A paradigm shift : labour as activity
To consider work as activity means examining what an individual does at work, his/her actual activity and not just this work’s environment, working conditions, wages, organization, hierarchical structure, etc. It involves looking at what is being done, observing closely what the worker is doing in his/her workplace, letting him/her talk about his/her actual work. Favouring precise observation and listening to the performers makes it possible to leave behind the most common interpretations of work and restore all of the meanings workers express about their work. These meanings need to be sought in the workers’ specific work descriptions and what they say about their work. Recently, most probably under the influence of work psychologists and ergonomists, there has been a gradual shift from the old work approaches to a new activity approach, focused on what men and women are doing at work. These new approaches show that workers are inventive and that they develop other ways of doing things, can innovate in the workplace, and are no longer simply subordinated to an organization. Instead, they can, and are willing to, be, at their level, inventors, and also give numerous other meanings to their job. Considering and analyzing work as an activity therefore helps better understand the current changes in the workplace.