Ideology of work

Work has been established as a prime concern in Western Europe from the seventeenth century on wards. The intention of this book is to examine the way in which attitudes to work have been inten sified in order to keep pace with the process of industrialization. Its author argues that two views have subsequently developed: an official view, representing the basis of the employers' injunction that work should be well done, and a radical view that work' should be re-organized. He de velops his argument to suggest that the official and the radical views have more in common than is often assumed.

Attempts to improve ideolo gical appeals aimed at committing the worker to his work in indust rial societies are then analyzed by the author. In particular, he focus es on management whose inten tion it is to change the content and environment of work in order to elicit worker co-operation and involvement without the neces sity of taking refuge in ideological appeals. But as managers become the agents of change in the design of work and their work increases in importance to the production process, the content of manage rial work itself becomes the im portant centre of attention. The book finally asks whether now that managers, who were the ex ponents of an ideology of work have become its targets, we can at last afford take a more real istic and balanced look at its real importance.