In Barbieland, the Barbies put their whole selves into their work. We should all be encouraged to do the same
Madeline Toubiana is an associate professor and Desmarais Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management. Trish Ruebottom is an associate professor at McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Business.
Interestingly, in the movie’s Real World, workers are experiencing something even worse than the Kens. At Mattel headquarters, they occupy plain, dark cubicles and wear the same forgettable outfits. One lowly office worker has to be asked for his name on several occasions, while a group of C-Suite suits aren’t afforded names at all. They all do what the boss tells them to do, for the sole benefit of the company.
Second, we need real autonomy. Before the pandemic, CEOs and managers in companies of all sizes said workers were simply unable to work from home – we couldn’t be trusted to be productive. It was assumed employees needed the ever-present surveillance of bosses and even co-workers to keep us focused, to keep productivity high. Autonomy was seen as antithetical to work.
Barbie dolls are displayed in the Careers Today exhibit during the 2021 Barbie: A Cultural Icon Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.Purpose is why productivity went up during the pandemic – we were all invested in keeping the world going – and why it has gone down in recent months. We all started questioning what we were doing. With purpose, autonomy becomes a real possibility.
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