Participation as a Collusive Quarrel  

Oleh:

Sievers, Burkard

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Ethical Perspectives: Journal of the European Ethics Network vol. 3 no. 3 (Oct. 1996), page 128-136.
Topik: Participation; Collusive Quarrel
Fulltext: Burkard Sievers.PDF (91.58KB)

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE45.2 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

Lihat Detail Induk

Isi artikel

The following article has its basis in the respective chapter of my book entitled Work, Death, and Life Itself (Sievers, 1994). In the present article I intend to elaborate the working hypothesis that the attempt to increase and extend participation in contemporary work enterprises can be understood more than ever before as a collusive quarrel between managers and workers about immortality. The quarrel has its roots in the widespread experience of the discrepancy between the vigour with which participation in organisations is demanded and offered on the one hand and the inadequacy and limitations of its actual realisation on the other. Attempts to increase participation in a work enterprise are often confronted at an early stage with insoluble difficulties which too often lead to termination of the participation project. Although participation in general, and in work enterprises in particular, is generally seen as a paradigm (or metaphor) for integration, co operation and democratisation among more or less equal partners, I propose the hypothesis that any attempt to practice participation will most probably lead to a situation in which management and workers get entangled in a collusive quarrel concerning the preconditions, content and range of said participation. Sustained by the predominant myth that management means the management of people, workers tend to become infantilised. The deep contempt and mistrust that so often characterise relations between managers and workers and/or their respective representatives thus poisons any simultaneous desire for trust and cooperation. In an analogy with ancient Greek mythology and its inherent quarrel between the immortal gods and the mortal ephemerals, the collusion between management and workers in contemporary work enterprises can be understood as a quarrel about participating in immortality. Since immortality is a limited resource, it is only available to the happy few. The collusive quarrel and the underlying split between managers and workers can only be overcome if both parties recognise that as human beings they can neither escape mortality nor relieve the other of it.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali