Compliance at Work

Many governments are promoting a knowledge economy. §This has often involved the restructuring of the way §in which public scientific research is funded with a §focus on commercial products and processes, §government priorities and accountability. There has §been little academic literature considering the §impact of this on those who work in scientific §research. This book reports on an ethnography of a §state owned research organisation that corporatised §and instituted a system of normative control of §those who worked in it. Scientists and technical §workers reacted negatively as their identities as §scientific and autonomous workers were challenged. §Two models are produced of how these workers §resisted their resultant experiences of estrangement §and alienation, enabling them to comply with the §system allowing work to continue while maintaining §and protecting their identities. This analysis will §be of interest to those who work in organisations §and manage knowledge workers, and those who study §such workers and organisational change, for example, §sociologists of work and organisational, management §and human resource researchers.