All Quiet on the Workplace Front? A Critique of Recent Trends in British Industrial Sociology

Abstract

Though perspectives underpinning research may have differed sharply, industrial sociology at its best has been able to uncover the variety of workplace resistance and misbehaviour that lies beneath the surface of the formal and consensual. The paper argues that this legacy is in danger of being lost as labour is taken out of the process and replaced by management as the active and successful agency. While there are a number of practical and theoretical forces shaping this trend, the paper identifies the growing influence of Foucauldian perspectives. It goes on to develop a critique of the way in which such theory and research overstates the extent and effectiveness of new management practices, while marginalising the potential for resistance.

Michel Foucault and the Administering of Lives

“…We argue that there has been an overemphasis on the notion of discipline, which for some has conjured up a dystopian image of a totally disciplined society and a neglect of resistance (see e.g. Thompson & Ackroyd, 1995), as well as a neglect of the ways in which subjects relate to and 'manoeuvre' around discourse (Newton, 1996: 139). This, together with a reluctance on the part of some to set aside the comforting categories of domination and emancipation that Foucault's work did so much to transcend, means that there has been less attention to detailed empirical analysis of practices and the assemblages in which they operate, together with an overpreoccupation with theoretical micro-differentiation.…”

“…But it is also due to repeated and often meretricious appeals to notions of resistance and the importance of being 'critical' (see e.g. Thompson & Ackroyd, 1995), as if critique was some sort of historically invariant a priori. This is at times coupled with misguided attempts to reframe Foucault's categories into the very ones that his work has sought to transcend.…”

Organisational Control and the Self: Critiques and Normative Expectations

“…However, the implications of these extremes for more ordinary situations are open to debate. Within the management literature, the depiction of cultural engineering as 'totalising' has been challenged (Gabriel, 1999;Thompson and Ackroyd, 1995) and, as I discuss below, empirical researchers have found that employees do not very readily hand over their selves to employers for reconfiguration. This argument has its counterpart among cult/new religious movement scholars, who acrimoniously debate the scientific status of 'brainwashing' (Zablocki and Robbins, 2001b).…”

Induction Programmes in the Age of “Corporate Culture”

“…Some studies (Durand & Stewart, 1998;Hodson, 1996;Jermier, et al 1994;Thompson & Ackroyd, 1995), yet, focus on forms of shopfloor resistance that exhibit not only attitudinal but also behavioural subversion. This means that they not only attitudinally resist managerial rhetorics -display "behavioural compliance" but not "attitudinal commitment" (Legge, 1995) -but exhibit behavioural opposition as well.…”