
PPE Speaker Series: “The Employment Tax on Agency and Managerial Gaslighting” with Dan Singer (University of Pennsylvania)
March 3 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Join us on Monday, March 3 from 6:30-7:45pm in Caldwell 105 for our PPE Speaker Series!
Abstract: In the current information economy, knowledge workers are vital for organizational innovation and competitiveness, and because of this, they often command wages orders of magnitude higher than manual workers. Yet, organizations often systematically undermine knowledge workers’ creative and epistemic agency in their everyday work, leading to a puzzle: Why would firms pay so much for knowledge workers’ expertise just to undermine that expertise in their work? To answer this question, I’ll argue that we should change our conception of what employment involves. Doing so also reveals a kind of ‘managerial gaslighting’ that firms regularly use to undermine their employees. While seemingly counterproductive, I’ll show why this kind of gaslighting is sometimes permissible and often necessary for effective business operations.
There will be Q&A and pizza after the talk! This event is free and open to the public.
