Workfulness: Governing the Disobediant Brain

• In Event: Social Media and Other Bullsh*t

Abstract

The Scandinavian telecommunication company Telenor recently introduced the notion of Workfulness adapting the well-established idea of mindfulness to the workplace. Workfulness is a management program encompassing strategies of digital disconnection for the employees, to enhance focus and efficiency. The paper seeks to investigate Workfulness as one prominent example of managerial approaches that are based on neuroeconomic assumptions about human decision-making. Using textual materials and interviews, the analysis uncovers managerial control that considers emotions and unconscious behavior to explain short-term decisions. It is the disobedient brain that needs to be governed to become an efficient and healthy employee. However, focusing on the brain as the major source of ‘wrong’ technology usage is not about transforming negative working conditions in a constantly connected environment, but transforming how employees relate to these conditions and consequently distracts from larger, more structural problems with the expansion of the digital economy.

Authors

• Carina Guyard, Sodertorn University

• Anne Kaun, Sodertorn U