September 13, 2008
Dignity for the Working Person
Dignity is essential for meaningful work and life demands and the ability to establish a sense of self-worth and self-respect to appreciate the respect of others. In the workplace, dignity is realized through countless small acts of resistance against abuse and an equally strong drive to take pride in ones daily work. Even where abuse is common place and chaos and mismanagement make pride in accomplishment difficult, workers still find ways to create meaning in work and to work with dignity. Human dignity is necessary for a fully realized life. One might ask, but what is dignity? (Hodson 19)
There are two different meanings to the idea of dignity, the first is that people have a certain inherent dignity as a consequence of being human, like a dying persons dignity may be reduced if their physical being is prolonged unnecessarily (Meyer and Parent 11). The second is that people earn dignity through their actions like the human dignity of a worker can be violated by mismanagement or dignity can be attained through noble action or enduring great suffering like valiant soldiers, moral leaders, victims of injustice and enduring workers (Castel 135).
To defends ones dignity means to insist on being treated with respect, (Freeman and Rogers 1). A dying person may refuse life support or the worker may curse the abusive boss and walk off the job. Resisting abuse is an act by taking back ones dignity, (Vredenburgh and Brender 1337). The worker who works effectively inspite of all the obstacles achieves dignity through work. Working with dignity are ones inherent human rights and are worthy of respect by oneself and others (Hodson 20). In this next paragraph it will reflect the challenges of working with dignity and the joy that can be found when these challenges are met. At Electrical Components Limited, the assembly work
Cited: Beynon, Huw. 1975. Working for Ford. East Ardsley, England: E. P. Publishing. Brecher, Jeremy. 1972. Strike! Boston: South End. Castel, R. 1996. Work and Usefulness to the World. International Labour Review 135 6: 615 22. Cavendish, Ruth. 1982. Women on the Line. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Chinoy, Ely. 1955. Automobile Workers and the American Dream. New York: Doubleday. Cornfield, Daniel B. 1991. The U. S. Labor Movement: Its Development and Impact on Social Inequality and Politics Freeman, Richard B. and Joel Rogers. 1999. What Workers Want. Ithaca, NY: Industrial and Labor Relations Press. Hodson, Randy. 2001 Cambridge University Press Kochan, Thomas A., Harry C Lee, Ching Kwan. 1998. Gender and the South China Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women Meyer, Michael J. and W. A. Parent. 1992. The Constitution of Rights: Human Dignity and American Values Vredenburgh, D. and Y. Brender. 1998. The Hierarchical Abuse of Power in Work Organizations Wellman, David. 1995. The Union Makes Us Strong: Radical Unionism on the San Francisco Waterfront