The Pehnomenon of Work in the Culture of Baťa's Zlín

Abstract

From the very beginning, Tomáš Baťa, founder of the world-famous footwear concern, considered the education and training of his employees to be an integral part of his business practices. It was an enterprise that reached into all spheres of human activity with an ambitious vision to build in Zlín a new harmonious society. The fundamental internal driving force or principle for the whole business and educational process was an idea that one might describe as a cult of work, symbolized externally in Zlín by grandiose annual celebrations of May Day - the holiday commemorating work. Baťa's understanding of the phenomenon of work, in the sense of a reverence for the infinite possibilities and capabilities of the human being, was not limited to factory work. No less important was, in Baťa's view, the work people did on themselves. Besides continuous training and education in all areas of human activity, the act of learning as such - learning in science and art - was increasingly perceived as the supreme manifestation of work. The company endeavored to develop strong and in all respects independent human individuals. Culture in Zlín functioned according to the idea of a harmonious connection of work (the factory), ensuring one's existential needs, and thereby also freedom, with free time reserved for one to work on oneself, on one's mental and intellectual development. In the spirit of a thus conceived pehnomenon of work, unique cultural institutions were established in Zlín already in the 1920s and especially in the 1930s, be they in the areas of education and science (the Masaryk Experimental School, the School of Work for Young Baťa Men and Women, the Study Institute) or in the sphere of culture and art (film studios, Zlín Salons and other large presentation of fine art, the Baťa School of Arts).