Skill and Consent: Contemporary Studies in the Labour Process (Critical Perspectives on Work and Organization)

The concepts of skill and worker consent to management control are central both to labour process literature and to wider debates on the management, organization, and experience at work. Defining the nature of skills exercised in producing goods and services and ensuring that they are directed co-operatively to this end remain fundamental issues to the controllers of organizations. For workers, skill represents an important source of identity which may thereby ensure co-operation in production or, equally be defined by resisting de-skilling or substitution by other workers. At the same time, covert skills may be used to resist, detract from or consent to the experience of subordination. At the level of both worker and management practices, skill and consent are of central importance. However, no other equivalent publications have such a focus. Moreover, in explaining their historical and social construction in capitalist societies, this volume highlights their inter-relationships. Through a range of empirical studies that reflect the diversity and theoretical development of contemporary labour process literature, skill and consent are examined in relation to various issues.