Abstract
[Truncated] The work is better and you don't get so frustrated, but you don't ever see anybody at work now which makes us divisive and lonely. I miss the comradeship. (John, Waterside Worker).
John's comment hints at the complexity of the worker's experience of
workplace change. This thesis peers into the mire, interviewing 161 (mostly
male) workers to ask how they legitimate and consent to organisational
change, thus illuminating a significant gap in contemporary industrial
sociology.
The thesis begins with a discussion of the socio-politico-economic
environment of contemporary organisational change in Australia, setting
the workers' experiences in a broad context. This is followed by a
comprehensive review of the "employment" literature (including
management and critical theory), which was conducted to establish an
appropriate framework for the analysis of the individual worker's
experience of change. It was found that management theory ignored
contextual variables which were germane to the experience of the capitalist
labour process. Critical perspectives, though, generally disregarded the
individual in their incorporation of context. It was, however, established
that a critical sociological framework could incorporate individual
experience. Investigation proceeded on the assumption that workers had
both objective and subjective constraints and opportunities which affected
their experience of organisational change, and the interpretation of that
experience.
John's comment hints at the complexity of the worker's experience of
workplace change. This thesis peers into the mire, interviewing 161 (mostly
male) workers to ask how they legitimate and consent to organisational
change, thus illuminating a significant gap in contemporary industrial
sociology.
The thesis begins with a discussion of the socio-politico-economic
environment of contemporary organisational change in Australia, setting
the workers' experiences in a broad context. This is followed by a
comprehensive review of the "employment" literature (including
management and critical theory), which was conducted to establish an
appropriate framework for the analysis of the individual worker's
experience of change. It was found that management theory ignored
contextual variables which were germane to the experience of the capitalist
labour process. Critical perspectives, though, generally disregarded the
individual in their incorporation of context. It was, however, established
that a critical sociological framework could incorporate individual
experience. Investigation proceeded on the assumption that workers had
both objective and subjective constraints and opportunities which affected
their experience of organisational change, and the interpretation of that
experience.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Awarding Institution |
|
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Unpublished - 1995 |
Take-down notice
- This thesis has been made available in the UWA Profiles and Research Repository as part of a UWA Library project to digitise and make available theses completed before 2003. If you are the author of this thesis and would like it removed from the UWA Profiles and Research Repository, please contact [email protected]