Being occupied : an embodied re-reading of organizational ‘wellness’

Dale, Karen and Burrell, Gibson (2014) Being occupied : an embodied re-reading of organizational ‘wellness’. Organization, 21 (2). pp. 159-177. ISSN 1350-5084

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Abstract

‘Organizational wellness’ has become a high profile issue for businesses. We argue that a ‘wellness movement’ has sprung up around a particular coalescence of economic, ideological and organizational interests. In this article we re-read the discourse of this ‘movement’ through the lens of ‘organized embodiment’. We argue that organizational wellness operates as a rhetorical device which masks contradictory power relations. It serves to hide differential occupational effects and opportunities for workers, and obscures the relationship between wellness and its necessary Other, unwellness. The article suggests that employee unwellness is often produced—and required—by the different forms of organized embodiment that arise directly from occupations and employment. It analyses this corporeal ‘occupation’ in terms of the extortion, exchange and embrace of our bodies to the coercive, calculative and normative power of the organization. Thus, our organizational experiences produce an embodied individual who is ‘fit’ for purpose in a rather more circumscribed fashion than prevailing discourses of wellness might suggest.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Organization
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/core/keywords/organisationworkandtechnology
Subjects:
?? bio-economism biopower occupationorganizational wellnessorganized embodiment unwellness well-being wellness movementorganisation, work and technologygeneral business,management and accountingstrategy and managementmanagement of technology and innovationbu ??
ID Code:
51985
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Dec 2011 09:02
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Jul 2024 08:59