ABSTRACT

In de®ning the nature of work, no concept plays a larger role than skill. Indeed, it is the presence or absence of skill that ultimately determines the meaning of work and the quality of the interpersonal setting in which work takes place. All of the issues concerning work so far explored, issues having to do with the relationship between being and doing, ultimately become issues of the use of skill, especially the tolerance on the part of the individual and the work setting for the use of skill. In this chapter, I consider the matter of skill explicitly in an effort to understand how the possibility that work can integrate being and doing depends on the presence of skill in work.