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Working in the Brand Economy

Work, Labor, and Experience

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Handbook of Business Legitimacy

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Abstract

The humanist approach of work prevails in human resources management. It seems the most legitimate from a corporate social responsibility perspective because it postulates that work allows individual fulfillment. However, the Marxist approach, which emphasizes the context of exploitation through labor, is in many cases relevant to the reality of work. Salaried work is part of a Hegelian master-servant dialectic which is proving to be impassable.

A contemporary phenomenon, which is the entry of work into the brand economy through the employer brand, invites us to consider another approach to work, i.e., the experiential one. It replaces neither the Marxist nor the humanist approach, which remains relevant for reporting on employers’ behavior. However, by focusing on the employees’ point of view in assessing their work context, the experiential approach reflects the legitimacy of HRM, which is suggested by the entry of work into the brand economy, that is, offering employees a work experience compatible with their life projects. The master-servant dialectic is then replaced by a masterS-servantS dialectic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France

    Eric Pezet & Juliet Poujol

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  1. Eric Pezet
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  2. Juliet Poujol
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Correspondence to Eric Pezet .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Jacob Dahl Rendtorff

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Pezet, E., Poujol, J. (2020). Working in the Brand Economy. In: Rendtorff, J. (eds) Handbook of Business Legitimacy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_50-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68845-9_50-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68845-9

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