“THE DISPOSABLE PEOPLE” SYNDROME – A DISEASE HAUNTING MODERN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Have we started looking at people as disposable units? Have we started adopting “use and throw” attitudes with people also? Is the emotional bonding between people on the decline? Are we increasingly becoming scared of keeping people close by for a long time? All these may be excellent topics for sociological research now. But one cannot deny that there is an element of truth in the above statements which sends some alarm signals with regard to the type of future relationship systems in a family, organization and a society.

Kelvin Bales in his book “The Disposable People” talks about a new type of slavery in the emerging economies, where people are considered disposable for various reasons. In a society which is becoming increasingly consumerist, even people are considered as ‘throw away’ items after use, possibly because the value of animate and inanimate objects is equated more for utility, relevance and their contextuality. People are also considered as consumable products for a specific type of task, service or work they could do or deliver and with the completion of the above, they are signed off from the systems in which they function.  On a close scrutiny, the following trends are visible in a large sector of private companies.

 1.  People are considered as Numbers

 In a large number of organizations, people are considered as numbers. The individual is not seen as a living organism who is emotionally, physically, socially and psychologically engaged in an organization for a gainful purpose. Either while recruiting the persons or while relieving them from an organization, the individual becomes just a number. “The death of one man is a tragedy; The death of a million is a statistic.” Joseph Stalin appears to have said during the world war. Thus, the concern for the individuals is lost just in the number. The quantum and quality of the service rendered or the contribution of the individual in scaffolding the organization, his past role as a building block for the company’s professional architecture are totally marginalized when the person becomes a number. Personal and corporate needs of the Managements outwit the consideration for an inclusive organizational structure.

2. People are considered as service providers

A number of organizations consider the employees as just service providers on a contractual basis for a monthly payment. The organization considers completion of their role on payment of the contractual salary every given period of time. There is lack of emotional engagement with the employee and there is no attempt to develop a sense of ownership with the organization as such, some organizations misconstrue that their professionalism demands ‘emotional disengagement’ with their employees. The personal welfare of the individual is of no concern to an organizational set up where the singular objective appears to design and produce profits.

3. People are valued only for their utility

Increasingly the organizations seem to evaluate people based on their utility rather than other personality profiles. People who are ‘extra smart’, who are good in ‘manipulations’, who are good ‘in getting things done’ are valued as performers as against others who hold high values of integrity, honesty, passion and hard work. After organizations squeeze up the people, they’re considered as ‘non-utilitarian’ worthy enough for a golden handshake “Long-term” engagement with people is getting replaced with ‘short-term’ achievements and thus, their deliverables. With change in ‘skills- set’, people are continuously marginalized as non-utilitarian and found irrelevant and as a burden to the organizational structure.

The disposable people syndrome is an outcome of changing social mindsets – where personal concerns dominate over the social concerns. It appears to be an offshoot of increasing insecurity in a formal ‘inclusive system’. It is an organizational attitude to set material priorities over human and social priorities. It is possibly a reflection on the declining health of an organization and their wrong perception of organizational happiness. One could only recall the famous words of the great industrialist JRD Tata who said “Good human relations not only bring great personal rewards, but are essential to the success of any enterprise.”