Tune in, break down, and reboot – new machines for coping with the stress of commitment

Abstract

This article proposes a relationship between the self‐managing employee and occupational stress. Rather than suggesting a cause and effect relationship between the two, the article views the relationship as part of a ‘machinic’ production process in the sense suggested by Deleuze and Guattari. Stress is thus regarded as both a product and a component part of the very production of the self‐managing employee. Stress emerges as a flow between a ‘coping machine’ and a ‘commitment machine’. But rather than eradicating or eliminating stress, to cope with stress is to reinforce the very way in which work is done and hence, the very way in which stress itself is produced.

Keywords:

• stress
• coping
• immaterial labour
• Deleuze
• machines
• self‐management

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following for making insightful comments to earlier drafts of this article. Professor Sverre Raffns⊘e, Associate Professor Martin Fuglsang, Assistant Professor Thomas Basb⊘ll, Doctoral Student Rasmus Johnsen, and Doctoral Student Anders Raastrup Kristensen all from the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School; Senior Researcher Pia Bramming from the Danish National Research Center for the Working Environment; Doctoral Student Stephen Dunne, and Professor Steven D. Brown, both from University of Leicester.