Risk, reward and discipline at work

Amoore, L.

Abstract

This paper argues that the manufacture of specific kinds of uncertainty and risk has become central to programmes of work flexibilization. The construction of a riskuncertainty relation has underpinned a raft of managerial doctrines on the worker as entrepreneur. I outline the dominant representation of risk as an unavoidable symptom of globalization. I then explore the relationship between human capital risk management, as defined by management consultants, and the working practices restructured in their name. In contrast to the rhetoric of worker-entrepreneurs, the making of contingency and uncertainty at work is revealed to be riven by tensions. I conclude by considering how we might begin to expose the myths of individual entrepreneurship, revealing the ordinary and everyday practices that make the displacement and reallocation of risk possible.

Citation

Amoore, L. (2004). Risk, reward and discipline at work. Economy and Society, 33(2), 174-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140410001677111

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2004-05
• Deposit Date: Oct 31, 2008
• Journal: Economy and Society
• Print ISSN: 0308-5147
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-5766
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 174-196
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140410001677111
• Keywords: Uncertainty, Management Consultants, Worker-entrepreneur.