Ontological Security in Times of Global Transformations?: Carolin Schütze publishes a new paper in Political Psychology

Carolin Schütze published a paper titled “Ontological Security in Times of Global Transformations? Bureaucrats’ Perceptions on Organizational Work Life and Migration” in the journal Political Psychology. The paper discusses the repercussions of global changes in welfare organisations. It is examined how ontological insecurity caused by global transformations influences individuals and how these influences manifest themselves in the working life of bureaucrats. By analysing open-ended survey responses from Swedish bureaucrats, the paper argues that bureaucrats are influenced both by internal organizational changes and external changes linked to processes of globalization. Internal processes on the organizational level are marked through neo-liberal forces in the form of NPM processes, while external processes are marked through migration, and together these lead to a sense of loss of control and a loss of a sense of a collective security. This leads to increased insecurity among bureaucrats and might push them into a variety of identity strategies (engagement, essentialism, retreatment) in order to counter-balance feelings of uncertainties. The paper demonstrates how complex the drive for ontological security can be for individuals in organizations. 
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12736