The Ethnographic Contribution to Understanding Co‐worker Relations
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00670.x |
| Date | 01 March 2008 |
| Published date | 01 March 2008 |
| Author | Randy Hodson |
The Ethnographic Contribution to
Understanding Co-worker Relations
Randy Hodson
Abstract
Relations among co-workers are becoming both more important and more
complex in modern workplaces as authority over job decisions is shifted from
supervisors to quasi-independent teams. The author develops a model of
co-worker relations that recognizes these changes and evaluates this model
using data content coded from the full population of published book-length
workplace ethnographies (N=204). Confirmatory factor analysis techniques
support the existence of three distinct aspects of co-worker relations: cohesive-
ness, conflict and peer supervision. The most important determinants of
co-worker relations are employee involvement programmes and management
behaviour. Returning to specific case studies allows a theoretical elaboration of
how employee involvement and management behaviour condition co-worker
relations. The author concludes by noting the importance of intellectual
exchanges between qualitative and quantitative methods for generating new
advances in the study of work and employment relations.
1. Introduction
Co-worker relations have long been a core building block in understanding
the workplace and workplace relations (Blauner 1964; Crozier 1971; Homans
1950; Pollert 1981; Roy 1954). But such studies were significantly displaced in
the latter half of the twentieth century by studies of technology, socio-
technical relations and management behaviour. At the beginning of the
twenty-first century, co-worker relations are again receiving increased scru-
tiny in workplace studies. Researchers have identified at least three recent
developments that underwrite this increased attention (Rubery and
Grimshaw 2003). First, increasing global competition has necessitated new
strategies to increase productivity and reduce costs. The development of
self-monitoring teams is one response to these pressures. Second, increasing
workforce education allows the assignment of more and more supervisory
Randy Hodson is at the Ohio State University.
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00670.x
46:1 March 2008 0007–1080 pp. 169–192
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2008. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
duties to front-line workers. Third, the explosion of microchip technologies
has allowed increasingly flexible production procedures. And self-monitoring
teams have been identified as one mechanism for maximizing flexibility and
avoiding bureaucratic rigidity under flexible production (Batt 2001). These
developments have combined to increase the complexity of co-worker rela-
tions and to increase their importance for organizational success.
Given this heightened focus on co-worker relations, it is useful to review
and integrate what we know about co-worker relations and with a view
towards understanding contemporary changes. Several questions emerge in
this process. First, what are the key dimensions of co-worker relations?
Second, what are the major influences on these relations? Third, what is the
role of management in the new and more socially active workplace? And
what can management do that is supportive of positive workgroup relations?
This article is devoted to providing preliminary answers to these questions.
We turn first to co-worker relations and the role of management behaviour in
shaping these relations and then to a consideration of other organizational
influences on co-worker relations. The empirical data we use to address
these questions are the accumulated body of workplace ethnography. I
analyse these case studies using both quantitative and qualitative metho-
dologies in order to realize the benefits of both traditions. In this process, I
first temporarily decontextualized the ethnographic data by content coding it
and then recontextualized it in the process of theoretically exploring specific
cases.
2. Co-worker relations
Three dimensions of co-worker relations emerge from the workplace and
employment relations literatures as potentially fruitful avenues for investiga-
tion: cohesiveness,conflict and peer supervision. First, through group cohe-
siveness and solidarity co-workers can provide both instrumental and
affective social support. The study of workgroup cohesion was a mainstay of
early organizational studies (Homans 1950; Pollert 1981; Sayles 1958).
Although the study of group cohesion has been partly displaced by studies of
management styles in recent decades, it still remains a key building block of
the study of employment relations and is experiencing revitalization with the
increased focus on teams (Zárraga and Bonache 2005).
Second, co-worker relations can be problematic, and can be a source of
conflict,tension and bullying in the workplace (Bartel and Saavedra 2000;
Jehn 1995). Co-worker conflict has been an occasional topic of study in the
workplace, but this focus has never rivalled that of group cohesion. Reports
from workplace ethnographies, however, suggest that infighting and conflict
are at least as important to the daily experience of work as the more com-
monly studied themes of cohesion and solidarity (Jackall 1978; Sims 2005).
Third, co-workers frequently monitor, formally or informally, the behav-
iour and productivity of fellow employees — in essence they engage in peer
170 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2008.
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