Over the years, I have read a range of Mats Alvesson’s work, and I really like his concept of functional stupidity.
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He revisits this idea in a recent article looking at excessive work regimes.
Functional stupidity is very different from pure stupidity or low intelligence. It refers to the way employees learn to accept institutionalised norms that encourage them to acquiesce (as Jane Elliot once said, to go along in order to get along) rather than question, to be narrowly focused in their thinking and actions.
People behaving functionally stupidly believe that what others do is the acceptable way to behave. What this means is working above and beyond the hours for which you are paid becomes the norm.
Employees believe if they do not work additional, unpaid hours, they will be disadvantaged, will be perceived by management as not worth promoting and are likely to be judged as poor performers.
Many will not take action that they perceive as disadvantaging students in the short-term even though the conditions for which they are fighting, if not obtained, will significantly disadvantage future students.
I have seen many such employees in my time working in universities. Academics mark student assignments over the weekends. They respond to online students late in the evenings and over weekends. They take their computer with them while they are on annual leave and answer student inquiries and write their research papers.
A recent National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) survey identified that, across Australia, academics work an additional 19.8 million unpaid hours (approximately 11,660 full-time equivalent positions).
This “volunteer” work saved university management approximately $1.4 billion a year in 2015. Professional staff in universities “volunteered” 6.8 million hours of time (approximately 4000 full-time equivalent positions) which saved university management around $290 million in 2015.
Alvesson argues that people doing this excessive workload are often aware of the need to balance work and life. However, some believe that hard work today is likely to result in promotion and better opportunities for a higher level position.
I sometimes find it rather ironic that I am paid a professorial salary to spend half a day trying to figure out an online booking system, or in some cases, not figure out a new system!
For some, it is an issue of identity. Many of my colleagues explain overwork is based in their professional commitment to students; students, they believe, should not be disadvantaged and deserve the very best they can offer, even when the excessive workload impacts on their own health and wellbeing.
We see this often when trying to organise industrial action. Many will not take action that they perceive as disadvantaging students in the short-term even though the conditions for which they are fighting, if not obtained, will significantly disadvantage future students.
Along with these individual drivers of excessive workload performance are organisational drivers. Organisations set up systems and processes that require employees to work excessive hours in order to perform their required work.
When I first began work in a university, for example, professional staff typed my lecture notes, printed/photocopied resources for me and made my travel bookings. I am fully aware that the world has changed but I am now in a position where all of those tasks (and many others like them) have to be performed by me.
I sometimes find it rather ironic that I am paid a professorial salary to spend half a day trying to figure out an online booking system, or in some cases, not figure out a new system!
In addition to the core work I am employed to do (research, teaching and service) I now spend a vast proportion of my week undertaking administrative tasks which do not, in any way, contribute towards the work I am supposed to be doing.
My performance however, is assessed against the work I am supposed to be doing and the expectations of my performance have not been decreased in recognition of all the administrivia I am required to do.
Rather, expectations increase as Australian universities compare themselves with others overseas and try and match their performance.
It then becomes difficult for any individual organisation to change its expectations as standing in comparison with other universities is likely to suffer.
Alvesson argues we all need to critically reflect on our work and question the organisational norms we currently take for granted.
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