Organizational identity and forms of subjectivity of white-collar employees working in the private service industry

The great transformations taking place in the modes of production (such as the Neolithic Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the Electronic and Information Revolutions) since the appearance of human beings on the earth have had an enormous impact upon economic, social and cultural life. In the recent decades, neoliberalism has become the dominant trend in the world economy due to a variety of factors including globalization: the neoliberal wave has been able to largely shape and transform not only the economic realm, but also the myriad aspects of social and cultural fields. As many researchers have pointed out, one of the key debates regarding the contemporary era revolves around the argument that white-collar employees are increasingly forming a precariat. These employees' forms of organizational identification and subjectivity have been affected directly by the process of precarization. Their work experience is one focal area where we can observe the impact of these developments and debates most clearly. The present study focuses upon the service industry, which is becoming ever more significant in the global economy today, and particularly examines the experience of employees working in the banking/finance sector, which occupies a unique place in the field. The focus of the study is the organizational identity and various forms of subjectivity of white-collar employees working in the banking/finance branch of the service industry, which has been refashioned as a result of the changing macro-economic policies. The main concern is how these employees view and recount their own personal experiences and their identification with the organizations they work for. First, an overview of of the scholarly literature on the subject is presented. Then, the main body of the study examines some work experience narratives provided by employees working in the banking industry. The research conducted for this study is based upon in-depth interviews and the method of self-ethnography (oto-ethnography), which has been more commonly employed in anthropology today. Covering the time span from the 1980s to the present day, the study examines the transformations in the labor processes of white-collar employees in the banking industry.