Identification and Worker Responses to Workplace Change: Evidence from Four Cases in India

Abstract

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.