James Tucker

Everyday forms of employee resistance

Drawing on empirical material collected from over 250 individuals employed in a variety of short-term positions, this article examines how temporary employees pursue grievances against their employing organizations. The findings indicate that temporary employees generally respond to offensive behavior on the part of their employers in nonaggressive ways. Gossip, toleration, and resignation are popular, while occasionally grievances are expressed by theft, sabotage, or noncooperation. Collective responses, formal complaints, and legal action are rare. These restrained responses are traced not to the severity of injustices but to the social environment associated with temporary employment, where workers are loosely tied to their organizations and one another. This research may help explain the decline of organized resistance in the contemporary workplace.

Hidden conflict in organizations : uncovering behind-the-scenes disputes

Introduction - Deborah M Kolb and Linda L Putnam The Dialectics of Disputing Drinking Our Troubles Away - John Van Maanen Managing Conflict in a British Police Agency Womens Work - Deborah M Kolb Peacemaking in Organizations The Private Ordering of Professional Relations - Calvin Morrill The Role of Conflict in a Second Order Change Attempt - Jean M Bartunek and Robin D Reid The Culture of Mediation - Raymond A Friedman Private Understandings in the Context of Public Conflict The Suppression of Gender Conflict in Organizations - Joanne Martin Culture and Conflict - Frank A Dubinskas The Cultural Roots of Discord Bringing Conflict Out from Behind the Scenes - Jean M Bartunek, Deborah M Kolb and Roy J Lewicki Private, Informal and Nonrational Dimensions of Conflict in Organizations

Employee theft as social control

Employee theft is generally regarded as a serious offense not only by those responsible for assuring organizations operate as efficiently as possible, but by social scientists studying this phenomenon. Futhermore, in most modern settings, it is defined as criminal and subject to punishment. Although usually classified as deviant, theft is in many instances also a reaction to what employees consider is deviant behavior on the part of their employer. Consequently, a theory of social control, rather than a theory of crime, is more appropriate in explaining such theft by employees. This paper suggests that theft, as a mode of social control, is most likely among employees who occupy marginal positions in organizations, including those at the bottom of the organizational hierachy, those with little tenure, and those with few social lies. Ways of reducing employee theft consistent with this hypothesis are explored. It is concluded, however, that theft by employed members of organizations is in many cases inevit...