The Persistence of Working Objectification: A Challenge Modern Organisational Interventions Still Fail to Address

Working objectification, defined as treating workers as mere objects and means to a purpose instead of individuals with ideas, feelings, and moral rights, still exists as a major challenge in many modern organisations despite numerous interventions including participatory work design, managerial training, well-being program, and ethical technology redesign efforts to alleviate the challenge. Empirical and theoretical data suggests that these interventions often fail to produce long-term change (Carmeli, Brueller, & Dutton, 2010; Loughnan, Haslam, Murnane, Vaes, & Suitner, 2010). This commentary seeks to argue that working objectification persists because interventions merely target surface-level symptoms of workers like stress or satisfaction instead of addressing the underlying cultural and structural causes rooted in organisational systems that make working objectification a prevalent practice in modern organisations. A fundamental shift in organisational values is required to make an effective intervention addressing the challenge. Such a shift is only possible if human dignity is elevated to the top of the organisational value hierarchy which views workers as human beings with autonomy and emotional needs, not as objects and tools for productivity. However, several gaps exist in the current research on working objectification. One of these gaps is that of a comprehensive study of interventions by modern organisations to address the issue of working objectification, their impact, and implications for developing focused interventions. This research gap points towards an ample scope for future research on one of the less researched areas, which, however, must include longitudinal and cross-sectional studies on working objectification.