max weber thesis on the protestant ethic

The Protestant work ethic is more than a cultural norm that places a positive moral value on doing a good job. The article also indicates that the Protestant ethic can indeed contribute towards a meaningful experience whilst performing work-related tasks in workspace.

This article explores the contribution of Protestant ethic as a contributory and sets it within the framework of universal individual values pertaining to work and work-specific values. In a research program that endeavoured to construe the meaningful workplace, Protestant ethic was identified as one possible contributory towards such an ideal. Yet, in spite of all the attempts, one failure after the other has been recorded. The common thread through history seems to be attempts to enhance the workplace, to better it, to convert it into a place where people could work with a free spirit. Today as in previous times, work and the workplace poses its challenges. Little did Max Weber know that his essay 'Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism', written in 1905 (which was republished in 1920), would survive the times and still be a source for discussion and interpretation during the 21st century. Reformed Theological College, University of Pretoria, South Africa The analysis of this paradigmatic case adds to our understanding of the development, uses, and meaning of theory in contemporary sociology.Protestant ethic: Contributing towards a meaningful workplace Based on the example of the peculiarities of the Weberian expert communities in the United States and Germany, I analyze how the invention of a concept of theory as independent from empirical evidence helped to stabilize the value of scholarly expertise on Weber in the face of otherwise declining resonance of the text. Following this process of (re)interpretation over time, I show that at the beginning of the century the work was perceived as an empirical inquiry, while at the end of the century it was treated as pure theory. The transitions between these phases were brought about by an initial process of mystification of the text in the 1930s and a dynamic of de- and re-mystification beginning in the 1980s. I trace this development in the interplay between scholars in the United States and Germany and distinguish three waves of meaning given to the text. This article investigates the status assigned to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism as a case study on the development of the concept of theory in twentieth century sociology.

Max weber thesis on the protestant ethic