Organizational Behavior, Human Resources, Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Careers & Employment
Available on Bookshop
Write a review
Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Log in to track your reading progress.
Overview
This volume examines how employees in two manufacturing concerns perceive and perform their jobs, and how the workplace influences employees thinking. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book describes and explores the experiences of daily work. Workers are observed as they interpret instructions, and deal with often contradictory expectations and ambiguous information. The study shows that this process is far more complex than the one portrayed in discussions of skill requirements by managers, expert analysts, and many educators.The book demonstrates that workplaces impart lessons that are at least as powerful as those conveyed in training programs and other official activities. It explores how people acquire an organizational world view that enables them to interpret the rules of the workplace and to perform appropriately. The book also examines how the new worker becomes part of a dynamic community of co-workers. Ethnographic descriptions document variations in the experiences of different workers and the strategies they adopt. The picture that emerges challenges widely held assumptions about the importance of skill requirements at work and the presumed inadequacy of ordinary people to work effectively. This book is especially timely as the nation seeks to reform education to better meet the demands of increased competition, and to address domestic concerns about preparing people for employment. A bibliography of references is included.
Editorials
Booknews
A fascinating anthropological study of work and work attitudes at two manufacturing facilities. The author explores how people view their workplaces, and the work that they do in them, teasing to articulation deeply embedded ideas about a familiar topic--how the majority of us spend our waking hours. He talks with managers, supervisors, and shop floor operators, applying theory to topics such as skill requirements, actual work practices, the "nuts and bolts" of production, competition, paperwork, and change. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
January 22, 1996
Publisher
New York : Garland Pub., 1996.
Pages
200
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780815314554