between 30 and 70 and over half of 20–29 year olds made forward plans. Aspirational attitudes correlated with greater success in the labour market, with those who made plans being more likely to have jobs and higher incomes. In accord with this evidence of a sense of agency and control, British Social Attitude Survey data show an increasing proportion of people expressing some intention to be mobile in the job market. The proportion of people surveyed who were expecting to leave their current employer in the next year rose from 18 percent in 1983 to 27 percent in 1995 (Table 9), and an increasing proportion stated that this was to go to a new job (from 40% in 1983 to 53% in 1995), presumably a matter of choice, rather than for reasons of redundancy or self-employment (Table 10). Perhaps not surprisingly, those in managerial and professional occupations, with credentials likely to enable career mobility, are particularly likely to see

Table 9 Likelihood of leaving current employer over next year

Likely Not likely Base

1983 %

1990 %

1995 %

18 81 817

24 76 1307

27 73 1449

Source: Adapted from British Social Attitudes Survey, Spencer, 1996

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Table 10 Reasons for leaving current employer (%)

Redundancy New job Self-employment Base

1983 %

1990 %

1995 %

23 40 7 147

9 56 9 312

13 53 6 396

Base: All those ‘very’ or ‘quite’ likely to leave current employer. Source: Adapted from British Social Attitudes Survey, Spencer, 1996

themselves as pursuing self-actualization through work (Halford et al., 1997; Hanlon, 1998; Whittington et al., 1994). In a recent survey, Wajcman and Martin (2001) found that Australian senior managers presented themselves as able to make effective life plans and choices and the men at least appeared mostly untroubled by the idea that such choices are market driven and tend to exclude other activities, because of the time demands of their career. Unlike some of Sennett’s (1998) interviewees, none of the men appeared troubled by a vision of themselves as individualistic, ambitious and mobile. The women, however, felt guilty about the unlimited liability aspect of a commitment to career, over and above children and personal relations, and expressed some unease with the individualism of ‘life planning’ oriented primarily to career goals. A sense of self, with a degree of agency and reflexive control over work and life, is not therefore overwhelmed by new economic forms. Different groups in the workforce are differentiated in their responses to employers’ demands for continuing adaptability and organizational commitment, with evidence of resistance to such pressures, whether because of socio-economic status, family commitments, life stage or values. Women and men are increasingly convergent in their propensity to plan work careers, though priorities may differ (Crompton and Harris, 1998; Wajcman, 1998), but the differences between men and women managers suggest that women continue to be sharply aware of the tensions between career advancement and family life. Sennett (1998) sees the individualism produced by contemporary employment patterns as eroding solidaristic family relations of mutual dependence and care, but he neglects the particular significance of rising economic activity rates among women, as women increasingly apply ideas about self-actualization to themselves and refuse a primarily domestic identity. Arguably, it is the changing relations between men and women which are producing some of the apparent problems of mutual dependence identified by Sennett, but the women’s movement has long since demonstrated that modern family life, based on women’s subordinate status, served many women less well than men. Women’s increased economic activity gives many greater control over their lives, but in the context of continuing struggle over domestic and caring responsibilities.

