More collegiality in the workplace: How does that work among so many individualists?
Theo Wehner, Prof. em. Dr. phil.
ETH Zurich (twehner@ethz.ch)
Every society needs citizens who are strong in their I, but also citizens with a strong sense of WE. At the moment, an imbalance is threatening to arise: individualism is increasing - stubbornness is displacing community spirit.
The thesis is put forward that more "social identity" is needed in social coexistence: the individual self has been revalued to the same extent that certain community-building values have lost their orientation power in the performance society.
The thesis also contains well-established psychological and sociological knowledge: There is a significant difference in our experience and action depending on whether it is motivated by personal identity (I-strength) or by social, shared identity (WE-feeling).
Accordingly, it is much less often the case that people are “maladjusted” to stress and “cannot cope” with pressure, but also (and sometimes mainly) a lack of social support can be seen as a cause.
The thesis also aims to reflect on the limits of seemingly limitless self-management. When self-optimization becomes a watchword, this indicates the internalization of neoliberal ideologies and does not lead to an entrepreneurial self, but much more often to an "exhausted self."