Work Ethos or Counter-Ideology of Work

While attempting to answer a question in the title of this paper first of all, basic intentions that inspired to formulate such a topic should be explained. The bottom line is whether in the reflections of representatives of sociology of work or sociology of economy, referring to contextual perception and analysis of labour relations in Poland, some focus should be put on the issues concerning redefining the essence and content of work ethos, or rather on an analysis of a set of factors, both of endogenic and exogenous nature, which contribute to a broadly understood counter-ideology of work. Therefore, this paper presents an attempt to indicate twofold types of phenomena and processes; on the one hand, those that influence a process of individualization and fragmentation of work ethos in Poland; on the other one, those which affect content of major motivation and interpretation schemes mentioned by employees, which may become presumptions to the development of counter-ideology of work. In such circumstances, a role of work ethos in creating economic harmony, which is a special case of axionormative harmony, decreases significantly and loses its explicitly social character while increasingly becoming only one of dimensions of individual identity, professional biography or a personality profile of an individual.