Reference no: EM131241496

This question of control-when it comes to a person's time-is complex. In some cases you have control over your time. In some cases you don't. But sometimes the control you think you have is not entirely real. Or, sometimes when you think you don't have any control, you might have more control than you think. Sharone illustrates this point in his discussion of "competitive self-management" and Blair-Loy highlights it with her account of "work devotion."

Blair-Loy says that the work-devotion schema "influences [workers'] ambitions and desires" (p. 293), including the strong desire to work longer and harder hours. Sharone says that MegaTech's management strategy creates "intense anxiety among its engineers regarding their professional competence, which leads them to self-impose long work hours" (p. 192). Does this make sense?

Are the engineers really just puppets of the management puppetmasters?

Is all of the "self-imposition" of long work hours really just a matter of employees being duped by their bosses or seduced by the meaningfulness of their jobs?

Is it really an "either-or" question?

Apart from the managers and the individual workers themselves, are there other individuals or groups who have some "control" or "influence" over their work hours?

How is such control or influence exercised?

Can you describe the complexity of any "control mechanisms" influencing how you spend your time, whether it be at work or elsewhere?