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Organizations and the Shape of Selfhood It is clear even from this exploratory examination of evidence that Giddens’ and Sennett’s claims about the social relations of advanced capitalism are overly generalized. When examined in relation to specific social contexts, it is evident that the inter-relations of self-identity and organizations are multi-faceted and indeterminate. In the context of labour market uncertainty, we are constrained to choose because of the more open-ended, less standardized routes into and through organizations, which in turn affirm a sense of individual accountability for personal biography. Whether the choices which we are constrained to make are ‘character building’ or socially corrosive is harder to evaluate, and there are no universally valid generalizations. To what extent is Sennett’s argument that contemporary organization developments are broadly destructive of social character and personal meaning substantiated? There is support for the main thrust of his argument that the personal consequences of work in the new capitalism are damaging. Many people are experiencing greater pressure and a stronger sense of insecurity, consistent with more instrumental approaches to managing the workforce. People tend to feel less valued and more disposable at work, as well as more burdened, while appropriate recognition and rewards are perceived as worse than they were. In the UK at least, however, Sennett’s argument that such experiences are the result of economic short-termism is not convincing. Although work remains a source of anxiety, frustration and pressure, it is not characterized by high rates of short-termism. There is considerable continuity in organization practices, job tenure and in employment relations. Most people are not building portfolio careers or constantly changing jobs, whether through choice or necessity. For many people restructuring has been accompanied by a rise in skill levels and a sense of increased challenge in work. How is this apparent contradiction between relative continuity and upskilling, and greater insecurity and pressure to be explained? The evidence suggests that despite espoused management aspirations for ‘winning hearts and minds’ and ‘empowering’ employees to use discretion and solve problems, management practices are driven principally by the rationales of cost-cutting and market efficiency. Consequently, people experience increased responsibility without gains in authority or a stake in organizational decisions, resulting in declining trust in employment relations and low morale. Employees are being led to expect more involvement in organizational strategies, and appear to be frustrated by its absence or its decline. Organizational restructuring could be conceived of as running ahead of the social infrastructure needed to regulate it. Hence, meaningful debate about the control and public accountability of complex organizations remains elusive. As organizations become more highly rationalized, and more inter-connected through global networks, it seems likely that a higher proportion of social exchange is instrumentally shaped and conducted through abstract mechanisms. In these conditions, it may be that the type of character regarded by Sennett (1998) as central to bonds of solidarity and mutuality is harder to sus-

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tain. Individualization and declining collective organization may result in greater instrumentality, and perhaps greater cynicism. Social cohesion, mutual dependence, and a stable sense of selfhood are made more difficult in conditions which encourage a view of the self as another commodity, tradable in a market place, in competition with all other commodified selves. More individualized accountability for labour market experience is taking place in the context of wider inequality between best and worst paid (Howarth et al., 1999), and unemployment continues to be concentrated among those groups in the lowest paid jobs. It is not therefore the case that the effects of uncertainty are increasingly having the same impact throughout the class structure. Exhortations to self-reliance are then likely to reinforce the most damaging sense of failure and self-blame for those in the poorest households. To accept the inevitability of such a socially corrosive process is, however, to indulge in a kind of metaphysical pathos, or inappropriate nostalgia for a past time which was probably never quite the idyll which it may now seem. Sennett offers a sharp reminder of the negative potentialities of neo-liberal economics and the corrosive effects of individualism in advanced capitalist societies, where wealth creation becomes the ultimate value, rather than relations of mutual dependence and care, but his pessimism is over-stated, resulting in a world view which offers little scope for resistance or progressive change. The sense of self as a narrative project is not precluded by current restructuring, and there is evidence of people’s resilience and reflexivity in the face of economic uncertainty and organizational restructuring. Organizations continue to generate significant resources for people to enhance their skills and a sense of themselves as personally competent. In this sense Giddens (1991) is correct that new organization forms do not inevitably undermine a meaningful sense of biography: people retain a capacity to resist the more oppressive aspects of their lives and to use knowledge and skills in a socially responsible way. New social movements such as the women’s movement are more than a defensive reaction to the emerging economic order. Women’s pursuit of self-actualization, expressed in the refusal of a subordinate feminine identity, and attempts to craft new relations between men and women which are not confined by ideologies of feminine and masculine, have stimulated enormous social change. The women’s movement, among other new social movements, challenges the instrumentalism of modern societies and their neglect of existential questions, and argues for a society which prioritizes care and mutually dependable intimate relations. There remains, however, the risk that the notion of the reflexive self acts as an ideological construct in a flexibilized economy, where we are encouraged to treat all relationships as operating in a marketplace (Craib, 1994b). Focusing on individual control over the development of personal biography downplays the institutional and relational sources of selfhood. Experience of the day-today limits of self-reliance and control, set by constraints of political economy on the one hand and family and intimate relations on the other, provides the material for a critique of the new economy and the basis for self-awareness.

