Richard Sennett, the author of “No Long Term: New Work and The Corrosion of Character”, writes that the “qualities of good work [in the new economy] are not the qualities of good character. Furthermore, he argued that our work affects our character and ultimately, our prospects for personal fulfillment. Satisfaction affects everything from a person’s happiness and family life which may contribute to motivation and play a major role in an individual’s performance and commitment to their work.
Sennett’s first example of a person is Enrico. Enrico is a typical man that is trying to live the American Dream for his family. Enrico had worked as a janitor and saved money to go towards his children’s education so that they can get closer to the American Dream. Enrico knew when, how long and where he was supposed to work. By knowing that, he planned for his future in a long term manner. However, Enrico’s son Rico has developed a “no long term” nonchalant attitude about life which affects his character and work ethic. “He feared that the actions he needs to take and the way he has to live in order to survive in the modern economy have set his emotional, inner life adrift.”(Sennett 310) This type of fear has been built into his work history. Richard Sennett uses “No Long Term” as a motto which means “keep moving, don’t commit yourself, and don’t sacrifice.”(Sennett 314) This saying places corrosion upon values that should be instilled in human beings such as loyalty, respect and trust. With this saying, being used as a base in a person’s life will reflect a poor choice of character which is translated into different relationships in life whether it is personal or job-related.
The word character as it is described in “No Long Term:...
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...ence pointed to me. The operation managers then informed that two of the coworkers that I considered friends had told them these things. “Take the matter of commitment and loyalty. “No long term” is a principle which corrodes trust, loyalty, and mutual commitment. Trust can, of course, be a purely formal matter, as when people agree to a business deal or rely on another to observe the rules in a a game. But usually deeper experiences of trust are more informal, as when people learn on whom they can rely when given a difficult or impossible task. Such social bonds take time to develop, slowly rooting into the cracks and crevices of institutions.” (Sennett 313) However, that was not the case because the coworkers that betrayed had actually been taking the money. This incident affected my character and I felt as if I could not trust anyone in the establishment.
“Most people in the U.S. want to do the right thing, and they want others to do the right thing. Thus, reputation and trust are important to pretty much everyone individuals and organizations. However, individuals do have different values, attributes, and priorities that guide their decisions and behavior. Taken to an extreme, almost any personal value, attribute, or priority can “cause” an ethical breach (e.g. risk taking, love of money or sta...
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
McGregor has written two theories about human nature. Theory X basically assumes that people will do the least amount of work required of them. That they will need to be monitored and workers will need a set of rules for every employee to follow . There is also no incentive for them to go above their current job duty. Theory Y basically believes that if you give the employee the opportunity to do well the employee will take that opportunity and use it to the best of their abilities. They are able to set their own work goals and really strive to put their all into their career. They will be go getters that are responsible for their self and willing to do whatever the company needs from them. They will own up to any issue and trust that their co-workers will do the same (Larsson, Vinberg & Wiklund, 2007).
We all know that most people hate their jobs. Work is seen as something we have to do, and very lucky few seem to find a job that we enjoy. How we feel about work, and what we do for a living, in many ways helps to define who we are and who we are going to become. Having seen actual people share their perspectives and view points on “working for a living” helps us see ourselves and rethink our future. Overall, Studs Terkel helps flash- back into America's history and see the changes that America ans it’s people have gone through.
...cted betrayal runs deep into our veins like a sickness, and soon transforms us into someone filled with hubris and unawareness our actions truly have on those who surround us. In the business world, this could hinder you from helping your company, as an employee or leader who intends to only help themselves can very easily bring down their company and those who make it up with their selfish behavior. One must become aware of their self-centered and deceptive behavior to fully “get outside of the box” they are living in. To do this, one must first look at the how to help the others around them before themselves, and ultimately to focus on what is going on outside of themselves, or to use a cliché, walk in the shoes of others before we judge them and to better support them in their shortcomings. The hope would then be that others will support you when you are in need.
Inconsiderate actions can lead to a person’s downfall. Different people broke down due to the actions of Lennie with the pups, Lennie with Curley’s wife, and Lennie with George. All in all, a person might be influenced by their thoughts to formulate poor decisions.. This knowledge can affect today’s society. People should think twice before choosing to do one thing or another, for if everyone made inconsiderate decisions, the world would not be able to reform, due to everyone’s selfish choices. Everyone would turn into selfish and unsympathetic people. These careless decisions do not benefit anyone.
