Workplace Humiliation and the Organization of Domestic Work

Abstract

This study of domestic workers and employers in Kolkata (India) examines the significance of workplace humiliation as an important yet neglected concept for organization studies. It identifies practices of symbolic, sexual and physical workplace humiliation that shape corporeality and subjectivity in such a way that workers feel inferior, fearful and docile. Practices of workplace humiliation serve the purpose of social reproduction by stabilizing the existing skewed power relations between workers and employers, and making workers comply inexpensively with the harsh requirements of highly exploitative workplaces. In foregrounding humiliation as a key organizational mechanism, this study furthers understanding of workplace humiliation, oppression, caste and exploitation in organization studies.