Social Consequences of Diversified Employment: From a Perspective of Work and Society
- PDF / 154,122 Bytes
- 20 Pages / 442 x 663 pts Page_size
- 71 Downloads / 156 Views
Social Consequences of Diversified Employment: From a Perspective of Work and Society Narumi Tsukamoto School of Management, Josai University, 1-1 Keyakidai, Sakado-city, Saitama 350-0295, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]
This article argues that employment diversification may lead to serious social consequences, insofar as it is a result of corporate technical and economic requirements. In terms of spontaneous cooperation from individuals, diversified employment might have two undesirable consequences. First, diversification in work and employment means that marketability penetrates every social sector. Widespread systematization in the social sector and a dominant market ethic bring about excessive rationalization, along with increasing individualization, in society. Second, diverse employment and flexible work styles segment working life and destroy lifetime employment as a norm, and divide the community of workers in a workplace. Although diversity or flexibility in employment and working style has benefits for workers, this can lead to a monistic labour society, where only paid work has social value, and voluntarism is devalued. In such a society, corporate activity will decay, because social vitality drops and management can no longer anticipate voluntary cooperation among workers. Both the autonomy and cooperation of individuals in social and working life are essential for the vitality of corporations and society. Asian Business & Management (2007) 6, 199–218. doi:10.1057/palgrave.abm.9200219 Keywords: diversified employment; monistic labour society; spontaneous cooperation; individualization; social relations; performance-based pay system
Pinpointing the Issues The diversification and mobilization of employment are essential to the formation of an affluent society, because various alternatives in working methods are central to an individual’s independent livelihood. However, when diversified employment is dictated by the technical and economic requirements of a corporation or government rather than by workers’ own needs, there is a danger of breakdown in the diversity and vitality of society itself. The employment diversification in progress today is apparent in the marketization of public social domains such as medical care, welfare and Received 17 March 2006; revised 19 May 2006; accepted 9 September 2006
Narumi Tsukamoto Social Consequences of Diversified Employment
200
education, as well as in the social disintegration and reorganization of labour through performance-based pay systems. This trend, affecting all areas of the labour market, may lead to a monistic labour society, where only paid work acquires social value and adaptability to the labour market is required. Spontaneous cooperation takes a back seat in a monistic labour society. The present paper aims to show that diversification and mobilization of employment achieved merely through free competition and marketability result in the individualization of society (or the isolation of the individual). With the advancement of information te
Data Loading...
