From: Ruth H. Axelrod [mailto:
raxelrod@gwu.edu]
Charles--
Thanks for the resource. I want to make it clear, though, that I do,
sometimes, buy books that aren't on sale. I had the pleasure of working
(all too briefly) on an ethics-and-leadership project with Joanne Ciulla
several years ago and found her views to be refreshing precisely because
she is so well-grounded in philosophy (which, of course, used to
encompass all "science.")
Some of the people in our HRD Department, which is part of the education
school not the business school, have been looking into what they call
the "meaning of work"--exploring the underlying issues that shape how
different people construe work, what they want/get out of it, and so
on. They became interested in these issue when they--and Neal Chalofsky
is the strongest proponent of this among the faculty--arrived at the
conclusion that if you accept the notion that "only motivations
motivate," you can only address motivation (a la Herzberg, etc.) by
understanding the role that work plays in people's lives. That is a
subject that must, necesassarily, be addressed from a phenomenological
perspective, so it's slow going! But, I believe that it will shed new
light on our understanding of what motivates people in the workplace
and, thus, improve our ability to work with them in a participative
style.
I touch on it in both OB and leadership classes.
Ruth
Charles Wankel wrote:
>
> I have been stimulated by Ruth's sharing with us (albeit because it was an
> irresistible bargain at Daedalus!) of the book on what WORK is all about.