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Moral Gray Zones : Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant / Michel Anteby.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2008]Copyright date: ©2008Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (224 p.) : 5 halftones. 4 line illus. 1 tableContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691135243
  • 9781400828883
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 174/.4 22
LOC classification:
  • HD6971
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Table -- Preface -- Introduction. The Persistence of Organizational Gray Zones -- Part One. The Motivations and the Setting -- 1. Revisiting Social Systems In Organizations -- 2. The Side Production Of Homers In Factories -- 3. The Pierreville Plant: Setting and Status Divides -- Part Two. The Findings -- 4 Retirement Homers: An Entry into the Community -- 5. Homers Gone Wrong: Delimiting the Gray Zone -- 6. Shades of Homer Meanings: Occupational Variations -- 7. The Rise and Fall of Craftsmanship -- 8. Trading in Identity Incentives -- Part Three. The Implications -- 9. Organizational Gray Zones as Identity Distillers -- 10. Identities, Control, And Moralities -- Appendix A. Data and Methods -- Appendix B. Position In The Field -- Notes -- References -- Index
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.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400828883

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Table -- Preface -- Introduction. The Persistence of Organizational Gray Zones -- Part One. The Motivations and the Setting -- 1. Revisiting Social Systems In Organizations -- 2. The Side Production Of Homers In Factories -- 3. The Pierreville Plant: Setting and Status Divides -- Part Two. The Findings -- 4 Retirement Homers: An Entry into the Community -- 5. Homers Gone Wrong: Delimiting the Gray Zone -- 6. Shades of Homer Meanings: Occupational Variations -- 7. The Rise and Fall of Craftsmanship -- 8. Trading in Identity Incentives -- Part Three. The Implications -- 9. Organizational Gray Zones as Identity Distillers -- 10. Identities, Control, And Moralities -- Appendix A. Data and Methods -- Appendix B. Position In The Field -- Notes -- References -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)