Encyclopedia Entry : Work Ethic

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Work ethic is a set of values or belief based on moral attitude that hard work is worthy of reward. It also refers to the workers moral benefit based on one’s earnest and its ability to improve his capacity.
Although the value has been changed throughout the history, society still has its expectation on workers that they should have a good work ethic in order to be selected for better position where it requires more responsibility, recognition of his contribution with higher wages. Contrary, society does not trust the workers, who do not meet the expectation, for being neglect his duties and fail to make contribution to his society.
Max Weber, a sociologist and the author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, traced the origin of the work ethic in relation of ethics and ascetic Protestantism in the spirit of capitalism. According to Weber, Protestantism offers a concept of the “calling” and encourages a religious virtue while Calvinism taught predestination. The new religions oppose the spending hard earned money on luxuries identified as a sin, while the social condition of ‘not working’ perceived as laziness, an affront to God.” When capitalism emerged, these values blur into their capitalistic value and the profit justifies within their secular ethic and spirit of capitalism.
In contemporary society, the social meaning of occupation has changed and recessed in its ideological transformation in social progress. People have shared their solidarities in their profession and beyond the division of labor, however, the progress of industrialization and technological innovation have been maximized by the social division. Subsequently, regression has been made and fallen into consequentialism and anomie of society i...

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... concept of Karl Marx, minimizing the unemployment benefits or taxing their immediate family more to share public responsibility, however any of their plans haven’t occurred yet. Recently, social economists believe this crisis will be fade away when the late baby-boomers leave their labor market and hopefully waiting will bring new economical achievement and lead to peace in the troubled nation.

Works Cited

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons.
London and New York: Routledge Classics. 2001.

Durkheim, Emile. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press. 1997.

Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by Gerald Bevan. London: Penquin
Classics. 2003.

Katz, Michael. In the Shadow of the Poorhouse: A Social History of Welfare in America.
Massachusetts: Basic Book. 1986.

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