In search of crowning glory: an enquiry into some realities of individual identity in organizational life today

Abstract

Working in organisations in the twenty-first century has become very demanding. At one level, the individuals in a modern society find it almost a compulsion to be a part of one or the other organisation. On the other hand, they also moan the factor that they are increasingly becoming slave to organisational existence! Modern organisations, employees discover, are almost devouring the people working in the organisations. In this context, the paper underlines that although the trade unions came into being to protect the labours from the ‘ills’ of the exploitative desires of the owners of the ‘means of production’, they now appear to be in disarray. There is a sharp decline in the influence of the unions amongst the labours. The May-Day movement has considerably lost its essence and impact. The lure of modern comfortable living is making people self-centric and ‘individual-happiness-seeking’ social animal. With this scenario in the organisational life, it is seen that employees in organisations are struggling to find and preserve their own identity—almost to an extent where the personal identities of individuals are getting blurred. Haplessly, they also find that their only identity is predominantly the social-identity given to them by their organisations. However, there is no way to undo the industrial development ushering in sea-change in social life. Therefore, ways and means are to be found out to utilise the development in industries march ahead together with the rights and identities of the employees, not at the cost of deriding their earned rights.