Four Fruitful Generalizations: From CSR to Politics

In the previous chapters, we have gained an overview of contemporary work, ranging from large corporations subject to international competition, to local and nationwide monopolies, to private non-profit organizations and, finally, to public administration, government, and the political arena itself. Using the pseudo-aseptic chisel of CSR, we have opened the black box of organizational activities and we have gained a thorough view on work in all its aspects of different economic sectors. In Chapter 1 — on CSR in large international firms — and then in Chapters 11 through 14, we have gained a total view of the economy. Large corporations are often subject to criticism; however, they are subject to each other’s competition and, if one does not like Windows, one can always, with some extra effort, turn his own preferences to Linux. Monopolies are harder to control through competition; they are also hard to control through institutions of public administration because it is even more difficult for public administration to lend itself to accountability. The political arena seems to be very competitive but, often, it is competitive within a small set of opportunities and the political class appears as a chaste rather than as a regular set of working people. Private non-profit organizations for their part appear to be subject to competition. We can now draw four fruitful generalizations: work evasion exists; work evasion includes large proportions of the economy and the work force; there is a competitive divide; the competitive divide partially explains the contemporary social malaise.