The Culture of Labour in the Transformation Process

The central argument of the book is that the "culture of labour" in Russian industrial enterprises plays a determining role in the process of social transformation, the traditional Russian culture of labour standing in marked contrast to the values and norms of a capitalist market economy. The attention of the researchers is focused on strategies developed by the management and the workers in the process of adapting to the market reforms. Referring to Weberian socio-cultural categories in case-studies of the formal/informal and horizontal/vertical organization of work a successful combination of contractual labour relations with trust relations was discovered. It proved to be a successful transformation-strategy for private enterprises in present day Russia.