The Social Space of the Firm and Workers' Logics of Action

A case study examines the social space of a Belgian automobile equipment manufacturer in relation to the productive rationale of workers. While managerial policies developed to reorganize work & increase productivity & quality have been implemented since the late 1980s, shop floor reactions to these post-Fordist/Taylorist moves have been mixed, depending on the age & educational background of the worker. Efforts to "responsibilize" the production worker & encourage participation in management tasks & quality control have caused a destabilization of the informal rules of the shop floor & a reinvention of the social space. Recently hired young graduates & upwardly mobile workers are more open to management changes than older workers with less education & typical blue-collar attitudes. Different emerging models of adaptation are identified: integration, advancement, struggle against downgrading, & withdrawal. 5 Tables, 31 References. Adapted from the source document.