We Each Get to Decide What Success Means for Ourselves

a post by Orit Wittenberg for the Tiny Buddha blog


“In this world, an ordinary life has become synonymous with a meaningless life.” ~Brené Brown 

As I see it, there are two types of people out there.

There are those who read goal attainment books and feel inspired, and me.

The former will read the anecdotes about all those underdogs who beat the odds and managed to achieve wealth and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and will say to themselves, “Wow! That could be me!” They’ll feel enlightened, invigorated, and revved up to make a change.

And then there’s me.

While I may initially pick up such a book with genuine interest, my desire to whip my life into shape will invariably do an about-face leaving me anything but inspired. If I say anything to myself as I read, it’s more likely to be a string of ego-deflating curses than a yearning-filled “one day that’ll be me”.

I actually discovered my aversion for success books by accident. Charged for work with the task of developing an online course on the topic of goal attainment, I began to do some research.

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Do not read the books with the idea of following every suggestion as though it was an instruction.
Take what you like and leave the rest.
Or leave the success books alone.
My success is not your success.
Annie succeeds every time she manages to make a telephone call.
Bernie manages to get out of the front door and close it behind him. Success.
I succeed when I can hear a certain voice and not become a quivering heap on the floor.

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More Than a ‘Little Act of Kindness’? Towards a Typology of Volunteering as Unpaid Work

an article by Mihaela Kelemen and Anita Mangan (Keele University, UK) and Susan Moffat (New Vic Theatre, UK) published in Sociology Vol 51 Issue 6 (December 2017)

Abstract

Definitions of volunteering are widespread and complex, yet relatively little attention is given to volunteering as unpaid work, even though it intersects with the worlds of paid employment and the domestic sphere, cutting across individual/collective and public/private spaces.

This article advances a typology of volunteering work (altruistic, instrumental, militant and forced volunteering/‘voluntolding’) that illuminates the complexity and dynamism of volunteering.

Using qualitative data from a study of 30 volunteers to explore practices of volunteering as they unfold in daily life, the typology provides much-needed conceptual building blocks for a theory of ‘volunteering as unpaid work’.

This perspective helps transcend the binaries prevalent in the sociology of work and provides a lens to rethink what counts as work in contemporary society. It also invites further research about the effects of ‘voluntolding’ on individuals and society, and on the complex relationship between volunteering work and outcomes at a personal and collective level.

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The tragedy of the uncommons: Reframing workforce diversity

an article by Karsten Jonsen (IMD, Switzerland), Ahu Tatli (Queen Mary, University of London, UK), Mustafa F Özbilgin (Brunel University, UK and Université Paris Dauphine, France) and Myrtle P Bell (University of Texas at Arlington, USA) published in Human Relations Volume 66 Number 2 (February 2013)

Abstract

This article presents a reframing of workforce diversity as a social tragedy.

We draw on Hardin’s concept of ‘tragedy of the commons’, which explored the conflicts between individual and collective good. We identify two dilemmas that underscore the social tragedy of diversity and explain why they prevent workforce diversity from progressing:

1. voluntarism, and
2. individualism.

We critique the simplistic models of managing diversity and suggest an alternative conceptualisation as a way forward.

We advocate an approach that captures the potential contradictions between individual and social good and accounts for the role of multiple actors in tackling the tragedy of the uncommons.

A reframing of organisational self-interest and collective interests in the context of diversity is presented and solutions to social tragedy of diversity are proposed.

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The Big Society, values and co-operation

an article by Fiona Wilson and Donald MacLean (University of Glasgow) published in Work, Employment & Society Volume 26 Number 3 (June 2012)

Abstract

In a context of government promotion of co-operatives, a growth in the co-operative economy, and in times when use of the term ‘co-operative’ appears to have broadened to include any form of employee ownership, this article sets out a research agenda for exploring producer co-operatives, focusing on what co-operation means to those who work in them.

Based on exploratory research in three producer co-operatives, the article argues that the values and principles are being used so liberally that co-operatives have a very wide appeal, making co-operation attractive to a wide spectrum of political ideals and values – perhaps surprisingly, those associated with individualism alongside those of co-operation.

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