“All of Me”: PsychologizingTurkish‐Dutch Police Officers in theNetherlands

Abstract

This article offers a critical take on the excessive use of psychological applications in the work sphere, that is, management techniques that open up the psyche of the individual employee to interceptions, evaluations, and manipulations by superiors. It builds upon existing work on the psychologization of labor under the aegis of human resource apparatuses and contributes to it by centralizing the role that confessions have in this process. The article details the careers of Fehim and Halil, both Turkish-Dutch officers working for a Dutch police agency.The field data, which have been obtained through an ethnographic fieldwork between 2008 and 2013, offer an insight into how psychological applications (such as personal development plans, "fireplace sessions," empowerment courses, personality surveys, etc.) affect labor relations. The analysis opens up pathways for a better understanding of ethnic inequality in the workplace.

Contributions to an anthropology of work: On the role of psycho-technicians in the management of freedom within the Dutch police

“…But of course, these authentic features had to be congruent with managerially defined objectives, hence the relevance of Fairclough's accent on synthetic personalizations (see also Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). The adjective stresses the continuing relevance of ideology: The psychological turn in labour management appears to tolerate workers' personalities, but in reality these personalities become highly regimented once they become salient in the workplace (see also DiFruscia, 2012;Mutsaers, 2014b;Mutsaers and Trux, forthcoming). As one might tell from my frequent use of adverbs such as 'apparently, 'seemingly', 'allegedly', 'putatively' or 'ostensibly', my view equates closely with that of Anthony (1977) and Baritz (1960), whose critique on the politics of psychology at work was essentially an ideology-critique (see the introduction).…”

“…Several of such techniques have received critical commentary in Mutsaers (2014b). Some examples from my fieldwork may be given to indicate that psychologism has permeated Dutch police management.…”

“…Throughout the life of my ethnographic study I noticed, however, that the fruits of such freedom do not accrue to ethnic minority officers. In fact, oftentimes they have to take the brunt of laissez-faire management styles and have to fight an uphill battle all by themselves (see Mutsaers, 2014b).…”

The ‘pure apples’: Moral bordering within the Kenyan police

“…Other studies have highlighted other key markers of variance among police officers. For example, both Sinan Çankaya (2015) and Paul Mutsaers (2014) discuss how ethnic identity impacts how Dutch police officers experience their work and interact with citizens. And Theresa Ulicki (2012) and Marisa Silvestri (2017) highlight how gender differences, primarily the ‘cult of masculinity’, define police officers’ opportunities.…”

The Anthropology of Police as Public Anthropology

“…Ethnic minority officers, in particular, described structural impediments in career advancement that were indicative of these discriminatory structures (cf. Mutsaers b).…”