Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions
The first book to delineate anti-work in a systematic fashion by identifying and compiling positions from a wide spread of literature, Anti- Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions defines the tenets of anti-work, reviews them from a psychological and historical point of view, and offers solutions to aid the average person in his or her struggle with work.

Anti-work thinkers have vigorously argued that work entails a submission of the human will that is constraining and even ultimately damaging. The author has refined 18 tenets of anti-work from the literature, which range from the suggestion that all jobs are bad, to the remarkable ability of modern capitalist enterprises to build "job engagement" among workers, to the proposal of alternative work- deemphasized worlds. Anti-Work begins with a discussion of these tenets, in particular the submission of the will required by work, followed by an overview of topics such as worker resistance, merit, and precarious work. The second part of the book unfolds various possible human responses to the work problem, such as detachment, thinking while working, and right livelihood. In the third part, several lessons about anti-work are drawn from parables, koans, and tales. Discussions of cults and work, working from home, unions, and cooperatives, as well as lessons from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, offer additional perspectives on the topic of work and provide guidance on developing a helpful attitude toward it.

By highlighting the tensions that exist between anti-work and pro-work positions, the book provides new ways to view and plan life, and will give thought- provoking and valuable insights for students, instructors, and practitioners in industrial and organizational psychology and related fields, as well as all people who have worked, will work, have never worked, or will never work.

1139396730
Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions
The first book to delineate anti-work in a systematic fashion by identifying and compiling positions from a wide spread of literature, Anti- Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions defines the tenets of anti-work, reviews them from a psychological and historical point of view, and offers solutions to aid the average person in his or her struggle with work.

Anti-work thinkers have vigorously argued that work entails a submission of the human will that is constraining and even ultimately damaging. The author has refined 18 tenets of anti-work from the literature, which range from the suggestion that all jobs are bad, to the remarkable ability of modern capitalist enterprises to build "job engagement" among workers, to the proposal of alternative work- deemphasized worlds. Anti-Work begins with a discussion of these tenets, in particular the submission of the will required by work, followed by an overview of topics such as worker resistance, merit, and precarious work. The second part of the book unfolds various possible human responses to the work problem, such as detachment, thinking while working, and right livelihood. In the third part, several lessons about anti-work are drawn from parables, koans, and tales. Discussions of cults and work, working from home, unions, and cooperatives, as well as lessons from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, offer additional perspectives on the topic of work and provide guidance on developing a helpful attitude toward it.

By highlighting the tensions that exist between anti-work and pro-work positions, the book provides new ways to view and plan life, and will give thought- provoking and valuable insights for students, instructors, and practitioners in industrial and organizational psychology and related fields, as well as all people who have worked, will work, have never worked, or will never work.

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Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions

Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions

by George M. Alliger
Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions

Anti-Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions

by George M. Alliger

Paperback

$42.99 
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Overview

The first book to delineate anti-work in a systematic fashion by identifying and compiling positions from a wide spread of literature, Anti- Work: Psychological Investigations into Its Truths, Problems, and Solutions defines the tenets of anti-work, reviews them from a psychological and historical point of view, and offers solutions to aid the average person in his or her struggle with work.

Anti-work thinkers have vigorously argued that work entails a submission of the human will that is constraining and even ultimately damaging. The author has refined 18 tenets of anti-work from the literature, which range from the suggestion that all jobs are bad, to the remarkable ability of modern capitalist enterprises to build "job engagement" among workers, to the proposal of alternative work- deemphasized worlds. Anti-Work begins with a discussion of these tenets, in particular the submission of the will required by work, followed by an overview of topics such as worker resistance, merit, and precarious work. The second part of the book unfolds various possible human responses to the work problem, such as detachment, thinking while working, and right livelihood. In the third part, several lessons about anti-work are drawn from parables, koans, and tales. Discussions of cults and work, working from home, unions, and cooperatives, as well as lessons from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, offer additional perspectives on the topic of work and provide guidance on developing a helpful attitude toward it.

By highlighting the tensions that exist between anti-work and pro-work positions, the book provides new ways to view and plan life, and will give thought- provoking and valuable insights for students, instructors, and practitioners in industrial and organizational psychology and related fields, as well as all people who have worked, will work, have never worked, or will never work.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780367758592
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 11/30/2021
Pages: 284
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

George M. Alliger has had over 60 articles published in journals such as Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Psychological Science, and Times Higher Education. He is an editor of The Handbook of Work Analysis. A fellow of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Alliger is now a Consulting Psychologist in the Houston area.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What is Anti-Work? 1

Part I In Which Anti-Work is Given Serious Consideration 13

Chapter 1 The Tenets of Anti-Work 15

Each tenet is discussed

Chapter 2 Will, Bosses, and Consciousness 41

The central anti-work concept of worker submission is critically examined from several angles

Chapter 3 Cults and Working From Home 55

The Corporate Stockholm Syndrome, cults and work, and the submission of working from home

Chapter 4 The Asymmetry of At-Will Employment and Loss of Autonomy 69

How we have structured employment to be fundamentally asymmetrical

Chapter 5 The Unique Submission Required for Precarious Work 81

All work may require submission, but there are degrees

Chapter 6 Merit Misfires 91

The assessment of merit should facilitate a fair assignment of work and rewards - but does it?

Chapter 7 Pushing Back 103

The psychology of worker resistance

Chapter 8 Doubtful Horizons 123

Utopian thinking in anti-work

Part II In Which We Reflect on Some Possible Realities and Responses 131

Chapter 9 Science and The Ox: Understanding Work and Workers 133

We began looking at work "objectively" but the workers required a say

Chapter 10 Representing the Worker: What we Might Do 145

What we might do to take the workers' side

Chapter 11 Detachment: Lessons From the Bhagavad Gita 161

Psychological detachment is one way to handle the world in general and work in particular; a particular kind of detachment is taught in Hinduism

Chapter 12 Alignment of Efforts: Teilhard De Chardin 171

The French Jesuit and mystic had a problem about work on the one hand and God on the other - how he solved it

Chapter 13 Thinking While You Work: Simone Weil 177

Philosopher Simone Weil had her own thoughts on how work might be "fixed"

Chapter 14 "Right Livelihood" 187

From the Buddhist point of view, one needs to avoid choosing bad jobs; Krishnamurti agrees

Chapter 15 Note on Unions and Cooperatives 195

Potential resolutions of the submission of will problem lie in unions and work cooperatives

Part III Coda: Lessons From Parables, Koans, and Tales 203

Lessons A-F 205

This section consists of the brief recounting and interpretation of work via a few stories of varying character and origin. Lessons include Merit and the King of Death, Retirement, What Should you Pay your Contractor?, The Old Anti-Work: Work as Curse, Inequality at the Starting Line, and Humility in Work

Conclusion 231

Acknowledgments 265

Suggested Further Reading 267

Index 270

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