Health at Work : Critical Perspectives.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Series Editor Preface -- Introduction: Constructions of health at work -- Constructing organizational experience -- Clashes of construction -- Our approach in this book -- The specific discourses at work -- Our examples -- 1. Efficiency and health: Discourses of the machine -- The organization-as-machine -- Mechanistic constructions of the healthy employee: 'Fix it!' -- Possibilities for subversion -- Final thoughts on organization-as-machine -- 2. Effectiveness and health: Discourses of organism -- From efficiency to effectiveness -- Organismic constructions of the healthy employee: Flourish! -- Critical reflections: Who or what is supposed to be flourishing? -- Final thoughts on the dominant discourses -- 3. Care and health: Discourses of family -- The organization-as-family -- Theories and expectations of care -- From care to self-care -- Final thoughts on discourses of care and the family -- 4. Age and health: Discourses of competition -- The idea of 'healthy' competition -- Competitive constructions of the 'healthy employee' -- The demographic 'time bomb' and the risk of the older employee -- Generations and intergenerational working -- Health and the changing life course -- Final thoughts on competition, age and health -- 5. Learning and health: Discourses of reinvention -- The organization-as-brain and the significance of organizational learning -- Connections between learning and well-being -- Towards a'healthier' kind of learning -- Critical reflections on learning and well-being -- Final thoughts on learning and health: Shifting the base metaphor -- 6. Technology and health: Discourses of cyberspace -- Technological developments in organizational life -- The 'healthy employee' in cyberspace.

Health and the technological management of self -- Health and the technological management of relationships -- Health and technological management of time and space at work -- Final thoughts on technology, cyberspace and health -- 7. Politics and health: Discourses of power -- Organizations as crucibles of power and politics -- The political construction of the 'healthy employee' -- Concluding thoughts: Politics as meta-discourse -- 8. Conclusions and consequences -- Implications of metaphors for health -- References -- Index.

This fascinating book deconstructs how we think about health in the workplace, exploring the conflict between how organizations are conceived in terms of productivity and efficiency, and the current agenda for personal growth and well-being.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.