Intimacy

In Work’s Intimacy Melissa Gregg argues the condition experienced by workers today “is to be invested in work as and when required but without the reciprocal assurance from employers that commitment will be rewarded. Such a scenario risks losing the goodwill of employees permanently” (2011: 165). In other words, there is a shifting of standards and expectations by employees and employers – that employees will engage in what McRobbie (2016) describes as “passionate work” – but without any guarantees that this will be rewarded with security or better conditions. This shifting of standards and expectations by employees and employers, in norms of reciprocity, has been referred to as shifts in the nature of the “psychological contract” of work (Rousseau and Schalk 2000).

For this essay you are to discuss the changing expectations and subjective involvement of employees in their work. Examining the retail industry, please write a 3,000 word essay. You should include empirical examples or cases, at least one, in your discussion and analysis.

– Retail
– Transformation of a ‘traditional’ industry by digital communication and media

This is a research paper and, as such, should follow academic standards of writing.

The coursework should fulfill the following formal criteria:
• It should include Harvard style in-text references for all cited works, and a list of references at the end of the text,
• It should be spellchecked and grammar checked.

Preferred language style Simple (Easy vocabulary, simple grammar constructions)