Organisational Nihilism: A Postmodern Perspective of the Great Resignation
Are you considering leaving your job? You’re not alone. The pandemic has led many to reevaluate the role of work in their lives, resulting in what some are calling the Great Resignation. In the U.S., millions of people have resigned, and this seismic shift in the workforce is likely to make its way to Australia as the vaccine rollout continues.
On the surface, the reason for this mass exodus seems straightforward — the pandemic. However, I believe there is more to it than that — a shift in philosophical perspective. “The movement of talent is so significant and so sharp that it’s different to probably anything we’ve seen in living memory,” says Aaron McEwan, a behavioral scientist at Gartner, in a recent interview with ABC. Many people have reconsidered their psychological contract with their employers — what they expect in return for their time and effort.
In recent decades, employers have tried to improve the employee experience by providing a good salary, a nice office and workspace, and other perks such as free coffee and flexible work hours. However, more recently, “employees don’t want to be seen as works, and they want to be seen as complex human beings with rich, full lives,” says McEwan. Today, some workers care more about how their work “enriches their life experience.”
For hundreds of years, work has been considered our primary contribution to society due to the march of modernism and the Industrial Revolution. For many of us, our job is part of our identity. When meeting someone, we often introduce ourselves by stating our profession. However, “the way we work, particularly in offices, is leftover from the 20th century, arguably the 19th century,” says McEwan.
The Great Resignation is being driven by people reconsidering the role of work in their lives. Is it still an integral part of who they are? For some, the answer is an emphatic “NO!” People are starting to question why they work and what it means. I consider this a postmodern perspective, and let me explain what I mean.
Modernism versus Postmodernism
In short, the modernist movement celebrated the triumph of human knowledge over faith. During the European Enlightenment, many people began to believe that faith-based morality was oppressive and that human logic provided a better basis for reshaping and improving society. This marked the conception of modernism.
Modernism aimed to identify the historical barriers that had previously held humans back and reassess them. The Renaissance is generally considered the starting point of the Age of Discovery, also known as the early modern movement. Before that, Europe had been floundering in the Middle Ages. Thus began the grand narratives of modernism, which emphasized freedom, universal societal progress, and furthering human knowledge through scientific inquiry. Modernity redefined all spheres of life and freed humans from the baggage of history and faith without reason.
Human progress was driven by the constant advancement of human knowledge and scientific inquiry, allowing humans to reliably control their environment for the first time. This led to the industrial revolution.
Postmodernism came after modernism, and depending on who you ask, is either a direct reaction to modernism or the next evolutionary step in modernism. However, what is relevant is that postmodernism emerged after World War II, which exposed the failings of modernism and left many feeling disenfranchised.
The key difference between the two ideologies is that modernism seeks to find universalizable and objective facts to further human existence. On the other hand, postmodernism argues that all facts are subjective and relative to the lived experiences and beliefs of the viewer.
World War II led to a collapse of tradition, leaving those who had previously placed meaning in it feeling disenfranchised. Capitalism was born out of modernism, but the promised freedom and wealth were not realized by many. Postmodern thinkers lost faith in the promised continual march forward of modernism. A common criticism of postmodernism is that while postmodern thinkers dismiss the promises of modernism, they do not offer any real solutions to the problems.
Postmodernism can be considered a nihilistic reaction to modernism, with the essence being that modernist ideals are unattainable due to the inherent differences between people. Philosophers, including Heidegger, Derrida, and Lyotard, have attacked the modernist belief in objectivity, rationality, and universalism, and have argued for the relativism and constructivism of truth and identity.
The key takeaway is that postmodern thinkers dispute the grand narratives of modernism, and postmodernists instead emphasize that difference should be celebrated rather than forced unity. Inherent in this is the notion that people derive their meaning from the world, including their meaning derived from work.
Organisational Nihilism and the Crisis of the Future
Many people may not receive the bonuses or promotions they feel they deserve due to the pandemic and slow economic recovery. Aaron McEwan suggests that “when we hit March of 2022, we will see the Great Resignation in Australia,” citing underlying signs.
The traditional ways of doing business are failing as organisations become increasingly less ordered, stable, and predictable. Complex systems theory tells us that complexity, uncertainty, and chaos are emergent in all systems, including workplaces. This has led to constant rightsizing, downsizing, and re-engineering of organisations, causing insecurity and confusion that has led to what Alfonso Montuori and Edgar Morin call “organisational nihilism.”
It is not a stretch to discuss philosophical ideas such as postmodernism and nihilism in the context of business and work. After all, businesses are a part of our society, and business studies are a social science.
Workers struggle to answer questions like “why should I work,” “how should I work,” and “where should I work.” The term “organisational nihilism” is not far-fetched.
In the traditional ways of working and doing business, people knew their place, and there wasn’t as much emphasis on the subjective experience of the worker in the workplace. In the new order, workers aren’t sure if they even have a place, and when they do, they aren’t sure how that place fits in with their organisation and the rest of their life. There seems to be constant anxiety amongst organisations, with ongoing restructuring initiatives, even before COVID-19 arrived and shook things up further. What was once taken for granted, such as job description, job security, and a person taking pride and dignity from their work, is now being deeply questioned. The notion of unlimited economic, and therefore personal, progress brought by modernism has been destroyed by postmodernism.
With this uncertainty, we find it hard to understand the what, where, and how of the future. We’re faced with a crisis of the future — very real nihilistic problems facing not only organisational theorists but also all postmodern workers. We must develop alternate ways of thinking and deriving meaning from work that are not deconstructive.
What’s the Meaning of Work?
Why do we do what we do? We live in a society built on capitalism, where what we contribute to this complex system is a function of our specialization and the time we spend working. But is that all there is to it?
According to Ralph Emerson, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” While this is a nice sentiment and true, it’s easier said than done.
Of course, the meaning we give to or take from our work is subjective. Imagine a person working in a paint shop who is tasked with tinting paint. This involves putting the can in a machine, shaking it, giving it to the customer, and repeating this process for the next customer… all day, every day. This job may seem meaningless, as it doesn’t require much specialization or skill, and it’s extremely monotonous. Unfortunately, many jobs are like this, and almost all jobs have some degree of monotony, which can make one feel like a cog in a giant machine, leading to disengagement. In his book “Lost Connections,” Johann Hari explains that a lack of meaningful work is a leading cause of depression, and that only 13% of people were “engaged” by their work from 2011 to 2012.
Today, people don’t want to be just workers; they want to be complex individuals with rich and fulfilling lives. Many no longer want work to be a source of stress; rather, they want to do something they enjoy and have the flexibility to do it how they want, when they want, and with whom they want. Some prefer to work remotely, some in an office, and others somewhere in between. Some prefer to work from 9 am to 5 pm, while others prefer to work at night. The key is that people want work to fit in with other aspects of their lives.
This presents an opportunity for employers to reconfigure work for today’s world.
Employers will have to start selling themselves to employees as people are downsizing their careers, quitting parts of their job, or going freelance, making their job work for them. Employers will have to find ways to meet the needs of employees, drive their ambitions, and allow work to be a positive aspect of their life.
