Management, Society and New Forms of Works

According to Melissa Gregg (2011: 165), the condition experienced by workers today is to be invested in work as and when required but without the reciprocal assurance from employers that commitment will be rewarded. Such a scenario risks losing the goodwill of employees permanently. This shifting of standards and expectations by employees and employers, in norms of reciprocity, has been referred to as shifts in the nature of the psychological contract of work (Rousseau and Schalk 2000).

For this essay you are to discuss the changing expectations and subjective involvement of employees in their work. Drawing from module materials, explore these transformations, connect these shifts to at least one of the following topic areas explored in the module:

– Immaterial and affective labour
– New media / social media and the workplace
– Free labour / unpaid digital labour
– Precarity and precarious labour
– Work life balance and the extension of the workday

You do not need to discuss all of these topics. You will be assessed on the quality, not quantity of your discussion.