The general essence of the article is that the old ways of work and the work ethic of the older generations have broken apart. In place of stable routine and predictable career paths, employees are now expected to be fluid in their jobs, and open to change on very short notice. Workers of today's generation can no longer expect long term work, or the trust and loyalty that were given to the employees of the older generation. In some ways, the writer argues that this change between the generations is positive, as they can make for a more dynamic economy. However, they are also the cause of the article's title, "The Corrosion of Character". The work ethics of the employees are no longer valued. They are taken as face value, and there is no trust and loyalty. These changes are destructive to the worker's sense of sustained purpose, integrity of self and the trust they hold in others within the workplace.
Based off of the gratification an individual contains towards their work is job satisfaction. The productivity could either be positive or negative while the relationship between the productivity and satisfaction may not be consistent. There are multiple internal and external factors of job satisfaction that can impact the behavior of an employee and engagement over time. The way the worker’s attitude concerning their field effects the performance they perform on a daily basis. One who is satisfied with the job they maintain, succeed at what they do. “It is therefore imperative for a company to understand the attitude of its workers and measure the job satisfaction of its employees, as job satisfaction is essential for productivity” (L. Bradshaw
Over time, this dull pain can erode the self-confidence and passion of even the strongest people, which in turn, affects their spouses and children and friends in subtle but profound ways… Though it may be difficult to quantify, the dissatisfaction of employees has a direct impact on productivity, turnover, and morale, all of which eventually hit a company’s bottom line hard,” (p. ix –
This theory implicates a logical illustration that if the nature of a job sufficed and met the five core characteristics, the employee would feel a sense of fulfillment that would result in excellent work performance (Armstrong, 2017). The job design prefigures the significant relationship of the five core dimensions as to how a worker perceives the three vital psychological states – meaningfulness of work, responsibility and knowledge of outcomes – that would eventually contribute to a sense of general job satisfaction, personal growth, increased motivation and effectiveness of work (DeVaro, Li, Brookshire, 2007). There is a dynamic suggestion in JCM that acclaims the correlation of positive feelings with an excellent performance, and negative feelings with poor performance (Mukul, Rayhan, Hoque, & Islam,
Latham G.P and Pinder C.C. (2005). Work Motivation Theory and Research at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century. Annual Review of Psychology 56.
DONKIN, R (2001) Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Evolution of Work London: Texere. (Ch. 11 – Western Electric Discovers Motivation).
It will be unfair to say that Taylor’s theory did not do any good for the economy as a whole. In fact it really helped the economy in age of industrial development. But presently, in the age of high technologies we do not need to stress people to work hard. Many jobs require qualified people that being fired very hard to replace. Creating a workaholic – Type A persons, can be very dangerous for future economics of single company and nation’s economy in the whole.
In this regard, Ahmad et al (2013) states that job satisfaction could result in improved productivity, innovation anddedication to maintaining quality of service given to clients. Employees are more likely tooperate most effectively when their needs are satisfied (Bekele and Darshan, 2011). Theproductivity of employees is likely to increase, which in turn result in effective achievement ofgoals of an organization (Stone & Pattern, 2005 in Bekele &Darshan, 2011). Moreover,satisfied employees are more likely to absent less, stay at work longer, and show less job stress.Arzi&Farahbod (2014) added by saying that satisfied employees are more likely to feel senseof accountability, be committed and stay long in an organization. Job satisfaction leads to goalachievement. It also helps employees tackle obstacles that may be faced while working in anorganization(Goffee & Jones, 2007). Organizations want their employees to become satisfied in order for theemployees to become productive (Sattar, Nawaz & Khan, 2012). Furthermore, job satisfactionimposes much impact on general life of an individual employee. As being happy is the right ofhuman being, employees must be happy. Thus, “highly satisfied worker has better physical andmentalwellbeing” (Chahal, Chahal, Chowdhary, &Chahal, 2013; Rajasekar&Bhuvaneswari,2014; Garg & Kaushik, 2013; Latif, Ahmad, Qasim, Mushtaq, Ferdoos&Naeem, 2013; Singh& Jain, 2013; Naseem, Ejaz&
...s in the corporate world by setting new standards to promote and better satisfy their employees. We chose four leading companies in four different industries. The above analysis definitely reveals that perhaps one of the reasons why these companies are the leaders in their industry is because they are well aware of the importance of the work force. They mention in their mission statements as well that yes in deed customers are important but in order to make the customer happy they first need to motivate and satisfy the employee as well. According to Citibank, the general belief is that a happy worker is a motivated and loyal one. So keeping employees' spirits high is a sure-fire way of maintaining a productive workforce. A productive work force would ultimately lead to a healthy organization which would not only promote the society its working for but also itself.