This is the essence of postmodern edginess. One is poised on the edge of a cliff. The transition is not just from one world into another world, but from one world of nothingness that is sustained by ambiguous or contradictory values into another world of nothingness. We experience the abyss, the incomprehensible, the awe-ful numinous.[liii] An organization’s (and employee’s) commitment to a central set of values, that have a spiritual base and its commitment to the continuation of a relationship—the formation of a covenant relationship—is essential if this edginess is to be addressed in a satisfactory manner.
The Modern Era
In modern organizations, the primary concern is with finding a way to create and sustain work at a time when technology is eliminating many jobs and disrupting the continuity of the culture and context for assigning value to work done in the organization. In essence, most modern societies have produced a shift from direct sources of personal meaning in life (through one’s work and one’s family) to more indirect sources (one’s wealth and one’s consumption). The premodern man or woman was able to take pride in the cultivation of crops or the production of crafts, raising a family, and providing food and shelter for family members.
The modern worker, by contrast, became alienated from the products of their work and from ownership of the means of production. Since our neighbors can’t admire what we have produced, then we must use the money we obtain from our work to buy things that we can in turn display to obtain our neighbors admiration. According to the contemporary social critic, Frederic Jameson, consumption serves as a substitute for meaning in life and “as compensation for an economic impotence which is . . . an utter lack of any political power.”[liv] This alienation from the direct sources of meaning in our work is joined with the alienation that comes with the loss of personal voice and connectedness among people working in small or relatively small premodern organizations. This dual form of alienation produces the anxiety that is so closely associated with the modern era.
Modern Work and the Protestant Ethic
The Protestant reformation is at the heart of the modern emphasis on money—as documented by Max Weber in his classic study of the Protestant ethic and the rise of the spirit of capitalism following the Protestant Reformation.[lv] Partially in response to Marx’s proposition that religious beliefs are based ultimately on economic considerations, and that the church is primarily being used for repressive purposes, Weber wanted to show that economics and religion work hand in hand. Marx was unable to explain why the acquisition of wealth has become such a dominant concern in Western Society. Weber suggested that we must look toward religious domains in order to find the driving force behind the secular concerns for money and capitalism. As a more contemporary spokesman for Weber’s position, Kenneth Boulding has put it:[lvi]
“Of all the elements of culture which shape economic institutions, religious practices particularly play a key role—a doubly important one because many other elements of the pattern of life, such as sex, child rearing, work habits, agricultural and industrial practices, are themselves profoundly affected by the prevailing religious beliefs.”
