Moral gray zones : side productions, identity, and regulation in an aeronautic plant / Michel Anteby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Anteby, Michel, 1970-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Industrial relations--Moral and ethical aspects.

Industrial relations.

Organizational behavior--Moral and ethical aspects.

Organizational behavior.

Homers (Manufactures).

Psychology, Industrial.

Group identity.

Aircraft industry--France--Case studies.

Aircraft industry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (244 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Other Title:

Moral grey zones

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

The persistence of organizational gray zones

The motivations and the setting

Revisiting social systems in organizations

The side production of homers in factories

The Pierreville plant: setting and status divides

The findings

Retirement homers: an entry into the community

Homers gone wrong: delimiting the gray zone

Shades of homer meanings: occupational variations

The rise and fall of craftsmanship

Trading in hidden identity incentives

The implications

Organizational gray zones as identity distillers

Identities, control, and moralities

Appendix A: Data and methods

Appendix B: Position in the field.

Notes:

Based on a field study of a French aeronautic plant, Pierreville (pseudonym), which manufactures airplane engines.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-226) and index.

ISBN:

9786612157998

9781282157996

128215799X

9781400828883

1400828880

OCLC:

432996575