LEGITIMISING ARGUMENTS AND WORKER RESISTANCE

The processes of management control in a variety of formal settings within a small engineering company are examined in this second of a series of articles. The range of arguments commonly used by workers in order to challenge managerial authority is focused on. Resistance was based around a series of legitimising principles, such as efficiency, profitability, precedent, ethics and morality. Whilst use of these arguments may influence the subsequent behaviour of management in a committee, it may not enable them to “win” the issue.