IS WORKER SOLIDARITY UNDERMINED BY AUTONOMY AND PARTICIPATION - PATTERNS FROM THE ETHNOGRAPHIC LITERATURE

Solidarity is workers' chief protection against abusive management as well as a mediating factor against the ravages of meaningless work- Re searchers interested in workers' well-being have suggested that increa sed worker autonomy and participation in the labor process may undermi ne worker solidarity. Available answers to this question have been dif ficult to confirm because of the nature of the data required. Ethnogra phic methods are able to probe deeply inside a workplace to ascertain levels of worker solidarity, autonomy, and participation. However, the uniqueness of each ethnographic account restricts the testing of hypo theses about worker solidarity across a variety of contexts. We analyz e English language ethnographic case studies of specific workplaces to systematically explore hypotheses about worker autonomy, participatio n, and solidarity. We find that autonomy has no effect on worker solid arity and that participation in work groups has a positive effect on a t least one aspect of solidarity. We also explore the relationships be tween other aspects of work and solidarity and offer suggestions for f uture research.