TEAMWORK AND WORK HABITUS

This paper is based on ethnographic research in two machine building f irms. It explores the question as to why team work has been so hard to establish in industrial production up to now. After a critical review of the current findings in industrial sociology, the thesis is develo ped that it is the attitude of the worker toward her/his work which is integral to team work, rather than the actual work itself. Drawing on Bourdieu's habitus concept, it is maintained that team work aims at t he establishment of a bourgeois work habitus, that is to say, a discur sive and intrinsic understanding of work. However, many workers, mainl y the older and unskilled ones, have a work habitus which is hardly co mpatible with the new requirements. Their understanding of work is sti ll characterized by the pay envelope, physical labor, subordination, a nd routine. The paper proposes that, methodologically, greater emphasi s should be placed on the subjectivity of the actors; and, theoretical ly, more importance should be attached to their interests and social m ilieus.