Moral Gray Zones: Side Productions, Identity, and Regulation in an Aeronautic Plant

245 Pages·2008·1.05 MB·English

by  Michel Anteby

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SIDE PRODUCTIONS, IDENTITY, AND
REGULATION IN AN AERONAUTIC PLANT
Michel Anteby
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2008byPrincetonUniversityPress
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PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Anteby,Michel,1970–
Moralgrayzones:sideproductions,identity,andregulationinanaeronauticplant/
MichelAnteby.
p. cm.
BasedonafieldstudyofaFrenchaeronauticplant,Pierreville(pseudonym),which
manufacturesairplaneengines.
IncludesBibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-691-13524-3(hardcover:alk.paper)
1. Industrial relations—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Organizational behavior—Moral
andethicalaspects.3.Homers(Manufactures).4.Psychology,Industrial.5.Group
Identity.6.Aircraftindustry—France—Casestudies.I.Title.II.Title:Moralgrayzones.
III.Title:Sideproductions,identity,andregulationinanaeronauticplant.
HD9712.A6572008
174′.4—dc22 2007044056
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinPalatinoTypeface
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
press.princeton.edu
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Figures and Table vii
Preface ix
Introduction
The Persistence of Organizational Gray Zones 1
PART ONE: THE MOTIVATIONS AND THE SETTING 15
Chapter 1
Revisiting Social Systems in Organizations 17
Chapter 2
The Side Production of Homers in Factories 29
Chapter 3
The Pierreville Plant: Setting and Status Divides 43
PART TWO: THE FINDINGS 61
Chapter 4
Retirement Homers: An Entry into the Community 63
Chapter 5
Homers Gone Wrong: Delimiting the Gray Zone 78
Chapter 6
Shades of Homer Meanings: Occupational Variations 91
Chapter 7
The Rise and Fall of Craftsmanship 106
Chapter 8
Trading in Identity Incentives 122
PART THREE: THE IMPLICATIONS 137
Chapter 9
Organizational Gray Zones as Identity Distillers 139
Chapter 10
Identities, Control, and Moralities 153
vi CONTENTS
Appendix A
Data and Methods 173
Appendix B
Position in the Field 183
Notes 191
References 213
Index 227
FiguresandTable
Figures
Fig. 3.1. A homer lamp in a Pierreville retiree’s home 44
Fig. 3.2. The surrounding fields at Pierreville, with the
plant in the distance 46
Fig. 4.1. Retirement gifts for departing employees (in
percent of departures by year) 64
Fig. 4.2. Retirement homers for departing employees (in
percent of departures by year) 65
Fig. 4.3. A retirement homer gift given to a blacksmith 68
Fig. 4.4. Wooden keel with wings 69
Fig. 4.5. A common homer made from an engine blade 71
Fig. 7.1. Workforce evolution at Pierreville, 1977 to 2001 109
Fig. 7.2. Union leaflet denouncing labor cuts in the
experimental workshop 114
Table
Table 4.1. Factors Determining Who Receives a
Retirement Homer 67
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Preface
IT IS OFTEN EASIER to mark the end of a project than its beginning. I
willthereforestartwiththeend.Grayzonesareareasinwhichwork-
ers and supervisors together engage in officially forbidden yet toler-
ated practices at work. This book discusses the drivers and outcomes
oforganizationalgrayzones,presentsextensiveresearchontheoccur-
rence of one such gray zone in a French aeronautic plant, and deals
withsomefundamental questionsofcontrol,identity,and moralityin
organizations. I completed the field data collection for this book in
2005,whenalmostthreeyearsaftermyfirstencounterwiththeperson
I should call my “informant zero,” I visited him to let him know I
would soon return to the United States. Before we parted, he insisted
on giving me a gift: I initially refused, but upon his insistence, I ac-
cepted. He handed me a key chain that represents a small jet engine
fan blade. I immediately recognized it as an artifact manufactured in
the aeronautic plant he worked in, most probably on company time
andwithcompanytoolsandmaterials.Thewayinwhichitwasmanu-
factured, as merely one in a large batch of key chains, and the way it
wasdescribedasitwashandedtome,asareminderofmylinktothe
plant,positionedmeasalower-levelcolleagueintheplant’shierarchy.
This,however,Iunderstoodonlyaftercompletingtheanalysisforthis
book. At the time, the artifact more importantly represented, in my
eyes, the concrete manifestation of an organizational gray zone.
DuringthetimeIspentworkingonthisproject,Iaccumulatedmany
debts—one of the largest being to this informant. He initially helped
me understand how the aeronautic plant operated and what the arti-
facts meant. As he taught me more about what he knew, I gathered
more data on these artifacts, the social systems that supported them,
and the gray organizational zones they revealed; I soon began to see
patternsthathesomehowdidnot.Mostpoignantly,forinstance,when
heretired,despitethefactthatmanyofhiscolleaguesreceivedartifacts
upontheirdeparture(artifactssimilarto,thoughoftentimesmoreelab-
orate,thantheonehegaveme),hereceivednone.BythenIknewthat
asanunskilledworkerwhohadriseninthehierarchy,theprobability
of him receiving such an artifact was low. Still, I felt disappointed for
him,becausenotreceivinganartifact signaledhistruepositioninthe
plant. Given that we are relatives, I also felt slightly embarrassed.