The False Duality of Work and Leisure

Abstract

Work and leisure are commonly viewed as dichotomous and antithetical. The authors argue that this conceptual duality is unreflective, confounding the meaning of each term. They suggest that work and leisure are complements that in their highest states share core elements and are best understood in dynamic relation to each other. Their purpose in this essay is to better understand work by learning about its complement. The authors characterize leisure as the experiential quality of one's time when one engages voluntarily and intentionally in awareness-expanding inquiry, which in turn generates ongoing, transforming development throughout adulthood. Leisure is intrinsically rewarding, facilitating personal and organizational transformations that increase extrinsic economic value. In response to an increasingly dominant work ethic, the authors advocate that leisure receive the same level of scrutiny and respect that we as management scholars naturally give to work. Cultivating true leisure, they conclude, is more demanding than work itself.