CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSION; (WYE GARMENTS CASE STUDY)

Abstract

This chapter presents the conclusion of Wye Garments case study. The concepts that have been used in the analysis of the workers' behavior at Wye have been those of social role, expectations, and social control. It was shown as to how the productive system acted as a mechanism of social control by limiting social interaction during working time. But the productive system could only act as a control if the workers accepted management's definition of their role in it. It was shown that in fact they did so. They behaved, on the whole, as management expected them to behave. There were, of course, individual differences, some as a result of personality differences and some as a result of differing economic pressures upon persons. These differences do not significantly affect the general conclusion that the management's expectation that persons would work hard and attempt to maximize their earnings was largely fulfilled. But the workers believed that hard work should be adequately rewarded. They also believed that management had a moral obligation to create the conditions in which, by hard work, the worker could make her wages. It was when management failed to do this those workers, as individuals, protested. The protests were made by individuals, never by groups, and seldom by individuals representing groups, except perhaps in the sense that an individual protest might indicate to management a general source of grievance.