The Definitive, Critical, and Analytical Investigation Into the Modern Worker

The definitive, critical and analytical investigation into Paul Du Gay’s theory that the “excellent” worker in the post-Fordist organisation is not a “worker” in the traditional sense but, rather, an “Enterprising Self”.

The following writing is designed to critically examine the shifts in attitude since the post-Fordist era to the notion of work of employees within organisations in addition to their personal visions of self-actualisation within their chosen profession, which now appear to play an ever-increasing role in the sociology of work, not only to the benefit in the intrinsic well-being of the workers themselves but the organisation as a whole. To assist in answering the broader question the title poses, we must segregate it into various, more accurate and specific investigations- the writer has devised the following related proposals; Have we seen an amalgamation of interests between the workers within the post-Fordist organisation and the organisation itself resulting in equally beneficial outcome for both? Have we seen a shift in worker ideology since the epoch of post-Fordist production techniques which accumulate to evolve excellent workers into “enterprising” workers, and if so for what reasons? Have any other external factors contributed to this apparent transition in worker interests to achieve “enterprising oneself” such as government policy or modern mediascape?

The research is primarily centred around Du Gay’s findings in Consumption and Identity at Work (1996) However, other contributors include Leidner (1993) and Rose (1990) where research was carried out in the service industry as opposed to “Fordist” style, secondary industry production plants. The source of information has altered, given economic changes since the 1930’s, although the concepts remain favourably unchanged. The excellent, self-enterprising worker as Du Gay notes can be expressed thusly;

‘Excellent companies seek to cultivate enterprising subjects – autonomous, self regulating, productive individuals. Here enterprise refers to a plethora of rules for conduct for everyday life: energy, initiative, self-reliance and personal responsibility. This enterprising self is a calculating self, that works upon itself in order to better itself’ – Du Gay, (1996)

Du Gay (1997), also argues that what he terms “the subjects of production” i.e. the worker and organisation merely act naturally as they would outside of the working arena as they would when faced with any bartering requirements, in that productivity of labour is negotiated by these “economic agents” which creates a dualism thus leading to an equilibrium of wages, working hours and most significantly- productivity. Is this really an example of a shift in worker ideology since the Fordist era? Probably not, therefore Du Gay adjoins his original hypothesis to this latter extension of it. He argues the worker is, and has always been an enterprising self, not in the way originally suggested in terms of increased productivity, but the self-actualisation in this respect arises from the best possible outcome for the worker given the working requirements of the employer in attaining a valued commodity. (Wages and labour, respectively.) A trade which Fordism (and indeed neo-Taylorism) would have encapsulated within production plants in the recent past. Furthermore, these negotiating skills of the potential employee, give the employer the indication of an enterprising subject, which Du Gay himself proposes, the employer covets to cultivate. Now we have seen the environment of an enterprising worker, is there a strong connection to the excellent companies Du Gay articulates?