Moderne Arbeitsmoral: Gerechtigkeits- und Rationalitätsansprüche von Erwerbstätigen heute

Most diagnoses of today’s society paint a picture of an inexorable rise of neo-liberalism and market ideology. At the level of economic actors and their orientations this supposedly corresponds with the supremacy of the general principle of an amoral homo economicus. But do non-economic values and norms such as solidarity or other elements of a "moral economy" really play a diminishing role in the action and interest orientations of employees at work as such diagnoses suggest? The article indicates that we cannot speak of such a triumph of homo economicus. On the contrary, our empirical evidence reveals the contours of a "modern work ethic" with very pronounced normative claims of workers for justice and rationality in organisations. However, to come into real effect, this moral economy requires strong forms of political advocacy and interest representation that has become, without doubt, more difficult in many workplaces today and threatens to become weaker.