Meaningful Workplaces: Reframing How and Where We Work

Conclusion: Reframing Back to the Community

The prevailing paradigm of organization structure has been the image of a machine (Morgan, 1996). Order, control, authority, discipline, rigid job descriptions, and multiple layers of leadership are just some of the features of the bureaucratic model of organizational functioning. Communities, by contrast, are founded on a more natural way of functioning in the world. People come together to serve a mutual purpose and they work, play, and celebrate together in self-governing, interdependent relationships. Reframing the workplace on the basis of a more humanistic, natural structure calls for a profound philosophical shift. If work is part of the human condition, the workplace should mirror a more ...