The Hindu Business Line : The work culture

Over the past several thousand years, human work has progressed through a number of stages — each distinct and unique in its own way. Briefly, the movement has passed through the stages of prehistoric hunting/gathering, then to subsistence farming, slavery, feudalism, mercantilism, and industrialism; and now, the commencement of a new stage that is characterised by the massive use of computers, scientific/technological innovation, globalisation of business, and organ isational democracy.

Satisfying human needs

The shift from hierarchy and bureaucracy towards democracy and self-management in the corporate world is part and parcel of a larger historical transformation in the satisfaction of human needs and the socialisation of work designed to meet those needs. This is done in an orderly and progressive way. After successfully satisfying one level of need, people move on to satisfy other needs, which are higher in the hierarchy of needs. It is a psychological framework of needs vis-À-vis satisfaction leading to an ultimate state of holistic human happiness.

Under a different dispensation, it is possible and in fact, essential to perceive work from a functional point of view. In this form of analysis, the first stage of evolution was when human labour was concerned with food, shelter, and clothing in order to safeguard personal, family, and clan survival. Work consisted of scraping, squeezing, and prodding Nature to yield its rough-hewn treasures.

In the next stage, with the rise of the elite class pari passu the advent of slavery, work was seen as demeaning and infra dig. It was assigned a lower status in the feudalistic set-up of society. Work became compulsory and fixed for the lifetime of a slave.

In the third stage, work was turned into a commodity. Employees bartered their skill and ability to a capitalist in return for wages. The capitalist made a profit out of the deal. In due course of time, there arose a degree of oppression and alienation among the employees. Eventually, this triggered the Trade Union Movement to protect the interests of the working class.

Work is an end in itself

In the current and contemporary scenario, however, thanks to the onset of information technology, the employees generate and transmit information, which helps to augment the organisational knowledge base. Work becomes a process of learning and improvement. Work is less physical, and more intellectual.

Further, work is also seen as a form of social responsibility. It creates a feeling of fraternity and fellowship. It is based on interactive and societal relationship. It is at this stage that work becomes an instrument of self-actualisation. People realise a personal and ethical satisfaction in the performance of their work. From the mundane level, work is elevated to the sublime level. It becomes an end in itself.

When people recognise that work is not simply an activity designed to produce just goods and services, but a catalyst for vocational community life; that it creates a sense of connectivity and homogeneity among those working in the organisation; it is then, and only then, that the employees are able to define and discover their real roles in life. As part of this process, they optimise their personal freedom, happiness, and fulfilment.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)