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Meaningful work through craft : How workers in low-skilled roles engage in anomalous craft to gain autonomy and receive recognition

Author

Listed:
  • Marjolaine Rostain

    (WBS - Warwick Business School - University of Warwick [Coventry])

  • Jean Clarke

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

Abstract

Meaningful work is work that offers a degree of autonomy and the opportunity to receive recognition from others. It is traditionally associated with highly skilled work whereas low-skilled jobs are often equated with meaningless work. Previous research assumes that workers in low-skilled roles have little access to the autonomy or recognition characteristic of highly skilled labour. Rather it suggests that in their efforts to make their working lives more tolerable, such workers are limited to either discursively reframing the significance of their roles or engaging in acts of resistance against the organisation. In this paper, based on an eight-month ethnographic study of a mould-producing company in France, we identify three processes through which workers in low-skilled roles find temporal opportunities to engage in anomalous craft where latent or underused craft skills and attitudes are utilised to enable them to work more autonomously and earn recognition from peers and supervisors rendering their work more meaningful. Our work offers insights into how workers can use craft to activate or re-establish meaning in contexts where work has been stripped of significance.

Suggested Citation

  • Marjolaine Rostain & Jean Clarke, 2025. "Meaningful work through craft : How workers in low-skilled roles engage in anomalous craft to gain autonomy and receive recognition," Post-Print hal-04770989, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04770989
    DOI: 10.1177/01708406241295504
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04770989v1
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natasha Slutskaya & Ruth Simpson & Jason Hughes & Alexander Simpson & Selçuk Uygur, 2016. "Masculinity and Class in the Context of Dirty Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 165-182, March.
    2. Alan Manning, 2004. "We Can Work It Out: the Impact of Technological Change on the Demand for Low Skill Workers," CEP Discussion Papers dp0640, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Christopher Michaelson & Michael Pratt & Adam Grant & Craig Dunn, 2014. "Meaningful Work: Connecting Business Ethics and Organization Studies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 77-90, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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