Lecture 9: Protestant Work Ethic
Aim: To use the PWE as an example of how concepts in one discipline can be used in
another. Also to describe experimental work in the area..
Objective: Students should understand and be able to articulate the many
theoretical and methodological controversies around PWE starting from Weber and
McClelland through to modern researchers.
Concepts
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was published in German over
eighty years ago by Max Weber as a two-part article in 1904/05. The work reflects
the multi-disciplinary scholarly interests of Weber who had a broad knowledge of
religion, political economy, the law, and most other social sciences. His disregard for
traditional disciplinary boundaries gave the work considerable breadth and
explanatory power which could, of course, be criticized at many different levels and
from different perspectives. It is perhaps for this reason that the work remains a
source of interest and debate to many disciplines today (sociology, theology, and
economic history). Indeed, the thesis has survived as one of the best known and
controversial works in all the social sciences.
The general acceptance of a way of life based upon rational, legal acquisition
through individual effort was regarded as unique to the modern Occident/countries
of the West (Poggi, 1983). These persons were described as being disciplined in
their quest for profit, were not motivated by a desire to use their gains for the
satisfaction of their material appetites, and had an ‘earnestness of purpose that
gave dignity to their economic activities’ (Jones, 1997). These ideas about the
nature and purpose of capitalism were what Weber described as the ‘spirit of
capitalism’. For Weber the central problem was explaining the fact that people
pursue wealth and material gain (the achievement of profit) for its own sake, not
because of necessity. That is, the aim of obtaining, accumulating and storing
money/capital is an end in itself, not a means to an end.
The concept of the Protestant work ethic (PWE) was devised by the German
sociologist Max Weber (1904) who saw it as a partial explanation for the origin of
capitalism. Weber (1904, 1942, 1947, 1958) argued that Western legal and
commercial changes were not in themselves an adequate explanation, and for the
role of a specifically religious ethos in the appearance of capitalism. Indeed, he
recognized that non-religious elements played a part in the development of the
spirit of capitalism. He addressed the importance of effective legal systems, the
development of cooperatives and guilds, the availability of labour, rational
bookkeeping and the importance of money. But he argued that such material
conditions could not in themselves provide a complete explanation. Tawney (1926,
1962) also argued that the appearance of this ethos was an inevitable by-product of
the commercial classes’ gradual victory over feudalism. But, Weber pointed out that
the people of medieval and early modern Europe defined their ‘interests’ in terms
primarily of their eternal fate; the redefinition of worldly pursuits could not have
occurred without a positive religious sanction (Poggi, 1983).
At the centre of the concept of the Protestant work ethic is the idea that the values
and beliefs underlying it actually lead to economic success on both an individual
, and a national level (Furnham, 1990). Medieval asceticism shifted the emphasis on
obedience and rigid socialization to personal effort and motivation from internalized
principles (Riseman, 1950).
Weber’s thesis was that the introduction of capitalism was in part the result of the
Puritian value of asceticism. Puritans felt obliged to be regarded as chosen by God
to perform good works. An individual’s economic role was prescribed by the belief in
a calling for the individual to fulfil his or her duty in this (rather than the other) world
(Gilbert, 1977). The manifestation of occupational rewards through success in one’s
calling came to be revered as a sign of being one of the elect, that is, chosen by
God, to receive salvation. Puritans thus sought to achieve salvation through
economic activity. It was the application of these values that Weber believed led to
the work ethic – the complete and relentless devotion to one’s economic role on
earth (Lessnoff, 1994).
Whilst the values pursued may vary slightly from one historical situation to the next,
he suggested that the single-mindedness with which values are pursued will
probably not. For instance, beginning in the sixth century, a considerable number of
the devout felt themselves called by God to live the ascetic life in a monastery,
putting in hard work at the behest of their Superior. In the thinking of the Protestant
reformers, work was still seen as a personal religious commitment, but as a
discipline to be followed in the secular world rather than in an isolated religious
community (Weber, 1904). Further, the seventeenth century Puritian who came to
his pastor concerned about uncertainty with regard to the nature of the eternity to
which he had been predestined was advised simply to work hard at his calling.
Deprived of the release which the Catholic found in the confessional and the
Lutheran in his sense of communion with God, Baptists, Quakers and Methodists
could testify to the reality of their faith only by means of practical achievement
(Weber, 1922, 1963).
The set of values emphasized by ascetic Protestanism included self-discipline, hard
work, careful use of time and the reinvestment of one’s gains, personal honesty,
creative innovation, and the faith in the rewards of a just God. Socializing, idle talk,
luxury, and anything more than a reasonable amount of sleep were all morally
reprehensible. The deliberate pursuit of wealth, avarice and any form of dishonesty,
however, stood condemned. For instance, Quakers and Baptists certified their
religious merit by their fixed prices and absolutely reliable economic transactions.
More relevantly, Weber (1904, 1958) pointed out that if one could find a better way
of doing things and failed to employ it, he was guilty as casting a blessing back into
the face of the Eternal. The result was a drive, among those imbued with such
attitudes, to find constantly newer and more efficient means of production. Also,
they believed that material blessings had to be used with care and indulgence
would lead one to fall to temptations of the flesh. The result was that the successful
individual, having made modest provision for himself and his family, reinvested
what remained of the abundance with which he had been blessed. The cycle
perpetuated itself as ‘the restraints which were imposed upon the consumption of
wealth naturally served to increase it by making possible the productive investment
of capital (Weber, 1958).
