task-orientation versus time-orientation distinction
task-orientation versus time-orientation distinctionA distinction, widely employed in industrial sociology, to indicate contrasting orientations to work and forms of labour discipline. In the narrow sense, task-oriented workers relate the measurement of time to naturally occurring phenomena and cycles, such as ‘the time between sunrise and sunset’, the seasons of the year, or (quite simply) ‘the time it takes to complete the task in hand’. The important point is that there is a complete disregard for the artificial units (minutes, hours, and ‘working days’) of clock-time. Anthropological and historical evidence suggests that this attitude to work—in which labour is oriented to the completion of specific tasks with a minimal demarcation between work and leisure—was prevalent among traditional tribal and Western pre-industrial societies alike. The invention of clocks—or rather their...
[The entire page is 268 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
