Identification and Worker Responses to Workplace Change

Evidence from Four Cases in India

Bibliographic Data

ID7801607
AuthorsAruna Ranganathan (0000-0003-2110-6798, Aruna Ranganathan is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume74
Issue3
Pages663-688
Publication date2021-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0019793921989683
OpenAlexW3132346061
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited89

This article uses ethnographic and interview data about four cases in two work settings in India to examine identification as a factor in workers’ reactions to workplace change. Novel technology and management practices are frequently introduced into work settings as the world of work changes. Workers tend to cooperate more with some workplace changes than with others. The previous employment relations literature has invoked interests, cultural values, and worker power to explain workers’ responses to change. This article introduces an additional factor: whether a change fosters or impairs workers’ identification with their work. The author examines identification at three levels—occupational, organizational, and that of the work itself—and finds that workers are more likely to cooperate with workplace change that protects and fortifies their pre-existing sources of identification

Ethnography · Identification (biology) · Organizational change · Organizational commitment · Organizational identification · Political science · Power (physics) · Public relations · Sociology · Work (physics) · Emotional Labor in Professions · Employment and Welfare Studies · Engineering · Labor Movements and Unions · Psychology · Social Psychology

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