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Richard Sennett’s craft ideal chimes with the cause of good work
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
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For sociologist Richard Sennett the ideal of work is that of craft: ‘the desire to do a job well for its own sake’. Craft involves a delicate combination of skills and training, and is a long and ongoing practice. Difficult to quantify and assign a qualification to, craft relates as much to the tacit and situational knowledge that makes organisations tick as it does to technical knowledge and expertise.
For Sennett, speaking at a Work Foundation event this week, there is much in modern work that is inimical to the fortunes of the craftsman – targets, short-termism, managerial interference, procedures – and to recover craft is the major political calling of our age.
What with budget deficits, inequality and global warming, such a claim may seem far-fetched. Yet for those who recognise the profound role of work in shaping real human experience, the restoration of craft is concerned with the way human beings relate to the world around them. The cultivation of parenting or managing skills, just as much as carpentry or architecture, is about the enhancement of life’s meaning.
The language may be different, but there is much in Sennett’s conception of craft that chimes well with the research of the Good Work Commission. Two of our major findings have been poor utilisation of skills and a collapse in ‘autonomy’ in the UK workplace. These two are often interlinked for the simple reason that the more skilful – and hence more valuable – the employee, the more freedom they will be allowed to go about their work (at least in theory).
What are the causes of the collapse in autonomy? In the public sector, the collapse is likely to be the result of New Labour’s programme of public sector management reform. The regime of targets and other bureaucratic measures, enforced so as to ensure value-for-money and performance, may well have improved accountability and reduced risk, but are likely to have impinged on the ability of employees to do their jobs as they see fit.
In the private sector, autonomy is likely to have been affected by a process we dub ‘digital Taylorism’. The same technology that enables flexible working and online shopping is also being used to prescribe the manner people in which do their work (standardising work processes in software packages, automatic prescripts, sign-off procedures). And, of course, also to monitor and enforce.
These are stark examples of businesses and the government undermining the craft ideal. Initiative, championed in rhetoric, is often restricted in practice so as to serve efficiency. Yet strong evidence links autonomy with increased productivity.
Nowhere is Sennett’s craft ideal more fitting than as a critique of New Labour. The drive to upgrade the economy increasing the supply of university graduates is analogous with Sennett’s pet hate: to view skills as a commodity. Of course university is important. But skills are far more diverse, widespread and in need of different forms of cultivation and practice.
Sennett’s alternative – to view skills from the perspective of employees and their development – marks a profound break with New Labour and one that is very much in keeping with good work.
Thomas Mills
What happens next?
Friday, 30 April 2010
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So that is that. The last of the three televised leaders' debates has now been now broadcast. They have certainly had a dynamising impact on the general election. Last night's debate was on the economy.
Stephen Bevan
Bigot
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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Bigot’s a strong word. It should be used with caution. After all there are few of us who don’t have the odd prejudice or two tucked away inside our normal smooth urbane personas. ...
Stephen Bevan
Big Blue’s Bombshell: crowd scaring with crowd sourcing
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
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The internet has long held out the exciting– or terrifying – possibility of organising without organisations, thus reshaping how work gets done. No need to employ staff with all the fiddly costs and obligations involved; people can be brought together and dispersed on a project-by-project, as-and-when basis.
Stephen Overell
Life as an Industrial Correspondent
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
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In some respects life as an industrial correspondent has changed beyond recognition over the past 20 years, but in others it’s exactly the same....
Alan Jones, Industrial Correspondent, Press Association
Integrity Testing
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
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If line managers in an organisation were bending the personnel rules, or stealing from their employer, then one would expect HR to step in pretty swiftly.
Benjamin Reid
My first blog
Thursday, 03 December 2009
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What does ‘Outstanding Leadership’ mean to you? Think it over, and when our latest research is published we’ll share our conclusions on the topic and you can see how your opinions compare and contrast to those findings.
Peter Wall
Can change ever be good?
Monday, 23 November 2009
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Hearing the word ‘change’ in an organisation can drive fear, resignation and dread into the hearts of employees......
Michelle Mahdon
Will HR again be shut out of a role in setting bankers’ pay?
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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Wednesday’s Queen’s speech will apparently outline new legislation to give the Financial Services Authority (FSA) the power to veto bankers’ employment contracts which are deemed to allow for “socially unacceptable” levels of remuneration.
Benjamin Reid
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Is there a future for leadership development?
Friday, 06 November 2009
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That’s the message from Professor John G Burgoyne, long-standing Professor of Management Learning at Lancaster University Management School, who spoke on the history of leadership development at Henley Business School last week.
Benjamin Reid
Heath, Work and Hygiene-Factors. Or how the Tories discovered good work
Monday, 02 November 2009
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What is the Conservative’s Party’s attitude towards good work and work quality issues? One view goes like this: work is a purely economic exchange between two parties; both sides want to maximise their interests; the job of the state is to stay well clear of their dealings.
Stephen Overell
Welcome back blood, sweat and tears
Thursday, 22 October 2009
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The subject of work is relevant to the public at large (as opposed to obsessives like me) when there isn't much of it about or when people are on strike.
Stephen Overell
Tick-tock timeout for pay audits
Monday, 19 October 2009
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And so the race is on: will the Equality Bill beat a Conservative government into existence? The Equality Bill now working its way through Parliament is scheduled for enactment in “Spring 2010” which may or may not be before a possible election on May 6th (though the Tories lead is shrinking at present).....
Steve Overell
The consensus of the (confident) blind
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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Throughout all the talk about who should have seen what in Lord Turner’s conversation with Will Hutton at a breakfast event at The Work Foundation this morning....
Wilson Wong