Enforcing the Work Ethic: Rhetoric and Everyday Life in a Work Incentive Program

By Gale Miller

This analysis, based on a year's observation of social relations in a Work Incentive Program (WIC) office, explores the ways in which staff members organize their interactions with clients, coworkers, and supervisors. Miller focuses on rhetoric (persuasive discourse) as a central aspect of everyday work and as a means of analyzing activities and relationships. He shows, for example, how staff members, clients, and supervisors rhetorically define and justify organizational purposes, or typical and preferred organizational solutions to problems. The book offers an alternative image and orientation to low-level human service professionals and emphasizes how they actively participate in the creation and maintenance of troublesome work relationships.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791404242
• ISBN13: 9780791404249
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher