Getting dirty with humor: Co-constructing workplace identities through performative scripts

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary A. Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
Identity Management ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Identity Production

AbstractThis paper shows how blue-collar workers co-construct humorous scripts to manage their workplace identities. It repositions humorous scripts as performative and highlights the process of co-construction to draw attention to the significance of script form and content during identity production. This case study is part of a year-long ethnographic project that identified the norms of blue-collar humor at a furniture moving company. It explores the process of co-constructing three humorous scripts: infusion, recalibration, and free behaviors (Ashforth and Kreiner 1999). The article shows the paradoxical processes through which employees used the scripts, both as a form of resistance to and a reinforcement of negative stereotypes. By showing how the scripts were used to resist and to reinforce negative stereotypes regarding blue-collar identities, the study concludes with several implications for identity management research. The three humorous scripts served as the discursive means through which workers navigated and reified their occupational identities.

Learning to become an academic in an SME

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjarne Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Single Case ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
University Education ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Willingness To Change

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how an academic graduate from the cross field between the humanities and the social sciences and blue-collar workers learns to scaffold knowing in a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME).Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted in an SME that employed the first academic graduate among the company’s blue-collar workers. The paper applies a practice-oriented theoretical framework to study scaffolding knowing among the workers.FindingsAn academic graduate does not necessarily apply subject-specific knowledge from his or her university education in the SME practice. Rather, general academic knowing and academic work practice is applied when scaffolding knowing in the SME. Further, this depends not only on the knowing of the academic graduate but also on his/her ability to apply knowing and the willingness to change in practice.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is a single case study gaining in-depth insights into one particular case. This calls for more research.Practical implicationsThe study points at the importance for managers and academic graduates in SMEs to foster learning activities and to be aware of and develop ways to integrate the general academic knowing.Originality/valueThe case study provides new insights into the concept of scaffolding knowing in practice theory. Further, it gains unique insights into the practical possibility of employing graduates from higher education in SMEs.

Tracing Behavioral Changes among Discouraged Workers: What Happens to the Work Ethic?

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Zippay
Keyword(s):  
Job Search ◽  
Job Loss ◽  
Search Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
Discouraged Workers ◽  
Job Search Behavior

Material from an ethnographic case study of 102 randomly selected blue-collar workers who experienced job loss in the 1980s was examined, with a focus on a subgroup of 11 who became “discouraged” and withdrew from the labor force. Changes in the job-search behavior and attitudes of the discouraged workers are traced, and theoretical explanations for their resignation and withdrawal are explored.

Implications of uncertainty on firm outsourcing decisions

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-125
Author(s):  
David R. King
Keyword(s):  
Transaction Costs ◽  
New Products ◽  
Industry Structure ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Sourcing Decisions ◽  
Related Transaction

Outsourcing inherently considers what activity needs to reside within a given firm. The difficulty of exchanges between firms in the face of uncertainty affects where work on developing and producing new products is performed. Theory is developed and explored using a case study that explains firm sourcing decisions as a response to uncertainty within the context of industry structure and related transaction costs. Viewing outsourcing broadly results in a better delineation of outsourcing options. Implications for management research and practice are identified.

scholarly journals Time Perspective and the Risk of Developing Burnout: An Empirical Study among Different Blue-Collar Workers in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adela Reig-Botella ◽  
Sarah Detaille ◽  
Miguel Clemente ◽  
Jaime López-Golpe ◽  
Annet de Lange
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Exhaustion ◽  
Time Perspective ◽  
Maslach Burnout Inventory ◽  
Future Time Perspective ◽  
Blue Collar ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Blue Collar Workers ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Student’S T

The purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship between the time perspective of Spanish shipyard workers in relation to burnout compared to other blue-collar workers in other sectors, including a total of 644 participants in a shipyard in northern Spain and 223 workers in other sectors. The ages were between 20 and 69 (M = 46.14, SD = 10.98). We used the Spanish version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Instrument (ZTPI) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey (MBI-GS). The mean of the three reliability coefficients of the emotional exhaustion factor was 0.887. In respect to the five factors of the ZTPI questionnaire, the mean of those five coefficients was 0.86. A Student’s t-test for independent samples comparing shipyard naval workers vs. the control group in personality variables and burnout was used. The psychological difference between workers in the naval sector and those in other sectors is better predicted based on two variables: emotional exhaustion and professional efficacy. Workers in the naval sector have a higher risk of becoming burnt-out than workers in other sectors due to a negative past, present and future time perspective. This can be a consequence of constant understimulation and monotonous and repetitive work, as well as a lack of autonomy and social support at work.

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