The Meaning and Value of Work
Chapter Five
Jerry Estenson
Some question to start our thinking
about work
• Is work simply a means to an end?
• Is work itself possibly an end rather than a
means?
• What responsibilities does an employer have
in this discussion?
For what it is worth
• There is a calculus related to freedom, work
and debt
• Low debt = greater degrees of freedom
The Protestant work ethic
• Genesis, Martin Luther,
John Calvin, Benjamin
Franklin
– Work and the acquisition
of wealth focus human
attention away from
mischief toward
conducting a worthwhile
life
The Meaning of Work
• How we think about work shapes our
understanding of work. (Attitude counts big
time)
• Work defined: Perseverance, discipline, toil,
serious, concentration. (add to the list)
• Is work only an exchange for wages?
Different views
• Job – a role one steps into
• Career – a path for development
• Calling – Who you are is determined fully by
what you do. Not morally inseperable
Value of Work
Instrumental value of work
• Attain income
• Psychic good – personal satisfaction, selfworth, happiness, achievement
• Social good – We are social beings (Aristotle
and need: social status, honor, respect,
companionship, and camaraderie
• Importance to community
Douglas McGregor
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Survival
Security
Acceptance by others
Association with others
Friendship
Self-Esteem
Status
Respect
Outlet for creativity
Self-development
Do people have a moral and legal right
to a job?
Views of Work
• Conventional - Classic
– Work does violence to the human spirit (Stud
Terkel)
– Greek’s work should be avoided so that people
pursue a life contemplation, art, politics, and
culture
– Human’s are intellectual being but work is physical
– Work is glorified reducing human vitality
Conventional - Hedonistic
• Work is the price we pay to get the things that
make life enjoyable
• Work allows us to get what we want
• Work is a means to our individually defined
ends
Human Fulfillment
• Telos (Human Potential)
• Teleological ethics – Life is to be spent
developing and fulfilling our potential
• What is lost if we do not work
– Perseverance
– Diligence
– Concentration
When people do not work
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Lazy
Careless
Apathetic
Destruction of community
Valliant’s study (willingness and capacity to work
childhood is a strong predictor of good mental
health as an adult)
• Big question revolves around the worker shaping
work and work shaping worker
Nature of work
• Karl Marx
– Alienation
• Results when work
prevents the full
development of human
potential by separating
worker from final product,
from the creative process,
and from connection with
each other
• Not Cogito ergo sum (I
think therefore I am)
Laboro ergo sum (I work
therefore I am)
Liberal Model
• Relationship between work and the workers
ability to make free and autonomous choices
about work
• Bowie (If people are compelled to work the
greater the employers responsibility to ensure
that workplaces are humane as possible)
• Primary goods required in the workplace to
provide rights related to:
– Autonomy
– Rationality
– Physical and mental health
In Sum
• Employer obligation to:
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Allow for participation
Provide due process
Provide Healthy and safe working conditions
Fair wages
Fair benefits
Training and education
Privacy
• Highly routinized work is OK if people choose the
work free of external constraints