Anteby Moral Gray Zones

Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant
Course Book
ISBN: 978-1-4008-2888-3
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

Anyone who has been employed by an organization knows not every official workplace regulation must be followed. When management consistently overlooks such breaches, spaces emerge in which both workers and supervisors engage in officially prohibited, yet tolerated practices--gray zones. When discovered, these transgressions often provoke disapproval; when company materials are diverted in the process, these breaches are quickly labeled theft. Yet, why do gray zones persist and why are they unlikely to disappear? In Moral Gray Zones, Michel Anteby shows how these spaces function as regulating mechanisms within workplaces, fashioning workers' identity and self-esteem while allowing management to maintain control.

The book provides a unique window into gray zones through its in-depth look at the manufacture and exchange of illegal goods called homers, tolerated in a French aeronautic plant. Homers such as toys for kids, cutlery for the kitchen, or lamps for homes, are made on company time with company materials for a worker's own purpose and use. Anteby relies on observations at retirees' homes, archival data, interviews, and surveys to understand how plant workers and managers make sense of this tacit practice. He argues that when patrolled, gray zones like the production of homers offer workplaces balanced opportunities for supervision as well as expression. Cautioning against the hasty judgment that gray zone practices are simply wrong, Moral Gray Zones contributes to a deeper understanding of the culture, group dynamics, and deviance found in organizations.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Anteby, Michel

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmensethik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Personalwesen, Human Resource Management

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures and Table vii

Preface ix

Introduction: The Persistence of Organizational Gray Zones 1

PART ONE: THE MOTIVATIONS AND THE SETTING 15

Chapter 1: Revisiting Social Systems in Organizations 17

Chapter 2: The Side Production of Homers in Factories 29

Chapter 3: The Pierreville Plant: Setting and Status Divides 43

PART TWO: THE FINDINGS 61

Chapter 4: Retirement Homers: An Entry into the Community 63

Chapter 5: Homers Gone Wrong: Delimiting the Gray Zone 78

Chapter 6: Shades of Homer Meanings: Occupational Variations 91

Chapter 7: The Rise and Fall of Craftsmanship 106

Chapter 8: Trading in Identity Incentives 122

PART THREE: THE IMPLICATIONS 137

Chapter 9: Organizational Gray Zones as Identity Distillers 139

Chapter 10: Identities, Control, and Moralities 153

Appendix A: Data and Methods 173

Appendix B: Position in the Field 183

Notes 191

References 213

Index 227

Über Autor(innen)

Michel Anteby is associate professor of organizational behavior and sociology at Boston University.