Managing Change in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day reviewed by Omowunmi Segun
Stevens, the central character of the novel, has been a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall. His new boss, an American, encourages him to take a motoring trip through the West Country of England while he is away. Stevens’ journey around the country take him to the past, during which he recalls the changes that have taken place in his profession,
“Recalling a time when I had had a staff of seventeen under me, and knowing how not so long ago a staff of twenty-eight had been employed here at Darlington Hall, the idea of devising a staff plan by which the same house would be run on a staff of four seemed, to say the least daunting.”
Darlington Hall is affected by changes in environment and lifestyle. Innovation and advances in technology mean that a large staff is no longer required but still it is a struggle for Stevens to adapt to the new changes. He says:
“ Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways. But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake. In the age of electricity and modern heating systems, there is no need at all to employ the sorts of numbers necessary even a generation ago.”
Fortunately, Stevens is a man who recognizes that change is inevitable and does his best to cope with the changing times. He also gets to understand, later in his career, that blind loyalty to a boss can be a disservice. Had he challenged his former boss on the unfair dismissal of two domestic staff simply because they had Jewish affiliations earlier in his career, the sequence of events at the end might have turned out differently for both him and his boss.
This novel provokes a number of questions: At what point does an employee challenge their manager, especially when it becomes obvious that the decisions being taken by the manager are contrary to the values of the organization or, even the society at large? What choices does an employee have in such a situation? These and many other issues raised in Remains of the Day make it a compelling read for anyone wanting to understand the emotional complexities of the change process.
“Recalling a time when I had had a staff of seventeen under me, and knowing how not so long ago a staff of twenty-eight had been employed here at Darlington Hall, the idea of devising a staff plan by which the same house would be run on a staff of four seemed, to say the least daunting.”
Darlington Hall is affected by changes in environment and lifestyle. Innovation and advances in technology mean that a large staff is no longer required but still it is a struggle for Stevens to adapt to the new changes. He says:
“ Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways. But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake. In the age of electricity and modern heating systems, there is no need at all to employ the sorts of numbers necessary even a generation ago.”
Fortunately, Stevens is a man who recognizes that change is inevitable and does his best to cope with the changing times. He also gets to understand, later in his career, that blind loyalty to a boss can be a disservice. Had he challenged his former boss on the unfair dismissal of two domestic staff simply because they had Jewish affiliations earlier in his career, the sequence of events at the end might have turned out differently for both him and his boss.
This novel provokes a number of questions: At what point does an employee challenge their manager, especially when it becomes obvious that the decisions being taken by the manager are contrary to the values of the organization or, even the society at large? What choices does an employee have in such a situation? These and many other issues raised in Remains of the Day make it a compelling read for anyone wanting to understand the emotional complexities of the change process.
posted by Wunmi Segun at 5:22 AM
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