Workers, Firms, and the Dominant Ideology: Hegemony and Consciousness in the Monopoly Core

Abstract

Theorists of work and class relations have argued that organizational processes within the monopoly ‘core’ induce employees to identify with the firm and consent to the social relations of production. The adequacy of this ‘hegemony’ thesis is evaluated using data from two Bell operating companies, whose workers hold relatively highpaying primary sector jobs and are exposed to a strong corporate culture. Although these factors should favor the thesis of managerial hegemony, the data provide only limited support. In fact, an oppositional consciousness is fairly common among the workers, but with marked variations between occupational groups. The data indicate that hegemony theory inflates the role of ideological mechanisms in the reproduction of managerial control and underestimates workers” capacity to form a critical consciousness of the employment relationship. Worker consent should be viewed as problematic—that is, as exceptional, occurring only under specific social and organizational conditions.