Content area
Abstract
The growing anti-work movement sees millions challenging the notion of “work as worth,” yet the impact and differentiation of anti-work in management remain unclear. This dissertation conceptualizes anti-work orientation (AWO) as a “contentious rejection of work as determinant of one’s self-worth or worth to society.” Chapter 1 employs mixed methods. Using topic modeling and thematic analysis on 189,436 Reddit posts from r/antiwork, Study 1 refines the conceptualization of AWO and identifies core themes related to its emergence. These include contentious struggles with work, self-worth, and meaning; and societal- and organizational- level injustices. Study 2 validates a measure of AWO across multiple samples of full-time working adults in the United States, establishing its distinctiveness from existing constructs (e.g., anti-capitalist beliefs, work centrality) and unique relationships with antecedents (e.g., societal and cumulative organizational injustice) and outcomes (e.g., emotional exhaustion, cynicism, lowered organizational and higher counterproductive work behavior). In Chapter 2, I expand my scope of study by theorizing about anti-work and similar beliefs as relating to a broader category of contentious frames toward work – ideas or narratives that challenge work. Chapter 2 theorizes on the propagation and enactment of these frames toward work, at work—ranging from individual-level demotivation to group-level voice and resistance. Overall, this dissertation brings attention to timely, prevalent phenomena operating on and in the world of work.
