Ethics of care and co-worker relationships in UK banks

Abstract

Utilising an analytical framework based on an ethics of care approach, this article examines the changing nature of co-worker relationships in UK banks under the rise of performance management practices. It illustrates that with the implementation of performance management practices in general, and electronic performance management monitoring in bank branches in particular, co-worker relationships have become increasingly objectified, resulting in disconnected and conflict-ridden forms of engagement. The analysis reveals the multi-layered and necessarily complex nature of co-worker relationships in a changing technologically driven work environment and highlights the possibilities for people to defend the capacity to care for others from the erosive tendencies of individualized processes.