So, after a bit of time to reflect, conversations with other students at EFI and some feedback I’ve begun to narrow down my (provisional) project topic, although, it’s still a work in progress!  

This follows my previous posts which explained my line of reasoning to the broad topic and the initial inception of the provisional project idea.  

I’ll briefly explain my conceptual intention of the following sub-topics that could be discussed in my project and the areas that I’ve identified for further research and analysis. I’ve identified potential theories/ academic literature and frameworks which I could use to help shape and support my narrative – this is the blue text below – however, I’ll need to investigate these further and conduct some further research for other potentially relevant works.  

History of Work  

• Define Work, Work Ethic 
• Explore the origins of work and the changing nature of work ethic over the course of history 

~ Adam Smith, ‘An inquiry into the nature and caufes of the wealth of nations’  

~ Max Weber, ‘The Protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism’  

• Explore the historical influence of technological developments on human’s perception of social value of work and social ethic around work 

Master-Slave Dialectic  

(From Nietzsche and Hegel + Lacquan – further research required into each author’s work and interpretations)  

• What is it?  

~ Evolution of Management Thinking: from the Industrial Corporation (Classical/Traditional style which incorporates – Scientific Management & Bureaucracy) to Collaborative Management/ Networks of Teams style of management. 

• Link the Master-Slave dialectic to top-down style management within companies in which there are clear demarcations of roles between employer and employee.  The employee’s role within an ‘order-following’ structure, where there is no agency for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. 
• Its consequence on the contextual and critical lens within society and specifically within work culture  

~ Effects on the Three Levels of Culture (Schein, 2010)  

~ Culture Dynamics Model (Hatch, 1993)  

A New Social Value System 

• A response to Danaher & Nyholm (2021) article and Danaher’s (2022) video, pursuing ‘option B’ which Danaher describes as the pursuit of a ‘new social value system that replaces the work ethic’  
• Not possible without truly breaking out of the master-slave dialectic paradigm – Explain why? 
• Could this new social value system be based on value creation? – Deriving from service logic(?) or other? 
• A new meaning to a meaningful life  

~ Discuss, Knell & Ruther (2023) – ‘A humanistic perspective on meaning in life’  

• The pursuit of interdisciplinarity, harnessing individual’s creativity and critical thinking 
• Examples of cultures on Earth which have different work ethics compared to the West  

For what is technology for but not to benefit us humans? Rather than the main objective being the pursuit of exponential profits. This is aligned with Korineck & Stiglitz (2020) work that states that we must steer technological progress in the direction we want to go in.  

Automation and Work 

My intention is to highlight the need for an emphasis on each human’s unique abilities and creativity within a context of creating value for ‘the other’. Automation is poised to replace many jobs (something which many people are afraid of), especially repetitive tasks that do not require any agency for creativity and out-of-the-box thinking which unfortunately constitutes many of the current types of roles within the economy. This is what I’m trying to highlight using the master-slave dialectic paradigm and its links to the social value system and work ethic of western society. 

Automation is coming but how it is implemented into the economy and society is still largely to be decided. What I’m proposing is twofold: by re-evaluating what we (as humans) bring to the table; consequently, evolving our work ethic and social value system – a process which has been done a number of times throughout history – the question surrounding what happens to human workers is rendered almost irrelevant. By harnessing our human attributes and combining them with the knowledge and skills to utilise technology to enhance our productivity, we create roles in which humans and machines/ autonomous systems can co-exist within the world of work without the fear that the human workers will be replaced. The nature and tasks that constitute work may drastically change, but by restructuring our work ethic and social value system we can pave the way for a prosperous future rather than an uncertain, bleak dystopian possibility.  

Refinement of Provisional Project Topic / Dana’s Blogs by is licensed under a