HUMANIZATION, RATIONALIZATION OR SUBJECTIFICATION OF WORK? EMPLOYEE-ORIENTED FLEXIBILITY BETWEEN I-DEALS AND IDEOLOGY IN THE NEOLIBERAL ERA

This article discusses promises and pitfalls of employee-oriented workplace flexibility. The concept of employee-oriented flexibility applies to broad-based programs and individualized approaches. Here, the focus is on idiosyncratic deals (i-deals), individually negotiated work arrangements. Reviewing the literature, theory on characteristics, prerequisites, and limits of mutually beneficial flexibility is developed in the context of the neoliberal reconfiguration of work, employment, and societies. The dialectic construction of antagonistic types is used to differentiate employee-oriented i-deals from ideological counter-applications of economic rationalization. The latter reflect neoliberal ideologies of individualism, competition, and instrumentality, the former humanistic ideals of individuation, solidarity, and emancipation. Symptomatic for psychological governance through “subjectification”, self-enacted forms of rationalization threaten to undermine humanization prospects. Divisive management practices, politically motivated rhetoric, and inherently distorted theorizing are based on confounding “hidden modes” of workplace flexibility, the deconstruction of which advances scholarship.

İŞİ İNSANİLEŞTİRMEK Mİ, RASYONALLEŞTİRMEK Mİ YOKSA ÖZNELLEŞTİRMEK Mİ? İDİYOSİNKRATİK ANLAŞMALAR VE NEOLİBERAL DÖNEMDE İDEOLOJİ ARASINDA ÇALIŞAN ODAKLI ESNEKLİK

Bu makalede, çalışan odaklı işyeri esnekliğinin vaatleri ve güçlükleri tartışılmaktadır. Çalışan odaklı esneklik kavramı geniş tabanlı programlar ve bireysel yaklaşımlar için uygundur. Bu çalışmada idiyosinkratik anlaşmalar (i-anlaşmalar) ve bireysel olarak müzakere edilmiş çalışma düzenlemelerine odaklanılmıştır. Literatür incelendiğinde, karakteristik özellikler, önkoşullar ve karşılıklı yarar sağlayan esnekliğin sınırları teorisi; iş, istihdam ve toplumların neoliberal yeniden yapılandırılması bağlamında geliştirilmiştir. Antagonistik türlerin diyalektik yapısı, çalışan odaklı idiyosinkratik anlaşmaları, ekonomik rasyonalizasyonun ideolojik karşı uygulamalarından ayırmak için kullanılmıştır. İkincisi bireyselliğin, rekabetin ve aracılığın neoliberal ideolojilerini, bireyselleşme, dayanışma ve özgürleşmenin eski hümanist ideallerini yansıtıyor. “Öznelleştirme” yoluyla yapılan psikolojik yönetimin belirtisi, kendiliğinden yasallaştırılan rasyonalizasyon biçimlerinin insanileşme beklentilerini yıkmakla tehdit etmesidir. Bölücü yönetim uygulamaları, politik motive edici söylem ve doğal olarak bozulmuş teorileştirme, işyeri esnekliğinin “gizli modlarını” karıştırmaya dayanmaktadır.

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