Reshaping the managerial logics of office work: discourse and subjectivity in office cultures applying NWOW

The world of work has undergone significant changes under the influence of the techno-managerial apparatus of so-called NWOW (New Ways of Working). The label NWOW usually refers to an articulation of: flexible spatio-temporal work arrangements; participatory management strategies; organizational reconfigurations; and the implementation of enabling ICT’s (Ajzen, Donis, & Taskin, 2015). Under the influence of the discourse of NWOW online and offline spaces for office work have been restructured as worker’s relationships to the time/space of work have become mediatized through various information technologies and re-organizations of office spaces and routines. As the meaning of (office) work came to be rearticulated, so did the subjectivities of those performing this work. In this paper the authors name and identify the discursive logics constitutive of celebratory NWOW discourse, while also exploring the interpretive logics office workers draw on in order to make sense of, criticize and even resist (aspects of) NWOW. In order to do so the authors conduct a critical discourse study based on principles derived from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PDT) (Fairclough, 1992; Glynos & Howarth, 2007; Zienkowski, 2017). Both celebrations and critiques of NWOW are marked by interpretive logics that structure specific articulations of norms, values, practices, and identities with each other. By naming and describing these logics the authors explore how office workers fix the meaning of the new ways of working they are supposed to practice. This study focuses on interviews conducted with employees (managers, team leaders and team members) working in a selection of public and private enterprises where NWOW are being or have been implemented. These interviews focus on the discursive practices related to the reorganization of office spaces and the associated (digital) competences. The analysis shows that even though office workers generally embrace the logics constitutive of celebratory NWOW discourse, many of them are able to engage in a limited form of critique regarding real or potential perverse effects of NWOW. At times they even rely on such logics in order to develop micro-resistances to specific aspects of the NWOW apparatus without calling its raison d’être or constitutive logics into question. Moreover, truly oppositional critiques remain rare and do not necessarily lead to actual practices of resistance. Overall the analysis demonstrates the extent to which celebratory NWOW discourse enjoys a relatively high degree of hegemony on the work floor. Ajzen, M. Donis, C. & Taskin, L. (2015). Kaléidoscope des nouvelles formes d’organisation du travail: l’instrumentalisation stupide d’un idéal démocratique et collaboratif. Gestion 2000: management & prospective, 31(3), 125-148. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers. Glynos, J. & Howarth, D. (2007). Logics of critical explanation in social and political theory. London: Routledge. Zienkowski, J. (2017). Articulations of self and politics in activist discourse: a discourse analysis of critical subjectivities in minority debates. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.