The discursive construction of care when there is no care to be found: Organizational life (re)framed by those on the socio‐economic margins facing job loss

Abstract

At the same time that low‐wage workers in the changing US health care systems are facing under‐ and unemployment, organizational scholars are engaged in a healthy discussion of the impact of layoffs on various organizational stakeholders. Through a feminist ethics lens and an ethnographic in‐depth interviewing methodology, this case study expands that work by exploring how 55 low‐wage workers in a state mental health hospital facing closure make sense of their experiences of impending job loss. The collected narratives illuminate how the workers interpret the (un)ethical behaviors of the organizational decision makers and how the workers author a (re)framing of their experiences through an attention to care. Explicated from the workers’ descriptions is a perspective about standpoint and open communication that offers organizational scholars and practitioners a foundation from which to expand approaches to communicating with workers in an environment of organizational closure.

Keywords:

• ethic of care
• job loss
• low‐wage workers
• sense making
• standpoint
• open communication

Notes

1. To date Dix is still open and there have been reports that a significant amount of the hospital will remain open as a result of extensive state budget cuts (Swartz 2009). Regardless of the hospital’s final status, during the time period that this essay reflects (2004–2006) the workers at Dix were living the daily experience of anticipating job loss. A follow‐up study has not yet been conducted and is not relevant to the claims made here.