Respect for people in the enterprise culture?

This paper investigates some of the assumptions that lie behind the text of the Respect for People reports (2000; 2004), part of the follow-up from the Egan report (DETR 1998). Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is mobilised to place Respect for People within its structural, institutional, and historic context, looking at why it was produced and what effects it had. Particular emphasis is placed on linking the specifics of the text to the wider social structures of which it forms part. Conceptualising people as an asset or resource encourages an instrumental view in which it is acceptable to treat human beings as means to an end. Similarly, the 'business case' argument for respecting people means that improvements to working conditions are judged purely in accordance with their contribution to efficiency and profitability rather than in terms of moral imperatives (not killing people) or fairness (not discriminating against them). Investigation of the context of the report reveals it to be a response to conditions at a particular historical moment: labour shortages; the desire to avoid or pre-empt regulation; changes in the wider prevailing discourse; and the need to give the impression that 'something is being done'. There is seen to be an underlying contradiction between the market status of labour as a disposable commodity and its status as a 'valued human resource'. The discourse of 'Respect for People' is shaped by social structures, but also contributes to shaping them. It contributes to sustaining existing power relations, yet it is also a resource which can be drawn on to improve conditions for people working in construction.