“Who am I?”- 16
PIN jc19265
produced and expressed naturally and have instead been transformed into a corporate
commodity. Thus, individuals are expected to sell the part of themselves that makes them the
most “human.” “The self which is defined as ‘real’ is pushed further and further into a corner as
more and more of its expressions are sensed as artificial” (Hochschild, 1983, p. 183).
Dudley (1994) documented the impact of an automotive plant closing where individuals
lost the social structure that enabled them to construct their identity, understand their social
relationships and value their work. As plans for the plant closing were finalized, blue collar
plant workers (“culture of the hand”) were slowly removed from the center of the town’s culture,
lost their respected positions within the community and experienced substantial decreases in
salaries; these moves marked the rise of the impinging white collar “culture of the mind”
(Dudley, 1994). From a “culture of the hand” perspective, hard work is measured by physical
exertion and collective accomplishments, similar to a more task-oriented society where work and
self are not divided. This view stresses the importance of what people do - “by their actions
rather than their words, by deeds rather than fancy degrees and most important, by the tangible
results of their labor” (Dudley, 1994, p. 106). Society’s repositioning auto work as mindless and
unsatisfying reinforces the notion that only people with an education do satisfying and enjoyable
work. As blue-collar workers struggled with redefining themselves because of new social
structure, they “…honestly came to believe that their ‘unnatural’ wages were an accurate
reflection of their self-worth and value to society” (Dudley, 1994, p. 73).
Both Rifkin (1995) and Reich (1991, 2000) note that the changes that occur within
organizations have implications for identity and work. Because of technological advances and
organizations’ ability to move production to where labor is less expensive, there are fewer
available opportunities for work; many individuals are left without the means to provide for
Convention