Degen Johanna L, Zekavat Massih
Department of Psychology, European University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany.
Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, European University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2022 May 6;13:789404. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.789404. eCollection 2022.
New work is used as a general term to summarize professional developments in contemporary work style, structure and modus of organizations and society-this means collaborative work and flexible working hours on individual levels, and flat hierarchies and participatory decision-making on organizational levels. Contemporary corporations strive to orient toward the concept of new work to keep up with stakeholder demands, for instance in their branding strategies as an employer. However, studies on organizational practices indicate that alongside explicit values and agendas, organizations tend to slyly exert power to secure their (economic) interests. Constructive dismissal is one such instance where contractually protected employees are made to resign their positions because the work environment is altered to become increasingly unbearable. This research analyzes two case studies to explicate routine dismissal procedures at the managerial level in two internationally operating German corporations. Both corporations explicitly profile as new work environments and are structured according to democratic principles including flat hierarchies, feature institutionalized diversity management including control committees for equal opportunities, and emphasize values such as workplace dignity, employee agency, and equality. The data contain long-term participatory observation collected over a 6-month period from two managers of 5 and 8 years of experience in managerial duties. The content analysis of data reveals characteristics of everyday processes in these organizations especially in terminating managers. The findings are presented as the ',' containing seven types of managerial termination carried out by implicit power and symbolic conventions that circumvent subject participation and litigation in an effortless manner. After exposing the model's mechanisms, we turn to discuss its meaning for both terminated and surviving subjects against a critical theoretical framework of neoliberalism, democracy, and power.
新工作被用作一个通用术语，以概括当代工作方式、组织和社会结构及模式方面的职业发展——这意味着在个人层面上的协作工作和灵活工作时间，以及在组织层面上的扁平层级和参与式决策。当代企业努力朝着新工作的理念发展，以满足利益相关者的需求，例如在其作为雇主的品牌战略中。然而，关于组织实践的研究表明，除了明确的价值观和议程外，组织往往会巧妙地施加权力以确保自身（经济）利益。建设性解雇就是这样一个例子，即合同受保护的员工被迫辞职，因为工作环境变得越来越难以忍受。本研究分析了两个案例研究，以阐明两家国际运营的德国公司管理层的常规解雇程序。这两家公司都明确将自己定位为新工作环境，并按照包括扁平层级在内的民主原则进行组织架构，具有制度化的多样性管理，包括平等机会控制委员会，并强调工作场所尊严、员工能动性和平等等价值观。数据包括在6个月期间从两位分别有5年和8年管理经验的经理那里收集到的长期参与式观察结果。对数据的内容分析揭示了这些组织日常流程的特点，尤其是在解雇经理方面。研究结果呈现为“……”，包含七种由隐性权力和象征性惯例实施的管理层解雇类型，这些惯例轻松地规避了员工参与和诉讼。在揭示该模式的机制后，我们将依据新自由主义、民主和权力的批判性理论框架，讨论其对被解雇者和留任者的意义。
