Is work a source of satisfaction and joy

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Work is a source of satisfaction and joy for individuals. Discuss Individuals are defined by their work and society’s perceptions of their occupation. An individual must find their profession engaging and interesting for it to be a source of happiness and satisfaction. Work should be a source of joy for individuals but in a contemporary society that often recognises success in terms of profit and material possessions, the psychological satisfaction of employees is sometimes forgotten. To understand modern attitudes to work, some influential thoughts on the universal problem that is worker satisfaction must first be examined. This forces the question, why, with such a history of accumulated knowledge, does the modern workplace still create jobs that are not focussed on worker satisfaction as fundamentally important, and what past and present practices are best suited to remedy this? Through this exploration of modern workplace examples and management’s role in the administration of potentially unfulfilling jobs, it is possible to decipher some causes of worker satisfaction and dissatisfaction within contemporary society. In order to examine work as a source of satisfaction and joy to contemporary society, the various contexts throughout recent history that have shaped perceptions of work must be explored. C. Wright Mills (1973) states ‘Work may be a mere source of livelihood, or the most significant part of one’s inner life; experienced as expiation or exuberant expression.’ The Industrial Revolution of the 1800s-1900s was a huge change in production and working conditions that was influential on a global scale. The Industrial Revolution was seen as a by-product of the protestant work ethic, which regarded hard work as way to glorify god. Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ describes the exhaustive hours and dehumanising labour process that were a result of the nonstop

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