Work ethic

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Presentation of the work ethic, 1936
Miners, 1952

As a work ethic moral behavior and attitude of the people is called to work .

Work ethic (see ethos ) means the positive view of working people on their job and the careful exercise and appreciation of the job. In contrast to this, professional ethics deals with concrete ethical norms, rules and criteria for the appropriate exercise of the profession (e.g. in the field of medicine, fire brigade, rescue service and police).

Ancient and Middle Ages

Both antiquity and the Middle Ages had a fundamentally different relationship to work . Physical work was frowned upon by the ancient Greeks and the highly valued philosophizing required leisure . The only ancient philosophy that extolled work was stoicism .

In the Middle Ages, until the Reformation , work was seen as hardship , sometimes also as punishment ; Augustine says, for example, in Paradise was "commendable job not cumbersome" been ( Sermons on the Book of Genesis, 2:11 ), while the punishment in hell would be in eternal work.

Protestant work ethic

The Protestant work ethic is characterized by the idea of ​​work as a duty that one should not question. Work is the center of life, around which leisure is organized. In the 18th century , the Reformed clergyman Johann Kaspar Lavater declared, diametrically opposed to the pre-Reformation view , "[even in heaven] we cannot be blessed without a job" ( Prospects for Eternity , 1773 ).

Pekka Himanen sums up the main features of the Protestant work ethic as follows: "Work must be seen as a purpose in life willed by God, it must be done as well as possible and work must be regarded as a duty that one does because it has to be done" (Himanen 2001, p . 27).

Max Weber traces the emergence of this conception back to capitalism that emerged in the 16th century :

"That peculiar thought of professional duty, an obligation that the individual should feel and perceive towards the content of his" professional "activity, regardless of what it consists of, regardless of whether it is the impartial feeling, which is so familiar to us today and in truth so little self-evident must appear as the pure exploitation of his labor or even only his property (as "capital") - it is this thought that is characteristic of the "social ethics" of capitalist culture " [...] " The ability to concentrate thoughts as well as the absolutely central one The ability to feel obliged to work is often found here combined with strict economic efficiency that takes into account earnings and its amount in general , and with sober self-control and moderation, which immensely increases productivity. The basis for that conception of work as an end in itself, as a " profession ", like what capitalism demands is most favorable here " ( The Protestant Ethics and the" Spirit "of Capitalism , 1904/05).

The Puritan moral theologian Richard Baxter characterizes even more precisely :

"For the sake of action, God sustains us and our activities; work is both morality and the natural purpose of power. To say," I will pray and meditate [instead of work] is as if a servant refuse the heaviest work and himself would devote himself to lesser, lighter work " ( Christian Dictionary ).

Catholic professional and work ethic

In modern Catholic professional and work ethics, the concept of vocation (through God) is extended to the profession (of the laity). The limitation of this vocation to the gainful occupation is alien to the Catholic understanding. As in Calvinism, professional success is not viewed as a sign of election . Sunday rest and leisure are opposed to an absolute setting . The profession concerns the person as a person. This gives rise to the priority of "work over capital" ( Laborem exercens ). The profession is seen as a "fundamental form of personal self-realization", at the same time as a "service" to others. The professional world must be designed accordingly. Theologically, the profession is seen as "co-creation" of man within the framework of God's creatio continua , as service to the neighbor, as concern for the coming of the kingdom of God and in its difficulties as the possibility of "co- redemption " through atonement and repentance.

Destructive ethics

When employees feel uncomfortable in a company, they often tend to adopt the minimal ethic, "What makes me keep my job is good and it costs the least amount of effort." The French political scientist Corinne Maier describes this in "The discovery of laziness - the art of doing as little as possible at work" (see below). → See also: Inner resignation

Occupational groups

The importance of professional group ethics is examined in particular in sociological studies. One of the first works in this area is Emile Durkheim's Physics of Morals and Law . Durkheim concludes: in order to be able to realize an ethically integrated democratic society, an integration of individuals based on liberating norms is necessary also in the world of work. For the French society of the 19th century, Durkheim stated that the lack of these normative regulatory contexts in many professional groups was problematic for society as a whole

police

In the training of police officers, the orientation towards a democratic professional ethic is of great importance; especially to prevent socially problematic phenomena such as corruption and official offenses . The agreements on giving professional ethics lessons by representatives of the police chaplaincy have a long tradition in the Federal Republic of Germany (decree of the Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia from 1962). In Europe there has been the "European Code of Police Ethics" since 2001 for the purpose of training police officers who are capable of democracy. This is a recommendation of the Council of Europe, which formulates the basic values ​​of police work and recommends that training and work be based on this code. In Germany, orientation to the Basic Law is also constitutive for professional ethics.

See also

literature

  • Friedhelm Guttandin: Introduction to the "Protestant Ethics" of Max Weber. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 1998, ISBN 3-531-12969-4 .
  • Émile Durkheim : Physics of morals and law. Lectures on the sociology of morality. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-518-29000-2 .
  • Pekka Himnanen: The Hacker Ethics and the Spirit of the Information Age. Riemann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-570-50020-9 .
  • Hartmut Lehmann : Max Weber's "Protestant Ethics". Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996, ISBN 3-525-33575-X .
  • Max Weber : Protestant ethics and the 'spirit' of capitalism. In: Archive for Social Science and Social Policy , Volumes 20–21 (1904–1905) and in: Collected essays on the sociology of religion 1920.
  • Max Weber: Protestant ethics and the 'spirit' of capitalism. Complete edition. Edited by Dirk Kaesler . 2nd edition CH Beck Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-51133-3 .
  • Corinne Maier : The discovery of laziness. The art of doing as little as possible at work . Goldmann, Munich 2004. ISBN 3-442-30113-0 .
  • Kurt Guth / Marcus Mery: The application for training with the police, fire brigade, customs and armed forces. Verlag Bildungspark, Offenbach / Main 2011, ISBN 978-3941356290
  • Wolfgang Thierse and Heiner Ludwig (eds.): Work is not a commodity: On economic crises, normative orientation and political practice , Freiburg, Br. 2009, ISBN 9783451302909 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Nothelle-Wildfeuer : Profession . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 296 (297) .
  2. ↑ Ursula Nothelle-Wildfeuer : Profession . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 296 (298) .
  3. ^ Durkheim: Physics of Morals and Law, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 1998
  4. ^ Durkheim: About the social division of labor. Study on the organization of higher societies, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 1992, here v. a. "Some remarks about the professional groups"
  5. ↑ ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / polis.osce.org
  6. ↑ Guth / Mery: The application for training with the police, fire brigade, customs and armed forces. Verlag Bildungspark, Offenbach / Main, 2011, pp. 48–67.