Developing a Contemporary Approach to Conceptualizing Employee Actions

Work and employment have changed dramatically in recent decades, and it is reasonable to assume that dramatic changes will continue into the future. As the way people work changes, so must the conceptual lenses with which we examine the workplace and associated issues. Our interest in this chapter lies primarily in understanding what workers do outside the formal, consensual, and expected actions in the workplace. This chapter argues that a range of disciplines develop sound and reasonable explanations of action choices made by labour (individually, collaboratively, or collectively). Typically, critical scholars have examined resistance with consent (each with a variety of different names) as two distinct and separate avenues for employees to act in the workplace. However, it is only when the totality of action alternatives are arranged, that the collage of employee behaviour is complete. According to Edwards, Collinson, and Della Rocca (1995, p. 294) employees are likely to engage in ‘mutually embedded practice(s) of consent, devotion and resistance’.