The Ergonomics of Desire

Freud has noted the basic repression of the instincts necessary for the continuation of civilised social existence. This repression, at one level, is manifest in structures of social order and control, of which the work organisation is a particular form. However, it has been argued that the degree of repression existing exceeds that which is defined as necessary. From this it must be inferred either that such control is, in Marcuse's term, surplus repressive, or that it proceeds from the desire of organisational participants to be subjected to such control. Surplus repression is not a noted explanation of control in orthodox organisation theory, so this article explores the implications of the explanation in terms of desire, by examining a number of practices common in work organisations in terms of their symbolic significance, using the technique of ergonomic reconstruction at the psychological level. The questions posed for management by this article relate to whether they are really doing something other than they intend, by being, perhaps unwittingly, more concerned with control at the micro level than in contributing to economic performance at the macro level. If so, it implies a somewhat different relationship between management action and economic performance than is usually supposed, and suggests that management may not be optimising its contribution to our economic recovery and betterment. This article is based on an understanding of organisational structures as symbolic structures. Inherently, this implies that they are symbolic of something. Our enquiry is into what these symbols mean, and what the ergonomic implications of such meanings are.