Erez notes that the predominant 20th century view that emphasized the Taylorist viewpoint gradually fell by the wayside. Companies were forced to acknowledge that they owed their workers a duty of care specifically because of the way that the workers tied their self of self-identity to their jobs. Younger workers, having seen that model collapse in successive rounds of layoffs, demand different job designs, and more specifically they demand a greater degree of control over job design. Younger workers taking more control over their job design has resulted in what Erez describes as customizing one's job in order to suit one's sense of self. The sense of self is stronger, and the job needs to be responsive to it, rather than vice versa. Ultimately,...

We have taken more control over the process of shaping that relationship, but the relationship still exists. People still evaluate you on the basis of your career, but they also evaluate you on the way in which you have shaped your career to meet your needs. There is an element of "Me, Inc." that in embedded in the relationship between one's job and self now. Where formerly the two were viewed as distinct even though they were not, today those distinctions have been blurred even as we assert our independence from a career-defined identity.
Works Cited:

Erez, M. (2010). Culture and job design. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 31 (2-3) 389-400.