This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Glover, L. Articles by Noon, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Shop-floor workers’ responses to quality management initiatives

broadening the disciplined worker thesis

De Montfort University, UK, lghum{at}dmu.ac.uk

Mike Noon

Queen Mary, University of London, UK, m.a.noon{at}qmul.ac.uk

Quality management (QM) is now a mainstream management initiative, but few researchers have explored worker experiences of it. An exception is found in the work of Edwards et al. (1998) who make an important contribution by offering the ‘disciplined worker thesis’ (meaning that workers prefer an ordered and disciplined work environment over disorganization or chaos) as a basis for explaining why workers may respond positively to QM initiatives, despite finding that these often require extra effort. We explore the utility of this concept by reference to empirical data from two detailed case studies. We found the disciplined worker thesis to be substantive but not comprehensive, in that it leaves some inexplicable results. In particular it does not capture the non-work factors that shaped workers responses to QM initiatives. As a result, we suggest that the conceptual remit of the disciplined worker thesis could usefully be enlarged to incorporate ‘orientations to work’.

Key Words: disciplined worker thesis • employee experiences • employee responses • human resource management • orientations to work • quality management • shop-floor workers

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?