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UOP Essay

Innocent Drinks (Fun at workplace)
Innocent drinks is a retail company that makes fruit smoothie drinks sold in
supermarkets, shops and other retail chains
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(Neate,
2013) They introduced the fun at work initiative like companies such as SWA, Google &
Zappos, into their workplace in the effort to make the work load more interesting
...

The fun at work initiative can be tracked back to its roots in the early twentieth century,
through the work of theorist F
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Taylor
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He coined this approach “Scientific Management”, where
he emphasised on cooperation between employees and management
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The
industrialist Henry Ford took this theory into play and the concept of Fordism (Jessop, 2013)
was formed, where he implemented the concept of Taylorism with the introduction of the
assembly line which made work easier for the employees, but instead of simply focussing on
that to improve efficiency, he stressed on higher wages as a reward for hard work
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This was the
result of management taking control of the labour process
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There comes about the problem of employees losing interest

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or being bored & frustrated in the work place to the point they begin to hate their jobs/
careers, as they are no longer motivated by money as enough incentive
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Theorists, Peters & Waterman, through the analysis of Fortune 500 companies,
discovered that the “dominance & coherence” of corporate culture proved to be an essential
quality of such firms
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This culture is created by management hence the term “corporate
culture” & should supposedly be functional & one that guarantees commitment, dedication &
loyalty in the work area
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This corporate culture in recent research has been discovered to vary between different
organisations depending on size, for-profit/not-for-profit e
...
c
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In
this case, Innocent Drinks being a small conglomerate, have a fun corporate culture in place
as a means to strengthen their employees motivation and enthusiasm while at work
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As he stated, “The fake turf teases you to kick your shoes off, and looking around you
can see many who have succumbed to the notion
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” (Groves, 2011)
Drawing on this, the choice of the owners of Innocent Drinks to incorporate this
culture has brought about added benefits
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” (BBC, 2007) This however is just the tip of the

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iceberg as such practices are proven to not only increase the motivation & satisfaction of the
workers but increase trust between them, reduce the likelihood of a stressful work
environment not to mention gives each employee the opportunity to express themselves as
freely as possible
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On the other hand, there lies the concern on how the “fun at work” initiative, beneath
the surface, maybe doing more harm than good
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It stems from George Orwell’s
book ‘1984’ where he depicted tyranny “being epitomised by Big Brother, the Party leader
who enjoys an intense cult of personality but who may not even exist
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It is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in
power
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The cultural
theorist Willmott compares such initiatives with the concept of Totalitarianism
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This ‘dark side of fun’ has been described by certain researchers as ‘emotional labour’
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(Goffman, 1999) In this case, the employees tend to feign a
false perception about their true feelings/actions about their work, because of fear of the
repercussions by the managerial authority, that may/may not follow if they do not do so
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(Nickson, 2007)
In summary, the fun at work theory has been debated both ways by mainstream and
critical theorists, each side giving valid reasons as to why the concept benefits and also does
not benefit in an organisational structure
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On the surface it has beneficial & useful reasons why its implementation in an
organisation would result in its success, however as earlier stated the deeper you look into it,
the more you realise, it has somewhat opportunistic and deceptive motives behind it by the
organisations leaders
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e
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Either positively or negatively, it still falls on both fronts
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BBC Magazine
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Available from:
http://news
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co
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stm [Accessed 5 July 2015]
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(2004) Memory as a Moral Decision: The Role of Ethics in
Organizational Culture
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• Goffman, E
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Peter Smith Pub
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(2011) How Innocent Drinks keeps their youthful workplace
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com/growing-up-but-staying-innocent/ [Accessed 5 July
2015]
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(2013) Fordism and Post-Fordism: a Critical Reformulation
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org/2013/11/05/fordism-and-post-fordism-a-critical-reformulation/
[Accessed 5 July 2015]
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(2013) Coca-Cola takes full control of Innocent [online]
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22
February
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theguardian
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• Nickson, D
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1st edition
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• Orwell, G
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bnpublishing
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• Peters, T
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(1982) In Search Of Excellence
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• Van Vliet, V
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(2015) Taylorism - principles of scientific management
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toolshero
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