Abstract
This paper assesses four theories of the determinants of work identities of workplace participants. Data come from a case study of the General Motors team concept assembly plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The findings indicate that Marxist theories of workplace control overestimate the extent to which management influences the identity of workplace participants. Some support was found for the Weberian perspective that work identity is determined by patterns of occupational mobility, yet strongest support was found for the Durkheimian focus on workplace norms. Implications are drawn regarding the meaning of employment in late modernity.
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Baugher, J.E. Caught in the Middle? Worker Identity Under New Participatory Roles. Sociological Forum 18, 417–439 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025717619065
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025717619065