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Acknowledgements In memory of Colin Bell, who read successive drafts. With thanks to Adrian Sinfield for comments, references and help with data. An earlier version of the article was presented at the Work, Employment and Society conference, University of Nottingham, September 2001.

Notes 1 2

Based on workplaces with more than 25 employees. It would be valuable to examine the impact of such changes on stress-related and other health indicators, but this is beyond the scope of the present article.

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Halford, S., M. Savage and A. Witz (1997) Gender, Careers and Organisations. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Hammer, M. and J. Champy (1993) Re-engineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Success. London: Michael Brearley. Hanlon, G. (1998) ‘Professionalism as Enterprise: Service Class Politics and the Redefinition of Professionalism’, Sociology 32: 43–64. Harrison, B. (1994) Lean and Mean. New York: Basic Books. Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford, Blackwell. Held, D., A. McGrew, D. Goldblatt and J. Perraton (1999) Global Transformations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Howarth, C., P. Kenway, G. Palmer and R. Miorelli (1999) Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Kane, P. (2000) ‘The Play Ethic’, Observer Magazine 22 October: 20–30. Knights, D. and H. Willmott (eds) (2000) The Reengineering Revolution: Critical Studies of Corporate Change. London: Sage. Lash, S. and J. Urry (1994) Economies of Signs and Space. London: Sage. Li, Y., F. Bechhofer, R. Stewart, D. McCrone, M. Anderson and L. Jamieson (2002) ‘A Divided Working Class? Planning and Career Perception in the Service and Working Classes’, Work, Employment and Society 16(4): 617–36. MacDonald, C. and C. Sirianni (eds) (1996) Working in the Service Society. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Meadows, P. (1999) The Flexible Labour Market: Implications for Pension Provision. London: NAPF. Milkman, R. (1998) ‘The New American Workplace: High Road or Low Road?’, in P. Thompson and C. Warhurst (eds) Workplaces of the Future, pp. 25–39. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Millward, N., N. Bryson and J. Forth (2000) All Change at Work? British Employment Relations 1980–1998, as Portrayed by the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey Series. London: Routledge. Mulholland, K. (1998) ‘Survivors vs. Movers and Shakers: The Reconstitution of Management Careers in the Privatised Utilities’, in P. Thompson and C. Warhurst (eds) Workplaces of the Future, pp. 184–203. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Office for Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) (1996) Living in Britain. London: OPCS. Pateman, C. (1988) The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity Press. Scarborough, H. and G. Burrell (1996) ‘The Axeman Cometh: The Changing Roles and Knowledges of Middle Managers’, in S. Clegg and G. Palmer (eds) The Politics of Management Knowledge, pp. 229–45. London: Sage. Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character. New York: WW Norton. Spencer, P. (1996) ‘Reactions to a Flexible Labour Market’, in R. Jowell, J. Curtice, A. Park, L. Brook and K. Thomson (eds) British Social Attitudes, 13th Report, pp. 73–91. Aldershot: Ashgate. Thompson, P. and C. Warhurst (1998) Workplaces of the Future. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Tronto, J. (1993) Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care. London: Routledge. Wajcman, J. (1998) Managing Like a Man. Cambridge: Polity.

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Wajcman, J. and B. Martin (2001) ‘Public and Private Narratives of Managers: The Corrosion of Gender Difference?’, Work, Employment and Society Conference, University of Nottingham. Warhurst, C. and P. Thompson (1998) ‘Hands, Hearts and Minds: Changing Work and Workers at the End of the Century’, in P. Thompson and C. Warhurst (eds) Workplaces of the Future, pp. 1–24. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Webb, J. (1999) ‘Work and the New Public Service Class?’, Sociology 33(4): 747–66. Whittington, R., T. McNulty and R. Whipp (1994) ‘Market-driven Change in Professional Services: Problems and Processes’, Journal of Management Studies 31: 829–45.

Janette Webb Is Reader in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Her main interests are the sociology of gender, work and organizations. Address: School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, Adam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh EH8 9LL, UK. E-mail: [email protected]